Brian Solis

Brian Solis is Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow . He's also an 9x best-selling author, international keynote speaker, and futurist. Forbes has called him “one of the more creative and brilliant business minds of our time" and ZDNet has said that Brian is “one of the 21st century business world’s leading thinkers.”

For over 20 years, Brian has studied Digital Darwinism to understand the impact of disruption on businesses, markets and society. In his work, he humanizes technologies and trends to help leaders gain new perspectives and insights and inspire new ideas to thrive in the future.

Brian’s research explores business transformation,innovation, the agentic enterprise, and "the future of" industries, trends and markets.  

His insights on the future of technology and business trends have made him a go to resource among executives, media and market experts. He has published over 60 research papers and also actively shares his work in industry-leading publications including Forbes, ZDNet, CIO, eWeek, Fast Company, Adweek, and Singularity University.

As a keynote speaker, Brian travels the world to help audiences embrace change, learn what’s coming next and why, and to take a leading role in shaping the future they want to see.

Brian’s latest book, Mindshift: Transform Leadership, Drive Innovation, and Reshape the Future was written inspire a new generation of leaders in an era of AI disruption. Mindshift shifts mindsets to challenge the status quo, anticipate the future, inspire teams, and innovate forward.

His earlier best-sellers include...

X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, explores the importance of experiences and how to design them for customers, employees and human beings everywhere. www.xthebook.com.

What's the Future of Business (WTF), which explores the landscape of connected consumerism and how business and customer relationships unfold and flourish in four distinct moments of truth. 

The End of Business as Usual explores the emergence of Generation-C, a new generation of customers and employees and how businesses must adapt to reach them. 

Engage! is regarded as the industry reference guide for businesses to market, sell and service in the social web.

To learn more about Brian, please visit: BrianSolis.com
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"Top futurist speaker." - ReadWrite

“One of the 21st century business world’s leading thinkers” – ZDNet

“One of the greatest digital analysts of our time.” - Antonio Lucio, CMO, HP, Facebook

Head of Global Innovation

Leads vision, strategy, and programming of ServiceNow's global Innovation and Executive Briefing Centers. He also engages with marquee customers and partners on innovation and transformation strategies. Studies disruptive technology and market trends to advise executives on leadership initiatives. Publishes business and technology thought leadership in leading publications to inspire executives to become leaders and innovators. Translates trends into go-to-market strategies for ServiceNow and its customers.

This was broadcast all across China. The rapid acceleration of robotic capabilities is astonishing. As NVIDIA's Jensen Huang said, physical AI is having its "ChatGPT" moment. By 2035, we will be working and living with 1 billion physical AI robots. 

🤖Unitree Robotics

Brian Solis is Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow . He's also an 8x best-selling author, international keynote speaker, and digital anthropologist. Forbes has called him “one of the more creative and brilliant business minds of our time" and ZDNet has said that Brian is “one of the 21st century business world’s leading thinkers.”

For over 20 years, Brian has studied Digital Darwinism to understand the impact of disruption on businesses, markets and society. In his work, he humanizes technologies and trends to help leaders gain new perspectives and insights and inspire new ideas to thrive in the future.

Brian’s research explores digital transformation, CX, experience design, innovation, the cognitive enterprise, and "the future of" industries, trends and human behavior.  

His insights on the future of technology and business trends have made him a go to resource among executives, media and market experts. He has published over 60 research papers and also actively shares his work in industry-leading publications including Forbes, ZDNet, CIO, eWeek, Fast Company, Adweek, and Singularity University.

As a keynote speaker, Brian has traveled the world to help audiences embrace change, learn what’s coming next and why, and to take a leading role in shaping the future they want to see.

Brian’s latest book, Lifescale: How to Live a More Creative, Productive, and Happy Life, is a research-based (and personal) journey to help defeat the disruptive effects of digital distractions. 

Brian's previous book, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, explores the importance of experiences and how to design them for customers, employees and human beings everywhere. www.xthebook.com.

His earlier best-sellers include...

What's the Future of Business (WTF), which explores the landscape of connected consumerism and how business and customer relationships unfold and flourish in four distinct moments of truth. 

The End of Business as Usual explores the emergence of Generation-C, a new generation of customers and employees and how businesses must adapt to reach them. 

Engage! is regarded as the industry reference guide for businesses to market, sell and service in the social web.

To learn more about Brian, please visit: BrianSolis.com
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"Top futurist speaker." - ReadWrite

“One of the 21st century business world’s leading thinkers” – ZDNet

“One of the greatest digital analysts of our time.” - Antonio Lucio, former CMO, HP, Facebook

NVIDIA

Unitree Robotics

Head of Global Innovation, ServiceNow | 9x Best-Selling Author | Keynote Speaker | Digital Futurist | Ex Salesforce Exec | Ex Google Advisor

Charlie Manger

We interrupt this program to bring you an important message...

