Joshua Klein

Joshua Klein is a standout keynote speaker on emerging technology, innovation and the future of work. A systems thinker with a practical hacker’s mindset, he translates fast moving technology into clear decisions that leaders can act on. His biggest recent achievement is helping lead Iceland’s national AI education pilots with Anthropic, a model for responsible AI at national scale.

Josh’s early path blended curiosity, craft and formal study. He began by taking apart systems in his parents’ basement, learning how things break and how they can be rebuilt to work better. He studied Anthropology at WWU Münster, then pursued graduate work at New York University, where explorations in human behaviour and complex systems shaped his approach to technology in society. Early consulting and product roles exposed him to ecommerce, mobile data and cloud analytics, giving him the habit of joining policy, engineering and organisational design in one conversation. An example from this period is his widely discussed experiments on animal cognition, which sparked his long running interest in how people adapt to new tools.

Across two decades Josh has delivered a portfolio that few technologists match. He is Founder of H4X Industries, CEO of Indigometrics, and a TED Mainstage speaker who has also appeared at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He co-hosted Accenture’s award-winning podcast ‘Built for Change’, presented the National Geographic series ‘The Link’, and fronted programmes for Discovery, bringing complex ideas to broad audiences. As an author he wrote ‘Hacking Work’ and ‘Reputation Economics’, both used by leaders who need practical playbooks for change. He has advised organisations such as Microsoft, Google, IBM, Pfizer and UNICEF, and served on boards and advisory groups including BP, Eyrir Ventures and Venture.co. Today his Sovereign AI practice, BTR, works with governments to turn national context into strategy, including Zanzibar’s Sovereign AI roadmap. Momentum continues on stage, with a panel hosted at Diligent’s Connections 2025 Summit in New York, and talks in Reykjavík with Google’s Chris Harte on AI in education, Bratislava at the Global Forum on the Future of AI and Skills 2040, London at BETT, and Frankfurt at Comforte Spark, The Data Driven Future.

Hire Josh if you want a speaker who will illuminate the path from hype to implementation. He covers AI strategy, AI ethics and governance, the future of work, cyber security, innovation in practice, and the Internet of Things with AI. These topics matter because every organisation now competes on learning speed, responsible data use and workforce adaptability, not just on product and price. Josh will show your audience how to evaluate real capability, design guardrails that protect trust, and build pilot programmes that prove value before scale. He blends national policy lessons with enterprise case studies, making complex choices simple and actionable. Audiences leave with clarity on what to do next, plus a practical vocabulary for engaging boards, regulators and delivery teams. If you are facing client demand around AI strategy, ethics or modernisation, Josh brings the authority of lived practice and the energy of a seasoned storyteller, a combination that turns ambition into outcomes.