Jim Carroll

Jim Carroll is widely regarded as one of world’s most respected keynote speakers on artificial intelligence & technology.

In addition, he is also a globally respected futurist, trends, and innovation expert, with a massive global blue-chip client list. Over a 30-year career, Jim has been booked regularly by CEOs and senior executives of major organizations worldwide, to provide an opening or closing keynote or leadership talk on highly customized topics. He has spoken to over 2 million people on 5 continents, with over 2,000 keynote presentations – experience matters!

Jim’s clients include Disney, the World Bank, Mercedes Benz, the PGA, Blackrock, the Wall Street Journal, Pfizer, Microsoft, Cisco, and over 1,500 more. NASA has booked him - twice - for a talk on 'the future of space.' If NASA finds value in his customized insight, so will you!

He is known worldwide for his ability to relate fast-emerging trends to leadership-focused strategic thinking. When it comes to AI, it's clear you don't need to understand the technology in-depth - you need strategic insight.

Jim Carroll is an author, with numerous books including: Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast; Surviving the Information Age;The Future Belongs To Those Who Are Fast; Ready, Set, Done; and What I Learned From Frogs in Texas: Saving Your Skin with Forward Thinking Innovation.

Jim Carroll Speaker Presentations:

Why Book Jim Carroll?
Concise Insight on Trends & Innovation Delivered By The World’s Top Ranked Futurist.

Jim’s leadership keynote will align you to your disruptive, accelerating future by providing detailed, specific industry trends. It’s powerful leadership insight delivered in a compelling and motivational style!

You know you need to align to a world that is faster, more complex, and that demands resilience. You need deep insight into the trends that will impact you and the strategies that you can pursue to align with them. You need to inspire your leadership team and members to get moving. That’s how Jim Carroll will help you.

Don’t just take Jim’s word for it. Join other leading organizations like NASA, Pfizer, Nikon, The World Bank, Mercedes Benz, the PGA, Blackrock, the Wall Street Journal, and even Disney, all of whom arranged for Jim’s insight for a global leadership event or customer meeting – and came away empowered with new insight to take on our faster, more complex world.

Jim Carroll speech topics:
(small sample listing)

THE 2 MOST-REQUESTED PRESENTATIONS FOR 2024

A.I. Megatrends:  Beyond Chatgpt [video]
How A.I. is redefining your industry, profession, company & career - and what you can do about it!

The acceleration of AI is not just about the technology; it’s not just about ChatGPT; it’s about the AI Megatrends! The transformative and disruptive concepts involving such things as predictive diagnostics, autonomous technologies and machine vision, the hyper-connectivity of intelligent devices, the integration of AI into robotics and virtualized digital twin technologies, workforce and process augmentation technologies, virtual knowledge assistants, realtime risk monitoring, product reinvention and transformation through embedded AI, and so much more!

These are the types of AI Megatrends that you need to understand in order to comprehend how your industry, profession, association, and job and career will change. AI is already causing massive change in every industry such as: changing the way we diagnose and treat medical conditions; how we assess and underwrite insurance risk using sophisticated AI risk management tools; how we manage our march to precision-farming using AI-driven autonomous technologies; how we are using AI throughout retail and manufacturing for deep supply chain analysis and inventory management.

It’s vast, sweeping, transformative megatrends which will continue at a faster pace as we enter the ‘era of acceleration.’

Futurist Jim Carroll puts these realities into perspective for your organization in a fast-paced keynote or leadership meeting presentation. A highly customized, industry specific AI Megatrent overview, based on customized research specific to your industry and organization, and aligned to your unique perspective. It’s insight that matters, is relevant, and actionable!

What you need RIGHT NOW is highly relevant AI Megatrends guidance from a realistic, strategic business perspective.

Jim will help you understand:

• the AI Megatrends that are already underway, and those that are yet to come
• the disruptive and transformative context of these trends on your industry, profession or association, based on up-to-the-minute detailed research specific to your requirements
• why the ‘era of acceleration’ with AI will now challenge all your assumptions about your future
• the strategic opportunities that exist with AI within your industry and organization, on a near, medium, and long-term basis
• the significant challenges and risks that exist for the same time frame
• what leading innovators and competitors are doing to align with these fast-moving trends
• what actionable steps you can pursue so you can prepare a concise strategic plan for your orgranization and team

The Acceleration of Artificial Intelligence and the Rise of the Robots [video]
Promise and Peril in the Next Technological Transformation

The sudden and dramatic arrival of ChatGPT has caught the imagination of the world as we sense the arrival of new opportunities, at the same time that it has fueled a sense of concern and worry. We are now firmly in the era of the acceleration of artificial intelligence (“AI”) as seen with generative text such as ChatGPT and image technologies like Stable Diffusion. But our complex new future is not just happening with AI – we are seeing the 'rise of the robots,' the maturity of industrial autonomous technologies, machine intelligence, and vision systems, digital twin and augmented reality technologies, the impact of 'sensorworld,' drones and more – it's a brand new and fast-moving world.

