Thomas Koulopoulos

Here's how AI will empower citizens and enhance liberty
Fox News
March 14, 2024

In our latest Op-Ed on Fox News, we explore the positive impact of AI on our ability as citizens to take a more informed and active role in government. While concerns around deep fakes and the risks of AI are valid, it's crucial to acknowledge the critical link between AI and an informed citizenry. With AI, citizens can access a wealth of information and insights that can help shape our government and society for the better. Check out our latest Op-Ed to learn more.

Don't think of our AI future as humans vs. machines. Instead, consider these possibilities
Fox News
February 27, 2024

Imagine standing in a field over a century ago, a farmer in the 1800s, at a time when the world’s population had just crested one billion people. What if someone had told you that, by the year 2000, 95% of farm and agricultural labor would be replaced by machines and those machines would feed an additional seven billion people? What would you have thought about that prediction?

You're Thinking About New Year's Resolutions All Wrong. Try This Instead
LinkedIn
January 01, 2024

Few things are as embedded into our collective psyche as New Year's resolutions. Four thousand years ago, the Babylonians, who celebrated their New Year in March, would make promises to their gods--often to get out of debt--for the New Year (yes, some things haven't changed).

Health Care Is a Terrible Business. The Good News? Great New Startup Ideas Abound
Inc
August 10, 2021

Covid-19 has refocused much of the world's attention on the critical importance of health care. We've seen great strides forward in the development of vaccines, while also witnessing in horror how fragile the health care system can be when stressed. Yet, all of this is just a glimpse into what may be the inevitable future of health care for a dramatically aging world population if we do not fundamentally change the way we manage and deliver health care.

The Best Way to Compete with Big Companies: Do Nothing
Inc
May 01, 2021

In 2009, Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey launched Square, a mobile payment platform best known for its small white square credit card readers that easily plug into a mobile device, such as an iPhone. The company is listed today on the NYSE with a market cap of $26 billion and 30 million businesses that use its services.

Why Now Is Still a Good Time to Start a Business
Inc
April 30, 2021

To most people this may not seem like a great time to start a new company, but that's exactly why it is.

What to Say to Customers Who Ask for Something for Free
Inc
April 30, 2021

Everyone is looking for some sort of a deal. It's an unfortunate fact of running a small business that you will inevitably be put in the position by a customer or prospect to give away your service or product for free. As a CEO, founder, or sole proprietor you are in the unenviable position of being the one who calls the shots, so you are also the one who is most likely to have to deal with it.

How to Make Smart Decisions When the Data Just Isn't There
Inc.
June 10, 2020

Some years ago, I learned a great lesson in decision making from Lieutenant General Stephen B. Croker, a retired U.S. Air Force commander who taught military doctrine to two- and three-star generals. We were discussing how soldiers make decisions amid uncertainty on a battlefield, something that was part of the new landscape of military warfare.

Why Deadlines Make or Break an Entrepreneur
Inc.
December 16, 2019

Friends and colleagues often ask me how it is that I found the time to write 13 books while building an Inc. 500 business, advising, speaking, teaching, and raising two kids. Although I'd love to provide some sort of deep and profound answer about how I'm inspired to write, how it's my passion, how I love to learn, or how my overactive brain needs to periodically purge itself, the truth isn't nearly as profound.

One Of The Most Important Lessons On Innovation For Every CEO
Inc.
September 04, 2019

When you think of today's most valuable companies the ones that come to mind are Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. However, just 20 years ago the company that you'd have instantly thought of was GE.

A Mass Cyberattack on more that 100,000 iPhones Just Reported. Here's How To Protect Yourself.
inc
August 30, 2019

An incredibly malicious hack has potentially exposed hundreds of thousands of iPhone victims.

Google researchers recently discovered that an unknown hacker has been using 14 separate security flaws, including especially devastating zero-day vulnerabilities, in iOS to attack iPhone users. But this isn't your typical cyberattack. The cyberthreat involves malicious software that can monitor every aspect of the phone and even take control of it. This is an eye-opener since iPhones have long been thought to be relatively safe when it comes to hackers. No longer. Here's what it means and why it changes much of what we've known about cyberthreats.

According to Science, This Simple Non-Intuitive Step Is the Key to Solving Many of Your Toughest Problems
inc
August 26, 2019

If you're anything like me, or virtually any other entrepreneur, then you like to be in control. That doesn't necessarily mean that you're a control freak--although it might--but rather that you'd prefer to be calling the shots rather than following someone else's lead. I could spend the rest of this column listing the many positives and negatives of a control mindset but let's be blunt, nothing I say is going to change your need to be in control. It's just how you're wired.

Successful People Answer A Question Which Most People Are Afraid To Even Ask
Inc.
August 23, 2019

You're an introspective person. How do I know? Well, you're reading a column whose title implies that you're willing to do something that many people won't or can't do, ask tough questions about themselves. Take pride in that. Honest introspection is hard. It requires that you come up with some not so nice answers. But it's also the only way any of us grow and evolve.

