Insights · June 13th, 2026
Nikolas Badminton is one of the world’s most trusted and leading Artificial Intelligence Keynote Speaker that advises Fortune 500 companies and governments on preparing for change.
He has spent over three decades working with leadership at over 600 leading organizations at the frontline of Artificial Intelligence implementation, policy and organizational transformation – including The White House, NASA, Novo Nordisk, Disney, Dyson, Vale, Rolls Royce, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, WM, JP Morgan, Verizon, VISA, TD Bank, American Express, Procter & Gamble, US Department of State, UK Home Office, United Nations, and many more (see the full list here).
Nikolas’ number one best selling book – Facing Our Futures: How foresight, futures design and strategy creates prosperity and growth – has been named Top-50 Business Books by The Next Big Idea Club, and JP Morgan Private bank’s “Next Gen Pick” for their Summer Reading List to guide young executives to embrace futures thinking.
Nikolas’ essential research has been featured by the BBC, VICE, The Atlantic, Fast Company, Business Insider, Forbes, Sunday Telegraph and many others. He appears on SIRIUSXM and CTV regularly, and was an advisor to the ‘Age of AI’ series with Robert Downey Jr.
Three Decades at the front lines of Artificial Intelligence
Inspired by our ever-evolving technological world, Nikolas Badminton started researching Artificial Intelligence, linguistics, emerging Internet culture and digital transformation in the 1990s while studying for his BSc in Applied Psychology and Computing. From there her built a career focused on the development, application and governance around data, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence for organizations over three decades.
Today, Nikolas has advised over 600 clients, provided deeply considered keynotes and groundbreaking research on Artificial Intelligence over the past 15 yrs. This is a passion and an essential contribution to the overall field of progressive thinking in Artificial Intelligence.
He continues that work and co-creates keynotes and workshops for clients to master this new world of Artificial Intelligence, the augmented organization and employees with next level capabilities.
Reach out to Artificial Intelligence Keynote Speaker Nikolas Badminton to discuss your engagement >>> click here.
2026 Futurist Keynote – The AI Leader: Create Incredible Productivity, Profit & Growth
The AI Leader: Create Incredible Productivity, Profit & Growth – is meticulously researched and co-created with clients – always focused and always custom. He interviews the executives, reviews their strategic plans and analyzes their industry in detail. Nikolas then taps into his knowledge base with thousands of signals and trends, the Futurist.com Think Tank experts, and do specific research to excite and ignite thinking at the client event.
With The AI Leader: Create Incredible Productivity, Profit & Growth Nikolas and the client executives get under the skin of the value that is created and what they need to evolve and move forward by decoding uncertainty, igniting imagination and building anticipation. This and the way Nikolas engages with the audience and ignites thinking is why he is in such high demand.
Clients often choose to go further with this inquiry and have Nikolas work with them to develop panels, fireside chats, executive forums and podcast interviews. Here is an clip of such an experience that Nikolas co-created with Procore to talk about Artificial Intelligence for their foundational event Groundbreak.
Reach out to Artificial Intelligence Keynote Speaker Nikolas Badminton to discuss your engagement >>> click here.
2026 Futurist Keynote – The AI Leader: Create Incredible Productivity, Profit & Growth
What if we can look beyond the hype with wisdom and hope to supercharge our organization with deeply integrated AI?
World-renowned futurist speaker and Artificial Intelligence expert Nikolas Badminton presents the definitive keynote for strategic executives that want to plan for long term resiliency and transformation. Understanding how we can harness AI’s capabilities drives hope to positively affect the world and create incredible futures that solve some of the greatest challenges of our times.
Nikolas will show you AI’s role in shaping our futures, the upgraded organization and how our world and industries are being revolutionized. He will also show what practical abilities and skill sets are needed and how organizations can integrate A.I. capabilities for real results.
Client takeaways:
- Learn the Hope Engineer™ mindset – Ignite imagination, build anticipation, and develop a deep sense of empathy for how A.I. will transform companies and industries
- Explore Artificial Intelligence signals, trends & scenarios – See how AI is evolving how industries work. See how your workforce will supercharge their capabilities using AI, spatial computing and other technologies.