AI is building the next AI. But who’s building the next version of your company?
OpenAI calls the gap between what AI can do and what most organizations do with it the “capability overhang.” It’s becoming the new competitive divide.

My latest article is a leadership playbook to close the gap and turn AI into agency at scale.

Please read 🙏👇

AI Darwinism = survival of the most adaptive!

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfWork #Innovation #future

AI Darwinism...it's a mirror.

“The future doesn't belong to companies that use the most AI… it’s those who reimagine their enterprise.”

That’s the point too many leaders miss.
AI isn’t the finish line, it’s the reset button.

A “control-alt-delete moment” for how work works.

If the last 20 years taught us anything, it’s this:
we didn’t always transform, we often just digitized yesterday.
And research suggests we’re doing it again, this time with AI.

So here’s the mirror:
Are you using AI to make yesterday cheaper, more efficient…or to make tomorrow possible?

The next industrial Renaissance won’t be remembered for how much AI we deployed. It will be remembered for how we employed intelligence...
to create new value, new work, and new capability.

This is a leadership moment.

How are you designing augmentation, so your people become more capable, not just more efficient?

⚡️ https://lnkd.in/gzK-RSPS


#AI #Energy #FutureOfWork #Leadership #Innovation #DigitalTransformation

Most companies won’t lose to a competitor “with more AI.” They’ll lose to a competitor that redesigns work faster.

I just published a short newsletter based on my keynote at the Baker Hughes conference in Florence. Let's explore why the next renAIssance isn’t about “more AI,” it’s about using intelligence with intention.

If you’re leading transformation, please watch:
1) the keynote (embedded in the post),
2) two short interview clips that go deeper on the non-negotiables: governance + humanity, and why physical AI changes the operating model.

Remember, nothing interesting begins with knowing...It begins with curiosity.

#AI #Leadership #PhysicalAI #AIAgents #AutonomousEnterprise #BHAM2026 #TheEnergyEquation

Efficiency is not a strategy. If your AI efforts only make yesterday faster, you’re not innovating, you’re iterating and optimizing. It's a good start, but not enough in an era of AI Darwinism.

In my latest newsletter, I share a practical playbook to stop drowning in noise and start creating new value, with a simple test for iteration vs. innovation, a signal filter, and a better way to win hearts and minds! 💡

Bonus: If you're drowning in the AI firehose of information, I'll share some 'AI floaties!' 🛟

 Please read, let me know what you're seeing and feeling, (and share!)

#Leadership #Strategy #Innovation #AI #AIDarwinism

Florence has a way of reminding you what’s possible.

After speaking at the Baker Hughes Annual Meeting, I realized that the conversation was so much bigger than the moment:

We’re entering an Enterprise RenAIssance. The companies that win will rebuild themselves to become intelligent, operating models, workflows, infrastructure, leadership, all of it.

👇 I wrote this during the flight back. What do you think? Are we automating yesterday, or designing what’s next?

This is our moment...

#AI #Leadership #EnterpriseAI #Innovation #FutureOfWork #DigitalTransformation

Please meet my new friend Maps Maponyane. He’s a South African entrepreneur, creative leader, and philanthropist. He’s also a TV presenter, actor, investor, and if you look at his Insta, you’d also describe him as a world traveler, model, and someone with impeccable taste and style. After spending time with him in Gauteng, South Africa, at the Standard Bank Group, I’ll remember him as someone who’s deeply kind, generous, and thoughtful. He’s a deep thinker, an incredible presenter, and someone so magnetic, that we became fast friends. 

On stage, we explored the future of AI and its impact on humanity. We also reimagined a new world of experiences that can be created with AI to make life better for people. It was the more personal and honest conversations we had the next sitting outside, lakeside in Gauteng, that I won’t soon forget. We shared childhood struggles, passions, challenges facing the world today, the beauty of Africa, and how to use AI and technology to make the world, and people, better. 

The day after we spent time together, I flew back to California to celebrate Valentine’s Day. And Maps went on stage at the African Leadership Academy TEDx event in Jo’berg to inspire students, educators, and leaders, how to overcome personal life’s obstacles to explore their frequency, find their vibration, and move forward with their unique rhythm. 

I have a lifelong friend in Maps, I believe. More so, I left inspired, and lucky to have met someone whom I’m sure will continue to inspire me, and many others around the world. 🙏


#leadership #leader #AI #innovation #keynotespeaker #southafrica

For the first time since 2019, I will be back on stage at SXSW.

Who's in Austin this year?

Please join me? https://lnkd.in/gk6vugFE

Ego is the enemy.
 