This Is the One Key To Success That Nobody Teaches You
Inc.
August 19, 2019

There are uncountable books on how to succeed in business, and all of them have something to teach. From being an efficient operator to being a great innovator, it's all part of the essential chemistry that makes up every entrepreneur's journey.

181 CEOs of the Largest U.S. Corporations Just Altered the Role of Corporations for Decades to Come
Inc.
August 19, 2019

In his 1962 book Capitalism, the Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman wrote, "There is one and only one social responsibility of business -- to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud."

If You Could Change The Past Would You? Here's Why That's A Definite No.
Inc.
August 15, 2019

Ok, time for some brutal honesty. Answer truthfully, how many times in the past week did you catch yourself saying something along the lines of, "If only I had done X back then, I'd be so much better off now."?

One Quote That Only A True Entrepreneur Will Agree With
Inc.
August 13, 2019

When I was in the throws of building my company Delphi Group I had the great privilege of working with one of the last century's most admired management icons, Peter Drucker. Drucker was a font of wisdom. Nearly everything the man said seemed to come from a place of profound understanding. Still there were a few things he said to me that stood out as guiding lights for my own career. One of those comes to mind every time I see the word entrepreneur--which seems to be everywhere lately--used in a way that would cause Peter to roll over in his grave.

So, You Want to Get Paid to Speak. Here's How
Inc.
June 24, 2019

There's all sorts of advice on how to be a better speaker, but advice on how to be a professional speaker is pretty dismal. Here are 8 steps for building a sustainable business as a professional speaker.

One Thing That You Can Do Right Now To Make Your Next Speech Extraordinary (No Practice Involved)
Inc.
May 31, 2019

You've heard and read all of the ways to better your public speaking, yet this one piece of advice needs no practice or prep or talent to follow and it's the easiest way to improve your speaking and calm your anxiety.

This Is The Greatest Threat Of AI, And It's Not What You Think
Inc.
May 29, 2019

Stop worrying about AI becoming your overlord. The real threat is much more obvious and interesting.

The Single Most Important Thing You Can Do To Ensure Your Success
linkedin
May 18, 2019

About 30 years ago my business partner and I were in the world headquarters of our startup -- the second bedroom of my small condo. I had just created a rift between us by investing in a $1000 laptop and a laser printer. An enormous sum of money to a fledgling, bootstrapping, credit card funded startup.

Let Go Of The Myth That Everything Happens For A Reason: Try This Instead
Inc.
April 21, 2019

Yes, I know, you want to recoil at the the headline of this column. Stick with me. The last thing I'm advocating is that life is without purpose. But, it can certainly be random and, like a child whose favorite toy has just been lost, there are times when we just want to scream, It isn't fair!"

How NASA Used an Unforgettable Image to Brilliantly Communicate a Big Message
Inc
October 24, 2018

In Arthur C. Clarke's classic Space Odyssey Sci-fi series a recurring theme is the presence of a large back monolith built by an ancient civilization. The monolith has transformational powers that alter the trajectory of humanity, starting with our ancient cave-dwelling ancestors and then following our evolution through the modern day and into the future. While the questions of who built the monolith or why it was built are never clear, it has the power to bring about radical change which alters the trajectory of humanity.

How to Turn the Death of a Dream Into the Opportunity of a Lifetime
Inc
October 10, 2018

I am about to challenge you in a way that you will resist with every fiber of your being.
In her book, "The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life that Matters," Emily Esfahani Smith talks about a young man she interviewed, Emeka Nnaka, who had been paralyzed from a semi-pro football injury. According to Smith, "Immediately after his injury, Emeka told himself a story that essentially went like this: My life was great playing football. But now, look at me. My life is basically over.

Paul Romer's Nobel Prize In Economics Marks A New Era Of Innovation Driven By Ideas
Inc
October 09, 2018

Paul Romer let his phone ring on the morning of October 8th . It was early and he wasn't expecting a call. But when he checked to see who was calling he noticed it was from Sweden. When he called back he was put on hold.
It was a minor inconvenience, since, in many ways Paul Romer has been on hold waiting for the Nobel prize for nearly three decades. On Monday October 8 Romer and William Nordhaus, an economist at Yale, were awarded the Nobel for work both had done in helping us better understand the post-industrial era economy.

Gigatrends: Six Forces That Are Changing the Future for Billions
Post Hill Press
February 20, 2024

Gigatrends offers a roadmap for navigating six of the most disruptive trends shaping the future.

Humanity stands at the precipice of a remarkable new era in global history filled with both immense opportunities and daunting challenges.

Gigatrends examines how six disruptive trends can be harnessed to create new social, economic, and organizational solutions that will usher in the promise of a human-centered future for billions of people.

But moving forward won’t be easy. Gigatrends will disrupt nearly every existing socioeconomic system built over the past three hundred years. Navigating these seismic shifts will require a new set of skills, frameworks, and tools to help us move forward.