There are a lot of fast-moving technologies – but making sense of what's real and cutting through the hype to discover real opportunities within the trends is one of the most important things you can do!

There are significant implications to the sudden arrival of artificial intelligence and other trends, from very real business model disruption to unique legal and copyright issues, education, knowledge, and workforce skills challenges, as well as the emergence of disruptive new industry competitors and accelerated new product development and innovation opportunities. The scope of what these technologies represent is increasing because the pace of their evolution is now moving faster than fast.

In this keynote, Jim will help you understand:

• the challenges and opportunities behind these trends within your industry and organization
• the disruptive impact on your business and operations, and the strategies you should be thinking about to align with the new realities they present
• key strategic action plans designed to get your team moving forward with certainty to align with the opportunities of the trend as well as the timing of how it will unfold.

Futurist Jim Carroll will help you cut through the noise and the hype to understand what is really happening, and the critical nature of the important trends that you must pay attention to!

Additional 2025 Presentations: 

Unlocking Tomorrow: How to Get To Your Future, Faster.

“Companies that do not yet exist will build products not yet conceived using materials not yet invented with methodologies not yet imagined. Will you be part of this tomorrow, today?”

Futurist Jim Carroll is on a mission to help organizations understand how to align to tomorrow, today. He does this by helping you to accelerate your innovation efforts and deliver growth through his 9 Rules for Aligning to Your Faster Future, Faster.

These 9 Rules, derived from providing senior leadership guidance on future trends to over 2,000 organizations and 2 million people worldwide, will provide you the insight you need to align to an era of acceleration.

Imagine if you could accelerate your way into the future, by clearly aligning future trends, your strategic thinking, and your internal engine of creativity. Countless global organizations have engaged Jim Carroll for his unique insight and proven track record in providing a customized leadership program that will let you:

1. SEE DISRUPTIVE TRENDS: you’ll better understand the trends that will impact you in the near and longer term
2. FOCUS ON OPPORTUNITY: you will achieve clarity on the trends that matter
3. ALIGN TO DISRUPTION: you will shift your thinking to the actions that matter
4. UNLOCK CREATIVITY: you will discover that it’s buried in your teams – and how you can let it out
5. ACHIEVE AGILITY: you will learn more about the role of fast-teams
6. ENHANCE YOUR SPEED: you will discover how to better align to our faster future
7. ACCELERATE INNOVATION: you will find ways to rethink your strategic pipeline
8. COLLABORATE MORE: you will maximize the benefit of your internal idea factory
9. DELIVER ON GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES: you shift from reactive defense to disruptive offense<

You will join the company of global leaders at Disney, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, BASF, Nikon, and hundreds more who have found that Jim’s crystal clear trends and innovation insight take them into a world in which the future belongs to those who are fast!

The Future of Supply Chains in the Era of Artificial Intelligence
A Keynote by Futurist Jim Carroll

The need for enhanced visibility and transparency in the supply chain is one of the biggest opportunities for deployment of AI, with one estimate suggesting that spending is expected to reach $41.23 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38.8% during the forecast period 2023-2030. ABI Research goes further, suggesting that the market for generative AI in the supply chain is expected to rapidly expand by 2030 at a CAGR of 162%, offering nearly US$60 billion in revenue for supply chain stakeholders - a significant investment considering that this does not include other investment in AI involving robotics, cobotics, warehousing, and last-mile delivery technology, all of which is accelerating at a furious pace. +

There is no doubt that there is expected to be a flurry of integration and implementation of AI into every single aspect of the supply chains, according to Futurist Jim Carroll. We will continue to see the arrival of opportunities that involve more sophisticated demand forecasting, production and inventory planning, and logistics and warehouse management capabilities involving generative AI. Beyond generative AI - all the rage with tools like ChatGPT - lies opportunities with the "AI megatrends," which involve significant advances into intelligence embedded in warehousing and last-mile delivery robotics and autonomous technologies, production monitoring and management via next-generation IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) technologies, and advanced warehousing, production and supply chain flow utilizing more sophisticated virtualized digital twin technologies. And in a nod to the increasing volatility impacting supply chains and the never-ending chase for agility, new predictive analysis and risk management AI tools promise to help minimize the management of complex issues involving supplier disruptions, natural disasters, weather events, or geopolitical events, allowing companies to proactively identify vulnerabilities or react to disruptions - a complex reality given that volatility is now the new normal.