- See high-hope leadership in action – Learn the stories of how world-leading companies are applying A.I. and futures thinking to supercharging our strategic thinking.
Reach out to Artificial Intelligence Keynote Speaker Nikolas Badminton to discuss your engagement >>> click here.
Nikolas’ Promise to his clients
Nikolas is renowned for his level of engagement, focus and customization of keynotes for each and every client and is now providing more value with each engagement:
- 100+ hours of focused research for each keynote that provides new thinking on the signals, trends and scenarios to supercharge strategic thinking.
- Focused collaboration and co-creation with each event organizer and client to produce the most impactful content for their audiences.
- In-depth Q&A and audience engagement sessions that help the audience go deeper into the signals and futures design that Nikolas presents.
Nikolas will work with you, the client and their team to speak with their executives stakeholders and key clients to gain a deep understanding of where they are, where they see the world shifting and evolving, and what their ideas of the futures ahead of their industry are.
Nikolas then taps into his knowledge base – and the global Futurist.com Think Tank – to do specific research to excite and ignite thinking at the event. Following confirmation of the engagement he produces the talk title and blurb and outline the areas for exploration – then Nikolas and the client discuss and focus in on what is needed to shift perspectives and supercharge strategic thinking.
Reach out to Artificial Intelligence Keynote Speaker Nikolas Badminton to discuss your engagement >>> click here.
The CEOs Guide to AI…
Nikolas Badminton has been researching AI for the past three decades and now he brings his insight and analysis to leaders in the world trying to make sense of the hype to create focus on what matters.
The CEO’s guide to AI: The Pope Has an AI Strategy Memo for Your Boardroom
The CEO’s guide to AI: State Media Control Influences Large Language Models
The CEO’s guide to AI: Social engineering is turbocharged by AI
The CEO’s guide to AI: Black-hat LLMs and Cyber-threats
The CEO’s guide to AI: We’re nowhere near AGI
The CEO’s guide to AI: Young workers as the canaries in the coalmine
The CEO’s guide to AI: The risk of vibe coding complacency
The CEO’s guide to AI: The Case for Superhuman Adaptable Intelligence (SAI)
New 2026 book – The Hope Engineer’s Playbook: How Leaders Build Vision, Pathways and Energy for Better Futures
Master the ability to explore the incredible futures ahead of us and use hope as an energy for change and transformation.
A better future is possible, and as a leader, you can amplify your vision and create energy for change by starting with hope. In The Hope Engineer’s Playbook, Nikolas Badminton brings more than three decades of experience working with leaders at over six hundred world-defining organizations and governments to show how hope transforms organizations and provides a renewable energy for change. He examines how practical hope has developed through history and influences how we operate today—by setting audacious goals and traveling together down agency-driven pathways guided by wisdom that turns aspiration into transformation.
In seven detailed, well-researched chapters, punctuated by feature sections showing successful large-scale hope initiatives around the globe, Badminton gives you the playbook to translate your explorations and visions of better futures into impactful transformation. You’ll learn the Hopeful Futures Framework which provides a cyclical method for adopting a hopeful futures mindset and translating it into action and energy in your organization and executive practice. In addition, you will learn tools you can use immediately: hope resolutions, workshop exercises, futures storytelling structures, and practical approaches for working with generative AI and large language models to sharpen inquiry and accelerate hopeful futures exploration.
The Hope Engineer’s Playbook is built for leaders who want to create bigger visions of what is possible and energies of change that supercharge strategic planning and execution by the frontline team. It offers a next-level layer of futures thinking—and the day-by-day practices that help teams sustain momentum, expand agency, and deliver real change.
Please contact Nikolas Badminton to discuss this book.
About Nikolas Badminton
Nikolas Badminton is the Chief Futurist & Hope Engineer at futurist.com. He’s a world-renowned futurist keynote speaker, consultant, author, media producer, and executive advisor that has spoken to, and worked with, over 500 of the world’s most impactful organizations and governments.
Nikolas is an artificial intelligence expert and his 2026 keynote ‘The AI Leader: Create Incredible Productivity, Profit & Growth’ is the level up for the modern CEO and executive leader.
Reach out to Artificial Intelligence Keynote Speaker Nikolas Badminton to discuss your engagement >>> click here.