Reimagining Healthcare: How the Smartsourcing Revolution Will Drive the Future of Healthcare and Refocus It on What Matters Most, the Patient
Amazon
May 26, 2020

Since FDR, the US healthcare system has been mired in politics and policy. All the while it has only increased in complexity and cost. Today half of all personal bankruptcies are attributable to healthcare costs. Many community hospitals are barely getting by with single digit profit margins. With a system teetering on the edge of a systemic crisis, we need to turn to a brand-new approach to rescue the US healthcare system.

The Bottomless Cloud: How AI, the Next Generation of the Cloud, and Abundance Thinking Will Radically Transform the Way You Do Business
Hybrid Global Publishing
January 15, 2019

Electric power and the evolution of utilities fueled the growth of industrialization and the incredible innovation of the 20th century by allowing companies to focus on what they where best at rather than the generation and management of power.

That's exactly what's happening today as an almost unimaginable abundance of data is moving into the cloud where it will fuel the revolution in artificial intelligence and machine learning. However, most people are still using an industrial age lens, built on the economics of scarcity, to view the opportunities that the cloud creates for a future of limitless data; it's the equivalent of trying to compete using waterwheels to power a modern factory.

Revealing the Invisible: How Our Hidden Behaviors Are Becoming the Most Valuable Commodity of the 21st Century
Post Hill Press
June 05, 2018

Revealing the Invisible provides a front-row seat to the mind-blowing future, where businesses of the 21st century can read consumers’ minds and make informed decisions based on their behaviors and tendencies.

The Gen Z Effect
Routledge
December 01, 2016

Cloud Surfing: A New Way to Think About Risk, Innovation, Scale & Success
Social Century
June 18, 2012

When people hear "the Cloud," they think of cloud computing, just a sliver of what the Cloud is today. The Cloud has grown: it represents the consummate disruptor to structure; a pervasive social and economic network that will soon connect and define more of the world than any other political, social, or economic organization. The Cloud is the first megatrend of the twenty-first century, one that will shape the way we will address virtually every challenge we face for at least the next 100 years. It is where we will all live, work, and play in the coming decades.

Cloud Surfing
Bibliomotion
June 01, 2012

Describes how the cloud will change business and society

The Innovation Zone: How Great Companies Re-Innovate for Amazing Success
Davies-Black Publishing
June 16, 2011

Innovation has become a mantra for organizations facing unprecedented market pressures and worldwide competition. But can it be taught or developed as a core competency? Are there rules for turning great ideas into breakthrough innovations that alter behavior and culture, change the company's customer relationship, and carve out a path to global business success? Profiling dozens of today's most innovative organizations, The Innovation Zone delivers a new playbook for creating a structured business model of innovation that focuses on process, not products, to generate sustainable value and competitive dominance.

The Innovation Zone
Nicholas Brealey
January 11, 2011

Describes the process of creating and sustaining an innovation practice

Smartsourcing: Driving Innovation and Growth Through Outsourcing
Platinum Press
February 24, 2006

Outsourcing is the most popular movement of the new global business economy. In fact, the typical executive will soon spend one-third of their budget on outsourcing! Smartsourcing is the next evolution in outsourcing. Traditional outsourcing reduces costs by moving the work to where the least expensive workers are. While that may cut costs, it simply replicates the status quo. Smartsourcing goes a step further by showing companies how to partner with service providers to not only cut costs, but also increase innovation across the full spectrum of their business. Smartsourcing is the first book on the market to be ahead of the curve on one of the most important shifts in business today.

Executive in Residence and Professor of Innovation at Bentley University
Bentley University
September 14, 2010

Bentley University announces alumni Woody Benson and Tom Koulopoulos as executives-in-residence beginning in fall 2010. In this new role each executive will teach graduate courses, mentor students, work with faculty and staff on curriculum initiatives, and serve in advisory roles. A 1980 alumnus, Woody Benson is an investor with Prism VentureWorks and a high-tech industry veteran of 30 years. A prolific thought leader in innovation, globalization and information technology, Tom Koulopoulos founded Boston-based technology management and advisory firm Delphi Group, and is a 1981 alumnus...

Former Executive Director Babson College Center for Business Innovation
Babson College Center for Business Innovation
June 01, 2007

Jun 2007 - Jun 2008

CEO
PlexiCam
August 15, 2020

Founder

Delphi Group
Delphi Group
January 01, 2020

Providing thought leadership on business and technology trends for 30 years.

An Rx for change in life sciences and healthcare
genpact
December 03, 2020

How to design patient-centricity today to thrive in the future

Healthcare in 2025: Are you ready?
Virtual event: December 3rd, 11:00am-12:30pm ET/4:00-5:30pm GMT

Even before COVID-19 shook the world, the life sciences and healthcare industry was evolving rapidly. Data-empowered patients, pricing and regulatory pressures, new modes of virtual diagnosis and intervention, and demands for more transparency were already ushering in change.
With so much in flux, what does the future hold and how can your company prepare?

Join Kathleen A. Kadziolka, Vice President, Technology Enterprise Products, CVS Health and Tom Koulopoulos, healthcare futurist, innovator, and technology expert and Genpact as we explore the industry in 2025. Learn about the three macrotrends we highlight in our research and see how forward-thinking organizations are already adapting to deliver:

-Truly patient-centric services and experiences, enabled by virtual care and digital technology
-Trusted, reliable, and affordable treatments focused on patient outcomes
-Greater collaboration across the industry with integrated data and care

Register your place to see what steps your organization can take today to adapt, rise, and thrive in this future environment.