Thank you Brendan McGurgan 🙏

🎥 https://lnkd.in/gmqjavuV

🎧 
Apple: https://lnkd.in/g__8x-mC

Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gDjhAqjz

#mindshift #leadership #innovation #entrepreneur #founder

AI is not a strategy. AI is not leadership. AI is an enabler of your vision as a leader. The good news is that the future isn't yet set in stone. 

If you’re waiting for certainty, waiting for a perfect roadmap, a proven playbook, or someone else to “show you the way,” you’re already on the wrong side of innovation, and leadership. 

Now, the advantage doesn’t go to the company with the most tools. It goes to the company with the clearest vision, the fastest learning loops, and the courage to redesign how value is created.

This is the moment for a mindshift:
1. From automation to reinvention
2. From AI adoption to business evolution
3. From knowing to learning, and unlearning
4. From efficiency to possibility

AI cannot replace leadership.

AI can scale vision and capabilities (skills and workflows that still matter from yesterday and those that are yet to be defined for a world with AI). 

Only humans can set direction. Only humans can choose what “better” means. 

Only humans can align technology to purpose, customers, and culture.

Don't wait for the playbook. Write it.

Because nothing meaningful begins with knowing.

It begins with imagination, execution, and learning and unlearning forward.

Design the future you want. Then build it, with and on purpose.

🚀

p.s. I recorded this at SXSW Sydney, and I'm sad to report that this was the last year of the conference in Australia. I hope to return to the stage at SXSW!

#AI #leadership #business #innovation #strategy #mindshift #AIleadership

When Steve Jobs uses the word computer, imagine instead he says, "AI." 

AI is a "bicycle for the mind. Something that takes us far beyond our inherent abilities. I think we're just at the early stages of this tool...and we've only come a very short distance. Already we've seen enormous changes, and that's nothing compared to what we'll see in the next 100 years."

Here, AI doesn't just mean artificial intelligence, it also means "augmented intelligence." With imagination, creativity, curiosity, we can collaborate with AI to achieve something exponentially greater than simply trying to go faster, we can go to entirely new places. 

Soft skills are no longer just that, they're now essential skills...the keys to survival, better yet, thriving against AI Darwinism.

In 1927, the first "talkie" debuted in Hollywood. By 1930, the same number of silent and talkies were released. A few years later, sound technology became the industry standard, effectively ending the silent era. 

2026 will be the year we saw the trailer for Hollywood 3.0. AI hasn't delivered Hollywood's "The Jazz Singer" event...yet, but here's just one example of what AI can do today.🎬⌨️

This clip was created by The Dor Brothers (X: @thedorbrothers) supposedly in 1 day, with 100% AI.

Most companies aren’t behind on AI because they lack tools. They’re behind because they’re using AI to modernize yesterday instead of reimagining tomorrow.

That was the core message I shared at the Home Care Innovation Forum, and this recap captures the moment (and the opportunity) better than I could in a single post. Please read and watch the video of my keynote (link below) 👇

A few leadership takeaways for anyone navigating the AI economy:

AI maturity is actually regressing in many organizations, not for lack of investment, but because AI is being applied to legacy workflows instead of new value creation. 

The biggest trap is confusing iteration (faster/cheaper) with innovation (new outcomes, new business models). 

The real constraint is organizational design: cross-functional ownership, incentives, and the hard conversations that break silos. 

The winners will use AI to fund growth, beyond cutting costs (the IKEA example in the article is a masterclass in this).

If you’re a leader, the question becomes “What do we become because of AI?”

Personally, I think it's worth the read/watch. 👇

https://lnkd.in/geWf7w5V

#AI #Leadership #Innovation #FutureOfWork #Healthcare #HomeCare

Remember the days of BYOD (bring your own device) to work? Now it's BYOAI (bring your own AI) aka shadow AI. And, leadership is 40% more likely to use unapproved AI tools than junior staff.

This is according to Deloitte's TrustID Workforce Index. Research found that the barrier to AI adoption isn’t the tech, it’s trust.

When trust in AI is high, workers are 2.8x more likely to use genAI daily for work. They save 2x more hours per week overall. And, they're 1.3x more likely to only use approved genAI for work.

"The world is full of magical things...patiently waiting for our senses to grow Sharper." – W.B. Yeats ✨

p. 104, Mindshift, https://a.co/d/0a9QyTDm

AI is changing the workforce dynamics, and by 2030, the World Economic Forum shares how to get a hard start in helping employees adapt...