Early activities with AI in the supply chain are already showing significant promise and potential. Cargill is implementing new methodologies that allow for improved monitoring, analysis, and management of various supply chains with the ultimate goal of delivering significant cost savings and efficiencies while helping to achieve key sustainability goals. Mars is using generative AI to combine truck loads, cutting shipping costs and speeding up delivery to market. GEP is using AII-driven products to maximize supply chain efficiency, including tasks such as answering complex procurement questions, sourcing management, and contract analysis. In the context of these initiatives, there is no doubt that every supply chain enterprise software vendor is working at a feverish pace to introduce AI into existing supply chain infrastructure.

Join Futurist Jim Carroll as he takes us on a voyage into the future of intelligent supply chains. Jim is recognized as the world’s leading futurist, trends, and innovation expert, with a massive global blue-chip client list. Over the last 30 years, more than 2 million people have shared his insight at his events. He speaks regularly in the manufacturing and consumer products sector, most recently with a notable keynote for key customers of BNSF on the future of supply chains in the era of AI. --

The BIG Future:
The Mega-Trends that Define Transformative Opportunities and Demand Bold Thinking!

The future demands that you think BIG, be bold, and pursue opportunities.

The only way to do this is to understand the “megatrends” that are defining our future, the disruptive opportunities they present, and the industry, skills, and business model opportunities they provide.

We are now seeing so much change that our new reality is this: companies that do not yet exist will build products not yet conceived, with materials not yet in existence, using methodologies not yet developed – and these will be sold to consumers who do not yet know that these new products and services will become a critical part of their life!

Are you ready to pursue a BIG future? Do you understand what comes next and what you need to do about it? Based on his BIG Trends series featured on his Web site, Jim takes you into a dramatic new future involving accelerating scientific discovery, rapid knowledge sharing, accelerated methodologies, and dramatic industry transformations.

You will come away with new strategic leadership insight that will help you see disruptive trends, focus on opportunities, unlock creativity, enhance your speed, accelerate innovation and deliver on growth opportunities!

Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast:
Aligning Yourself for the Era of Acceleration

We live in a time of massive challenge, and yet one of massive opportunity. We’re faced with deep and complex issues involving the environment, health care, water, and food. At the same time, every industry is faced with upheaval and disruption.

In this context, every industry is being redefined at blinding speed by technology, globalization, the rapid emergence of new competitors, new forms of collaborative global R&D, and countless other challenges! The speed with which these changes occur is now running up against the traditional culture, organizational structure, and leadership methodologies that once worked well in the past – but don’t align with today’s fast-moving realities.

Most organizations are bound up in tradition, process, and certain defined ways of doing things — rules — that have helped them succeed in the past. Over time, they have developed a corporate culture that might have worked in the slower-paced world of the past — but now has them on the sick bed, suffering from organizational sclerosis that clogs up their ability to try to do anything new. Those very things which worked for them in the past might be the anchors that could now hold them back as the future rushes at them with ever-increasing speed. They are being challenged in a fundamental way by those who think big, and by some really big, transformative trends.

You need to align yourself to the big opportunities of today through bold, transformative thinking; take the small-scale steps today to align yourself to this future, and focus on a culture of speed and agility that can help you to get there at the right time! You need to think about transformation, not just innovation!

In this keynote, Jim outlines his simple but transformative structure with deep insight into what it takes to master the new, complex volatile world, by embracing the chaos, thinking transformation, not innovation, mastering the timing of trends, and accelerating forward-oriented growth opportunities. The new model for going forward in the era of accelerating change: Think big, start small, and scale fast!

Innovating For the Upturn:
How to Accelerate Opportunity and Achieve Growth in an Era of Volatility

New ideas, transformative innovations, and bold thinking don’t die in periods of economic volatility – in fact, a downturn is often the starting point for big ideas and a big upturn! Companies such as Burger King, Microsoft, CNN, and FedEx all started up during economic downturns because they remained firmly focused on growth opportunities, the future, and trends.

Conventional wisdom would suggest we’d better hunker down, scale back, slow down, take it easy, be cautious, reduce spending, defer our actions, wait it out, take things slow, and put things on pause. But history tells us that doesn't work – because those who choose to relentlessly focus on growth are those who win.

How do you do this? It’s by understanding that the winners that emerge are those who battle aggressive indecision, challenge organizational sclerosis, and recommit to growth despite volatility. History teaches us that those who win are those who doubled down on innovation and transformation, and refocused on the long-term view! During the 2008-09 global economic meltdown, ‘winners’ grew at a 17% compound annual growth rate during the downturn compared to 0% among the ‘losers.’ And those ‘winners’ locked in gains of 13% CAGR in the years after the downturn compared to the ‘losers’ stalling at 1%. That’s a powerful growth lesson right there!