Tom Koulopoulos - Artificial Intelligence And The Power of Behavior
vimeo
December 02, 2018

TK Highlights
Vimeo
July 24, 2017

Public speaking highlights

Tom Koulopoulos on the Challenge of Predicting Behavior
Vimeo
January 09, 2017

Excerpts from Tom's Keynote about hyperconnected behavior

Short TK Keynote on Innovation and Surving the Future
YouTube
November 30, 2011

Excerpts from a full keynote by Tom Koulopoulos on the subjects of Innovation, building organizations that will survive the future, Hyperconnectivey and The Cloud

TK full keynote
YouTube
November 22, 2011

A full length video of a recent keynote TK gave on Innovation and The Cloud

Innovation Keynote - How to Survive the Future
YouTube
February 23, 2011

Tom Koulopoulos (TK) keynote excerpts from a presentation to 2000 attendees. TK talks about how we can build organizations to survive the future

TK Tom Koulopoulos Keynote on Building the Future
YouTube
February 12, 2011

TK Talks about the importance of building companies that can survive the future in his introductory remarks as part of his keynote speech to 2000 attendees at BICSI 2011 in Orlando

Tom K Keynote Intro 1 of 6
YouTube
January 08, 2011

TK's intro and opening remarks at his Keynote speech to 1000 attendees at the Technology Alliance of Georgia

The Uncertainty Principle 3 of 6
YouTube
January 08, 2011

Invention vs. Innovation 2 of 6
YouTube
January 08, 2011

TK Talks about the difference between Invention and Innovation at his Keynote speech to 1000 attendees at the Technology Alliance of Georgia

Build for the Unknown 4 of 6
YouTube
January 08, 2011

TK Talks about how companies and people need to build for the unknown at his Keynote speech to 1000 attendees at the Technology Alliance of Georgia

Tom Koulopoulos -TK- presents to ILTA on Innovation
YouTube
January 02, 2011

Tom Koulopoulos -TK- Innovation Keynote to 1000 attendees at the national ILTA (International Legal Technology Association in Las Vegas)

TK Media and Keynote Clips on the Economy and Tech Trends
YouTube
January 02, 2011

Tom Koulopoulos " TK" media clips and keynote excerpts on the topics of connectivity, tech trends, innovation, and employment

TK on Innovating in a Recession
YouTube
January 01, 2011

Innovating in a Recession may seem counter intuitive but it's actually a great time to innovate

TK Talks about Unemployment on WSJ Market Watch
YouTube
January 01, 2011

Unemployment is tough medicine for ailing economies - but there is a bright side. Listen as TK looks at innovation and Unemployment

TK Talks about Small Business and Innovation on Forbes
YouTube
January 01, 2011

Small Business is the engine of the economy. Listen to TK talk about what it takes to build a culture of Innovation and to be a successful Entrepreneur

TK talks about Innovation and tollerating failure on Forbes
YouTube
January 01, 2011

Every company has to innovate, but clearly some do it better than others. Listen as TK talks about how innovation can result from some basic principles, such as simplification and tolerance of failure

TK talks about the fate of the Titanic and lessons about innovation
YouTube
December 30, 2010

Tom Koulopoulos keynote excerpt from the IHAF event where he talks about how the Titanic is a great metaphor for how we deal with the future and innovation

TK talks about the future and why it's so hard to predict
YouTube
December 30, 2010

Tom Koulopoulos keynote excerpt from the IHAF event where he talks about the challenge in predicting the future.

TK talks about predicting the future
YouTube
December 29, 2010

Predicting the future is tough! Listen as Tom talks about some example of just how much the future changes us in ways we could never imagine.
Tom Koulopoulos presents to 2000 Attendees of ILTA

Tom Koulopoulos Innovation Keynote Intro 1 of 6
YouTube
December 29, 2010

Keynote Intro - part 1 of 6
Tom Koulopoulos Innovation Keynote
To 1000 members of the Technology Association of Georgia 1000 members of the Technology Association of Georgia

TK talks about the phenomenon of "re-employment"
YouTube
December 29, 2010

We are entering a new world with new rules about employment and work. Listen as Tom describes the life re-employed!
Tom Koulopoulos presents to 2000 Attendees of ILTA

Short TK Keynote on Innovation and Surving the Future
youtube
November 30, 2010

Excerpts from a full keynote by Tom Koulopoulos on the subjects of Innovation, building organizations that will survive the future, Hyperconnectivey and The Cloud

TK takes a funny look at the iPad and iPhone
YouTube
November 29, 2010

A fun look at how the iPhone and the iPad are changing as much as we are!
Tom Koulopoulos presents to 2000 Attendees of ILTA

AGI Exposes Our Human Goal Contradictions #shorts
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June 05, 2026