The top 10 fastest growing skills by 2030:
1. AI and big data
2. Networks and cybersecurity 
3. Technological literacy
4. Creative thinking
5. Resilience, flexibility, and agility
6. Curiosity and lifelong learning
7. Leadership and social influence
8. Talent management
9. Analytical thinking
10. Environmental stewardship

Sills gaps that prevent business transformation
1. Skills gaps in labour markets
2. Organizational culture and resistance to change
3. Outdated or inflexible regulatory frameworks
4. Inability to attract talent to the industry 
5. Lack of adequate data and technical infrastructure
6. Inability to attract talent to my firm
7. Shortage of investment capital
8. Insufficient understanding of opportunities

Upskilling as the top workforce strategy by 2030
1. Upskill your workforce!
2. Accelerate the automation of processes and tasks
3. Hire staff with new skills to meet emerging business needs
4. Complement and augment your workforce with new technologies
5. Transition existing staff from declining to growing roles
6. Reduce staff whose skills are becoming less relevant or where roles are no longer needed See 1 and 5)
7. Move operations within closer control through re-shoring, near-shoring, or friend-shoring
8. I'm not adding this one

https://lnkd.in/gqYTGbKz

I ordered this book when it first came out to celebrate an important moment in an important friend's life. I honestly meant to publish this sooner. Matt Marcotte is one of the most incredible human beings I've ever worked with. He's brilliant, and his legacy at helping to build Apple's retail empire is legendary. 

His new book, "Built on Belief: Why Cultures of Commitment Are the Competitive Advantage," is about competing at a more human level. He lives this. He is this. This is what he helps to build through human-centered leadership. 

In a moment when strategy, tech, and markets shift fast, too fast, the real differentiator is human. And that human factor is defined by leadership *and*  culture...it's how people show up, commit, and follow through. Culture is not the result of surveys. It takes vision, cultivation, and empowerment.

Matt makes an inspiring case that this commitment isn’t a soft ideal, it’s a measurable advantage that shows up in execution, resilience, and results.

So, if you’re building teams, leading change, or trying to create a company people genuinely want to be part of, this is worth your time. It certainly was for me. 

Congrats, Matt. I'm so excited to see "Built on Belief" out in the world, we certainly need it. 👏🤩

Amazon: https://a.co/d/0cpbiyY8

I humbly contribute one chapter to this powerhouse of a collaboration 🙌. Thank you to Scott Barry Kaufman and Chris Shipley for bringing us together. 

Out in July. Pre-order here 👉 https://a.co/d/0j6WTw5f

In "Leading for Tomorrow," a group of accomplished executives, academics, and experts deliver a collection of persuasive, insightful solutions to common and difficult workplace problems. This compilation of essays charts a pathway to an understanding of what it takes to lead people effectively in the modern era.

You’ll explore the latest leadership styles and strategies, learning how to lead yourself, lead others, and lead organizations. You’ll also discover how to harness the principles of self-actualization, manage mental health challenges in yourself and others, and identify the qualities that help you get and stay motivated at work.

Contributors include, Peter Sims, Rita McGrath, Tom Kelley, Scott D. Anthony, Jacqueline Novogratz, Lisa Kay Solomon, Chris Yeh, Jean Oelwang, Sanyin Siang, Nancy Duarte, Chip Conley, Whitney Johnson, Jonathan Haidt, Caroline Webb, Amy Edmondson, Zeynep Ton, April Rinne, Hal Gregersen, Sophie Hamilton, Jennifer Aaker, John Hagel, Morra Aarons-Mele, Safi Bahcall, Frans Johansson, Des Dearlove

This is so surreal! 

cc: Thinkers50 Wiley

Cognitive scientist, author, podcaster, coach

I'm beyond excited to announce our new book "Leading for Tomorrow: Unlocking Human Potential in the Era of Continuous Change and Endless Possibility"! Edited with the amazing Chris Shipley, we gathered a group of accomplished executives, leadership experts, and academics from the Silicon Guild and Thinkers50 to deliver a collection of persuasive, insightful solutions to common and difficult workplace problems. This compilation of essays charts a pathway to an understanding of what it takes to lead people effectively in the modern era.

The book comes out July 8, 2026, and, of course, you can reserve your copy by placing a pre-order now: https://lnkd.in/esmhH668

With deep gratitude to our dream team of contributors: Peter Sims, Rita McGrath, Tom Kelley, Scott D. Anthony, Jacqueline Novogratz, Lisa Kay Solomon, Chris Yeh, Jean Oelwang, Sanyin Siang, Nancy Duarte, Chip Conley, Brian Solis, Whitney Johnson, Jonathan Haidt, Caroline Webb, Amy Edmondson, Zeynep Ton, April Rinne, Hal Gregersen, Sophie Hamilton, Jennifer Aaker, John Hagel, Morra Aarons-Mele, Safi Bahcall, Frans Johansson, Des Dearlove

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