These winners chose to opt out of the common narrative – it’s a recession, cut back, hunker down and make sure you ride it out – and by choosing instead to go into the future full throttle, they emerged much better positioned for that future.

Futurist and innovation expert Jim Carroll shares these and other critical lessons, along with specific strategic guidance on how to double down on growth during times of volatility. It's battle-tested, stage-proven insight developed through previous periods of economic volatility. You will come away with clear leadership insight on the growth-oriented insight you need to pursue.

Accelerating Creativity:
Discovering Opportunity With an Innovation Reboot

We will see more change in every industry in the next 10 years than we have seen in the last 100 as transformation and disruption sweeps the world.

Every company is faced with the rapid emergence of new competitors, significant new business models, more challenging consumers, the acceleration of science, and a transition to the speed of innovation that will define its future.

How do you manage this complex new world and get ahead? By turning on your innovation engine, firing your creativity thrusters, and strapping in for a rocket ride into your faster future. You need to accelerate your ability to generate radically new ideas and transformative concepts. You need innovation and creativity!

In this keynote, futurist and innovation expert Jim Carroll shares the innovation and creativity insight that he has gained through three decades of a relentless focus on what turns organizations into high-velocity innovation and creativity heroes. None other than NASA has invited Jim in – twice – to share his insight on innovation strategies. Disney – a creativity superhero – invited him in for a keynote on the opportunities that come from rethinking creativity. The World Bank engaged him for a talk that linked fast-moving future trends to the need for accelerated innovation and fast thinking.

Jim’s keynote will share with you the key elements of his imaginary but powerful “Masters in Business Imagination” curriculum – a structure of 10 key leadership strategies, actions, and structures that will help you envision opportunity, think differently, and act quickly.

Launch yourself into the faster future with this unique, high energy creativity-focused keynote from global futurist, trends & innovation expert Jim Carroll!

CEO & CxO Leadership Events

In the post-pandemic economy, CEO/CxO’s are managing multiple priorities: business model disruption; the rapid emergence of new competitors; products that are almost out of date by the time they are brought to market; the digitization of everything; and the acceleration of industries. The transformation of everything is around them.

All of these trends — and more — require that organizations pick up the pace when it comes to their strategies, actions, and innovation efforts. Many CEO/CxO's are finding it necessary to bring their leadership teams together for a corporate offsite event in order to discuss, strategize and align to a faster, transformative future.

In an increasing number of these events, the CEO/CxO or other senior executive has selected Jim Carroll to open or participate in such a meeting with an in-depth, customized leadership-oriented keynote that sets the tone from the start. They have selected Jim for his proven global track record of providing a keynote that is based on extensive consultation, customized research, and very detailed, specific insight. Keynotes have included looking at the big future, disruption and transformation, accelerating creativity, the fast future, and many more topics. Clients who have arranged for Jim at these sessions have included Disney, Chemours, Dupont, Rich Foods, NASA, Mercedes Benz, New York Life, Volvo, Nestle, Black & Veach, and many more.

Learn why Jim is your valuable, trusted partner in aligning your organization to a faster, transformative future!

Client & Customer-Oriented Events

Mindshare matters. In a complex and fast competitive landscape, positioning your product or service offerings to your customer or client has become more of a challenge than ever before.

That’s why organizations continue to invest in large-scale or intimate customer-client events. It’s an opportunity to tell your story, position your products, put in perspective your value proposition, and build relationships.

Countless numbers of organizations, including hi-tech firms, professional services firms, financial and legal organizations, telecom companies, and manufacturing organizations have engaged Jim to provide an opening keynote message for their event that is carefully aligned with their key message.

Companies like Microsoft, SAP, Cisco, Oracle, Toshiba, and many more have had Jim provide his insight on the future and disruption with a highly customized keynote that aligns to their overall customer event message. Professional service firms like KPMG, Ernst Young, and Baker McKenzie have arranged for Jim to speak at critical client events on topics ranging from the acceleration of business to the emergence of new legal risk issues. Zurich Insurance recently arranged for Jim to share his thoughts on the future of risk at a global risk management summit in Switzerland. Schneider Electric engaged Jim to open a user group conference, with a message focused on the future of manufacturing including the impact of the Industrial Internet of Things.

Whatever your message and however specific your topics, Futurist Jim Carroll has proven to be a reliable event partner with a keynote message that is based on customized research, extensive consultation, and detailed trends insight backed by a compelling stage presence.

To inquire about Jim Carroll's speaking schedule & booking Jim Carroll, contact us.