AGI's Subtle Risk: It's Not Rebellion, It's Human #shorts
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June 03, 2026

AGI: The Hidden Danger Reflecting Our Dark Side #shorts
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June 01, 2026

AGI: Humanity's Maturity Test, Not a Threat #shorts
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May 30, 2026

AI Alignment: A Philosophical Challenge, Not Technical #shorts
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May 28, 2026

AGI Won't Save Us: The Real Human Problem #shorts
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May 26, 2026

AGI's Alignment: Our Unfinished Selves #shorts
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May 24, 2026

AGI Won't Save Us: The Real Alignment Problem #shorts
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May 22, 2026

AGI's Brutal Truth: Humanity's Biggest Challenge #shorts
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May 20, 2026

AGI's Danger: Humanity's Bloody History Reflected #shorts
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May 18, 2026

AGI Alignment: Can We Achieve Unaligned Species Goals? #shorts
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May 16, 2026

AI Alignment: Earning Trust, Not Controlling Machines #shorts
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May 14, 2026

Communicating Intent: Humans vs. AI #shorts
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May 12, 2026

AGI's True Danger: Ambiguous Alignment Explained #shorts
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May 10, 2026

Dangerous Phrases: Why Humans Misunderstand Everything #shorts
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May 08, 2026

AGI Explained: Busting the Biggest Myth About AI #shorts
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April 19, 2026

Agentic AI vs. AGI: The Curiosity Difference Explained #shorts
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April 17, 2026

AGI: Beyond Capabilities, Defining Intelligence by Questions #shorts
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April 12, 2026

AI Thinking: Not Human, Not Machine, Something New #shorts
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April 10, 2026

AGI's Real Secret: It's All About Curiosity #shorts
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April 08, 2026

AGI Arrives: The Sudden Shift in AI and Human Collaboration #shorts
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April 05, 2026

AGI's Paradigm Shift: Beyond Human Goals #shorts
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April 03, 2026

AGI: A New Cognitive Species Beyond Human #shorts
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April 01, 2026

AGI: Beyond Human Problems, Imagining New Frontiers #shorts
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March 29, 2026

AGI vs Human: Curiosity is the REAL Difference #shorts
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March 27, 2026

Featured Innovation Speaker
National Speakers Bureau
January 01, 2020

Featured Innovation Speaker
Tom Koulopoulos
Author of The Invisible & The Gen Z Effect, Leading Expert on Innovation, and Globalization & IT Specialist

Future Tech: Embedded Devices in Everything?
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August 21, 2025

Consciousness & AI: Creating Value in a New World
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August 18, 2025

My Childhood: Schwinn Stingrays and Swamp Land Adventures
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August 14, 2025

Building Certainty: Strategies for a Predictable Future
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August 11, 2025

Technology: Balancing Threats and Benefits Explained
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August 06, 2025

9/11: A Pilot's Unforgettable Perspective & Shock
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August 03, 2025

AI's Critical Role: Surviving with Real-Time Threat Response
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July 31, 2025

Eliminate Friction: The Key to a Better Life
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July 30, 2025

Future Tech: Incredible Progress In The Next 5 Years
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July 29, 2025

Lake Michigan's Water Equals Brain Neurons? Mind Blown!
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July 28, 2025

9/11: Remembering & Reflections with Peter Drucker
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July 26, 2025

Behavioral Shifts: How Tech Changed Everything
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July 25, 2025

AI's Impact: Will AI Take Over Our Jobs?
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July 23, 2025

AI Sentience: Does It Matter? The Future of AI
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July 21, 2025

AI's Perfect Memory: Productivity Dream or Privacy Nightmare?
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July 19, 2025

Digital Healthcare: AI Advocates Revolutionize Patient Care
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July 19, 2025

Seductive Chatbots: Digital Desire & Emotional Danger
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July 17, 2025

Recursive AI: Witness AI Rewriting Code in Real-Time!
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July 15, 2025

Business Transformation: Accelerate or Get Left Behind!
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July 13, 2025

AI's Impact: Amplified Humans in a Tech-Driven Future
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July 11, 2025

ASI podcast
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July 09, 2025

Future-Proofing Your Behavior: Adapting to the Marketplace
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July 08, 2025

Global Computer Count: Shocking Number of User Computing Devices!
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July 06, 2025

Paul Romer: Multiplying Possibilities for the Future Explained
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July 04, 2025

The AI Ambition Gap
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July 02, 2025

Visting Lecturer at Boston University School of Management
Boston University School of Management
January 01, 2018

BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Questrom School of Business
Rafik B. Hariri Building
595 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215

When There Are No Followers: The Leadership Question Almost No One Is Asking
Thinkers360
June 14, 2026

Excerpted from Leadership for the Agentic Age (download the full report at delphigroup.com)

In the late 1990s, I had the privilege of working with Peter Drucker. At one point, I asked him directly: what makes a great leader? He paused and said something I have never forgotten. He told me that the great leaders he had known across his career were all remarkably different from one another, with different temperaments, different styles, different industries, and of different eras.

But they shared one thing.

They all had followers who chose to follow them.

