For more than three decades, futurist, author and keynote speaker Jim Carroll has helped leaders understand what comes next – and what to do about it.
His work is built around a simple idea: the future is not generic, so a keynote about the future should not be generic either. Jim combines long-term foresight with intensive, current research into the client, the audience, the industry and the strategic issues in the room.
The result is actionable foresight: insight that is researched, relevant and designed to move people toward better decisions. That depth of customization has become one of the defining characteristics of his work.
Jim has delivered more than 2,000 keynotes to over 2 million people worldwide, working across manufacturing, healthcare and life sciences, insurance and financial services, agriculture and food, energy and utilities, construction and infrastructure, retail and consumer products, technology, education and many other sectors.
A major keynote can involve extensive stakeholder conversations, industry reports, research papers, market data, agenda analysis, current developments and sector-specific examples. The objective is not to sound as though an outside speaker visited the industry; it is to help the audience feel that someone understood their world well enough to show them where it is going.
Jim has brought that approach to organizations including NASA, The Walt Disney Company, Pfizer, Mercedes-Benz, The World Bank, Microsoft, the PGA of America, Johnson & Johnson, SAP and hundreds of others.
His assignments have ranged from exploring the future of space and scientific discovery for NASA, to innovation and creativity for Disney, the future of healthcare and medical science for Pfizer, economic development and manufacturing for The World Bank, and accelerating industry transformation for leadership teams around the world.
Artificial intelligence is now a major part of that work, but Jim’s approach is deliberately broader than a generic AI presentation. He connects AI to the actual operating reality of the client’s sector: products, workflows, risk, skills, customer behaviour, business models, scientific acceleration, automation and competitive advantage.
The same technology can produce radically different outcomes in insurance, agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing or energy, and his keynotes are built to reflect those differences.
Jim works equally well on major conference stages and in smaller CEO, CxO, board and senior leadership sessions.
His style is fast, visual, energetic and practical, with an emphasis on translating complexity into a clear strategic story.
He is frequently brought in when an organization needs to challenge old assumptions, understand the velocity of change, identify emerging opportunity, build leadership agility or make sense of the collision between AI, technology, science, workforce change and business disruption.
His authority on innovation and future trends has been recognized globally. BusinessWeek named him one of four leading sources for insight on creativity and innovation, and he was a featured expert on CNBC’s prime-time series The Business of Innovation.
His work has been covered by the BBC, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and other international media.
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He is the author of numerous books, including Being Unique, Dancing in the Rain, Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast and The Future Belongs to Those Who Are Fast.
Whether the audience is a room of senior executives, an industry association or thousands of people at a global conference, Jim’s goal is consistent: make the future specific, make it understandable, and make it actionable.
