Considered one of the top voices in AI and the future of work, Ian Beacraft is a trusted advisor to the world’s most innovative companies.
The founder and Chief Futurist of Signal and Cipher, Ian Beacraft leads a change management firm advising clients how to turn AI form a tech initiative into Augmented Individuals that multiply their impact in the organization while using systems thinking to reimagine the way we design work and build teams. Signal and Cipher guides companies through the rapidly changing technology landscape and provides the training, upskilling, process engineering, and job design services necessary to adapt to the era of AI and beyond.
Ian Beacraft Lecture topics
1. How to Design a Company AI Can’t Outpace
Most organizations aren’t failing at AI because of the technology – they’re failing because their operating models are outdated. In this keynote, Ian Beacraft explains why the winners of the AI era won’t be the fastest adopters, but those who rethink how work is organized, value is created, and decisions are made.
Ian shares how AI-native organizations are built: with dynamic roles, fluid value systems, and human–AI structures designed to adapt in real time.
Key Takeaways:
- How to identify shifting value signals in your ecosystem and realign your organization
- Why static job titles no longer work – and how adaptive roles drive impact
- How to build flexible human-AI systems that stay resilient in constant change
2. Navigating Next: Resilience Through Adaptability and Anticipatory Change
This is not a traditional future talk – it’s an experience. Instead of abstract predictions, Ian Beacraft helps audiences feel what’s coming next and build the skills to act on it.
Using the frameworks Neurology of Change and Future Prototyping, participants learn how to recognize early signals, adapt faster, and turn uncertainty into strategic advantage – customized to their industry.
Key Takeaways:
- Adaptability as a trainable leadership capability
- How to detect meaningful signals before disruption hits
- Making the future tangible to align and mobilize stakeholders
- Clear next steps instead of distant visions
3. Billion Dollar Teams: The Future of an AI-Powered Workforce
AI is no longer a competitive advantage – it’s the baseline. The real differentiator is how organizations design teams, culture, and collaboration. In this keynote, Ian Beacraft shows how AI strengthens teams rather than replaces them.
Through real-world examples and experiments from his own organization, Ian reveals how AI-augmented teams unlock sustainable productivity, engagement, and growth.
Key Takeaways:
- Why efficiency alone isn’t enough – and where real value is created
- How jobs, teams, and leadership evolve in an AI-powered workplace
- How to move beyond hype and fear to practical AI adoption
- Why continuous regeneration is the new leadership mandate
4. Charting a Course for Your AI-Powered Future
We’re living through a transformation comparable to the industrial revolution – at exponential speed. This keynote is for leaders who want to shape AI strategically, not just deploy it.
Ian Beacraft challenges optimization-first thinking and shows why adaptability, small high-signal data, and multidimensional intelligence matter more than ever. The focus is on building organizations that evolve as fast as the technology around them.
Key Takeaways:
- Adaptability as the core future-ready skill
- How humans and AI create unique value together
- Why new success metrics beyond efficiency are essential
- How flexible, interdisciplinary teams actually work
Previously responsible for leading emerging technologies and innovation for some of the largest ad agencies in the world, Ian Beacraft is known for making bleeding-edge technology understandable and monetizable.
He has advised companies like Nike, Coca-Cola, Google, Samsung, Intel, Nintendo, Microsoft, SAP, Deloitte, and dozens more. Whether it’s reengineering the design sprint with BCG, or teaching banking executives how to prototype new products in real-time, Ian always leaves the audience with a thorough understanding of the paradigm shifts necessary to lead in the age of AI.
As an international speaker, Ian Beacraft has pioneered a digitally immersive presentation style that brings artificial intelligence to life so audiences can understand the future of work in actionable ways with practical examples that cut through the hype.
Ian Beacraft has spoken in over twenty countries and given featured keynotes for SXSW, Microsoft, Google, CES, Web Summit and dozens more.