I have thought about that comment many times since. And I have thought about it especially in the past few years, as agentic AI has begun to reshape the nature of organizations.

Because here is the problem.

What Happens When the Workforce Cannot Choose?

Drucker's insight was profoundly human. It worked precisely because followers are humans who have dignity, volition, and the capacity to withhold or bestow their commitment.

By the end of this decade, many organizations will have more AI agents than human employees. Some already do.

But what happens when the workforce you are leading cannot choose? When it has no volition to withhold, no Monday morning reluctance to overcome, when your "followers" are autonomous systems that pursue objectives with perfect fidelity and zero ambivalence, who are tireless, loyal by design, and incapable of the very human quality that made Drucker's observation so resonant?

This is not a distant future. A growing number of organizations are already building with agentic AI as their primary workforce. By the end of this decade, many organizations will have more AI agents than human employees. Some already do.

And almost no one is talking about what this means for leadership.

The Four Assumptions That Just Collapsed

For more than a century, leadership has been built on four cornerstone assumptions:

 

• Command-and-control is essential for communicating intent and strategy
• Information is scarce
• Humans are the primary source of intelligence
• Processes can be optimized to guarantee outcomes

 

Agentic AI dismantles all four simultaneously.

This is not automation 2.0. Agentic systems do not wait for instructions, instead they interpret intent, set goals, perceive their environment, plan multi-step executions, and learn from outcomes. They are the first generation of enterprise technology that can act without being spoon-fed every step.

Make no mistake, this isn't just about using the agentic feature of Copilot. These are workforces that collaborate with each other and with humans. In one case a Delphi consultant built a simulation for a client using multiple agents who have conversations among themselves, provide governance for other agents, guide humans to help them make decisions, and call out contradictions or inconsistencies that do not align with objectives.

The implications for how we lead this sort of an organization are seismic.

From Process Designer to Objective Architect

For decades, management theory has been built on Frederick Taylor's premise: specify the process precisely enough, and you guarantee the outcome. This worked in stable environments. It fails catastrophically in complex, adaptive ones.

Consider what we call the Agentic Fidelity Paradox: the more precisely autonomous systems adhere to predefined procedures, the less capable they become of addressing novel problems. High procedural fidelity produces brittleness. And in a world of accelerating change, brittleness is fatal.

When Goodwill Industries first deployed agentic systems for job placement with rigid, step-by-step procedures, the agents became brittle, they were failing whenever they encountered candidates with unconventional backgrounds. The breakthrough came when Goodwill shifted to defining clear objectives: "Maximize sustainable employment outcomes for underserved populations." They established guardrails and ethical boundaries, but gave agents autonomy within them.

The result was transformative. Agents discovered pathways to employment that no human case manager had thought to explore.

In the Agentic Age, leaders will be defined not by the followers they have, but by the intelligence that follows their intent.

The leader's job is no longer to specify every step. It is to define the destination clearly enough that autonomous systems can find their own path. And, as with humans, that path will not always be the one prescribed.

The Eleven Skills Almost No One Has Yet

The Agentic Age demands a specific and learnable set of skills that did not exist as a coherent discipline before autonomous systems became reality. In Leadership for the Agentic Age we define eleven of these skill. Among them are:

 

• Systemic Empathy — recognizing when employees are not resisting AI because they distrust it, but because the system now does what they were proud of doing
• Machine Clarity — communicating with the precision required by systems that pursue objectives without questioning them
• Judgment Sovereignty — knowing when to uphold human conviction against the weight of algorithmic confidence
• Critical Skepticism — asking what training data, reflecting what historical inequities, produced an output labeled "optimal"
• Ethical Intuition — sensing moral risk six months before the data confirms it

 

These new skills point to two clear conclusions. First, the most dangerous leader in the Agentic Age is not the one who distrusts AI, but the one who trusts it blindly, without asking how it was built. And, second, as of now, nobody is teaching these skills. The result is that leaders are simply unprepared for the enormity of change required to up-skill themselves for this new age. It's the equivalent of being asked to fly a fighter jet just because you have a drivers license.

In this new age, control scales poorly, but intent scales infinitely.

The Question Facing Every Executive

The era of distributed intelligence has begun. The question facing every executive today is not whether autonomous systems will shape their organizations. That's already the reality.

The question is whether leaders will redesign themselves as architects of intent, or remain managers of processes in a world that no longer rewards it.

In this new age, control scales poorly, but intent scales infinitely.

In the Agentic Age, leaders will be defined not by the followers they have, but by the intelligence that follows their intent.

Leadership must now evolve to meet what now follows them.

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Read the Full Position Paper

This article is drawn from Leadership for the Agentic Age: From Command to Orchestration, a Global Delphi Position Paper I co-authored with V. Vlastos (UAE) and S. Malhotra (India).

The full paper goes considerably deeper, including:

 

• The Objective Hierarchy Framework — a three-layer model for designing goals autonomous systems can pursue without over-constraint
• The Organizational Readiness Hierarchy — a five-level maturity model to assess where your organization stands
• The Five Leadership Mandates for the Agentic Age
• A practical guide to calibrating autonomy across the spectrum from tool mode to self-orchestrating agent networks
• Real case studies from BP, Siemens, AWS, Aidoc, HOAG Hospital, and Goodwill Industries
• The full eleven-skill leadership framework, illustrated through a hospital scenario

 

Download the complete position paper at delphigroup.com.

If you are a senior leader trying to navigate the most consequential leadership shift of our time, this is the playbook.

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Tom Koulopoulos is Chairman of Delphi Group, a Boston-based think tank advising Global 2000 companies and government agencies and the author of fifteen books, including his most recent Gigatrends and his upcoming book The Mirror.

COVID-19's Counter-Intuitive Implications for Small Business and Employment
Thinkers360
June 12, 2020

COVID-19 has caused enormous pain and suffering for so many that I cannot offer any suggestions for the future without first acknowledging that debt that we have to all essential workers, from the healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic to those who work in grocery stores, transportation, utilities, public works, education, agriculture, and critical manufacturing. COVID's impact will be far reaching in many ways that we have yet to fully understand. However, there are two long term repercussions of COVID-19 that are almost always thought of as having only a negative impact; it’s impact on small business and employment. In both of these cases I see something counter-intuitive happening. While there is no doubt that millions of small businesses will be wiped out by the economic impact of the pandemic, I am seeing a flurry of activity in ideas for new business models from the ranks of those professionals who either lost their jobs in a corporate setting or who've had to shut down their own small business. Four things are coming together as a sort of perfect storm to cause that: First, these individuals have little in the way of long-term prospects for re-employment and are uber-motivated to do something fast. Second, the ability to start a new company has never been as incredibly easy from the standpoint of cheap or free technology infrastructure. You can create all of the underpinnings and user experience of a newco in weeks for next to nothing. Third, it's precisely because of the incredible rise in unemployment that relatively inexpensive or free labor is now readily available on spec with the promise of future earnings. This and the second point above make it possible to throw together a start up with record resources in record time. Fourth, the Federal government, through the SBA's PPP and EIDL programs, has committed close to $2 Trillion for small business. What's critical about this is that the requirements for these programs are written in such a way that they effectively provide a bridge for crossing the chasm to build entirely new business models, since the funding is not predicated on the viability of the current business. It's effectively venture money from the government. The result of these four forces will create an unprecedented opportunity for small business innovation and experimentation the likes of which we have never seen. That may come across as idealistic thinking while we are still in the midst of a crisis. However, that may also be exactly what we will need to find our way out of it.

So, You Want to Get Paid to Speak In-Person or Online? Here's How.
Thinkers360
April 04, 2020

I've been on the professional speaking circuit for the past 30 years. During that time I've developed an immense sense of gratitude to be fortunate enough to do what I love to do. Whatever else is going on professionally or personally, having the opportunity to regularly take to the stage whether in-person or online has provided an unwavering center of gravity in my life. Along the way I've also learned a thing or two about what makes the professional speaking industry tick and how to build a sustainable presence on the professional speaking circuit. Trying to distill all of that learning into a few hundred words isn't possible, but what I can do is help you to understand the cornerstones of a sustainable speaking business. Note that my emphasis is on sustainability. Landing a single professional speaking gig now and then is easy. Doing it year in year out for a few decades is something else altogether. Fair warning at the outset, the eight points I'm about to share will be blunt and unapologetic, and I'm not going to focus on how to become a more effective speaker. I've helped many colleagues and friends navigate the speaking business. The one thing I've come to realize is that you cannot teach someone how to be authentic and engaging. I know that there are dozens of programs out there that claim to help you launch a speaking career. I've looked at them all. The vast majority focus on how to be a more effective speaker, not on the business of speaking. I have a deep rooted dislike for programatic or formulaic get-rich-speaking approaches that promise to make you a successful speaker over the course of just a few days, weeks, or even months. That's because the foundational cornerstones of a speaking career involve things that take years and decades. Once you have these cornerstones in place you can spend a lifetime fine-tuning your stage presence and style, but that's actually the easy part. By the way, if you google any of the purported big money speakers who run workshops or seminars on how to get paid to speak you'll come up empty handed. Nada. They're peddling the worst sort of snake oil there is, made up of hype and hope. This isn't about either, it's about hard work. I can tell you first hand from the professional speakers I've coached--from a prominent neuroscientist, to a professional athlete and heart transplant survivor, to the drummer for one of the world's most successful rock bands--they've all put incredible time and energy into building their speaking careers. There just aren't any shortcuts in this business. So, with that said, here are the eight cornerstones. By the way, you eventually will need to have all eight of these in place. No shortcuts, remember? 1) Before you speak, write a book. I really don't care how compelling, engaging, or entertaining you think you are, unless you've just landed a plane on the Hudson you need a book as a calling card. Without a published book you're simply not going to be taken seriously enough to warrant anything other than Kiwanis club gigs and fees. Your book is your calling card. It's what gives you license to be listened to. If that scared you off you're really not going to like part B of this first piece of advice; keep writing books! You need to crank out a new book every 2-3 years in order to stay relevant, keep your material fresh, and demonstrate a commitment to your topic. You can't feign knowledge and passion for a subject. If you're getting paid to speak then you'd better invest in being at the bleeding edge of whatever it is you're speaking about. Nothing does that like having to research and write a new book. Also, do yourself a really big favor and stop thinking that you'll just have it ghost written. You might as well have your ghost writer be your ghost speaker. 2) Create a great video reel. People I advise on professional speaking almost always push back on this. Yet, it is the single most important piece of marketing collateral you have. Unless you're in the nightly news where people can see and hear you, they will have only one way to vet and compare you to other speakers--your video reel. Most aspiring speakers don't like this because it's a catch 22. How do you create a great speaking reel if you're not doing a lot of big stage speaking? I get it, but that's exactly why you need it. Not having a great speaking video reel means you're not doing much great speaking. All I can say is get creative and get it done. Don't overproduce it with effects and images. People who are going to book you want to see you. Keep in mind that the venue your video is shot at will define the sort of venue people expect you to speak at. In other words, shoot yourself on a large stage, not a non-nondescript hotel room with low ceilings and a projector you're constantly walking in front of; you know, the kind that's best suited for shadow puppets. 3) Build solid relationships with the speakers bureaus. There are hundreds of speakers bureaus, but only a dozen or so represent the overwhelming majority of gigs booked. By the way, speakers bureaus book well over 90% of all gigs with a net speakers fee of over $15,000. So, unless you're aspiring to less, getting to know the bureaus and having them pitch you is critical to building a serious speaking platform. Speakers bureaus build deep relationships with event organizers. But they also go back to speakers who they know will deliver results by knocking it out of the park every time. Event organizers trust their recommendations. Even if you do go direct and try to book your own gigs, you do not want to be negotiating your own fees. Nothing is more awkward or ineffective. Working with a bureau avoids that. Yes, they take a cut Yes, its worth it. 4) Once you book a gig it's gospel--there's no backing out. In twenty years and thousands of gigs I've only once had to cancel due to a fall that immobilized me for a solid week. I've travelled to gigs while I've had pneumonia, I've postponed funerals, missed countless social obligations, even sacrificed a few relationships because of the insane schedule I keep. When an event is built around you and you have a few hundred or a few thousand people expecting you to show up, as well as an event organizer whose job depends on putting on a show with you as the main attraction, there is no way out. None. Sounds harsh, right? It is, but don't forget that you have been given the privilege of doing something so few people will have the opportunity to do. Be grateful Respect the obligation If you don't like it, don't speak. 5) Build a brand that's uniquely yours. What are you? Why are you better able than anyone else to pull this off? What's your narrative? Pedigree? Battle wound? The biggest single challenge facing the overwhelming mass of want-to-be speakers is that they do not have a unique identity and brand. I'll give you a hint on branding, unless you've climbed the world's seven tallest peaks or just landed a few gold medals in the olympics your brand is not that of a motivational speaker. Be specific in what and who you are. You are creating a product that needs to stand out on a shelf with hundreds of others. Reinforce that brand with the speakers bureaus and your tribe regularly and relentlessly. 6) Really, really love what you do and be grateful for it. Ok, I know this one sounds trite. It's not. In fact it's without a doubt the most important cornerstone of a sustainable speaking career. When I say love what you do I mean wake up every day in anticipation of your next gig. Treat each gig, the people who are paying for you to be there, and your audience with the respect you'd reserve for the most important people in your life. Sure you've worked hard to get to this point but lots of people have worked hard and don't get the opportunity to be paid to stand up on a stage and be listened to. Never stop being grateful for that privilege. 7) Get ready to deal with lots of rejection. The professional speaking business is overflowing with speakers. For every gig you land there will be at least 4-8 that show an interest but who--to use the catch phrase popular in the industry--"went in another direction!" Unlike any other case where you're bidding for a job, you will rarely if ever know why you weren't chosen. It's one thing to be turned down for reasons you can address, another altogether to be told nothing. It's like playing darts with a blindfold on and only being told if you hit a bullseye or not. For all you know your darts could all be stuck in the ceiling or laying on the floor. 8) Never, ever, ever stop learning. For me one of the most valuable aspects of being a professional speaker is that I am constantly being forced outside of my comfort zone to learn about new industries and innovations. I can't imagine being a professional speaker with out also being as fully immersed in the evolution of technology and business through my writing, research, and consulting. Constantly being exposed to new trends, innovation, and investments through my business allows me to speak with credibility and authority. So, if you think that you can just speak without simultaneously being at the cutting edge of whatever you're speaking about, well, good luck with that. Unlike Don Henley, you can't show up and just keep singing Hotel California. (Yeah, I'm envious too. That's life.) That's it! If any of that scares you off then maybe this just isn't your gig. Nothing at all wrong with that. It's better that you know now what sort of investment and commitment you'll be signing up for rather than bemoan the many sacrifices later. I've come across far too many people who think that they should somehow just be able to jump onto the professional speaking circuit as though they were getting in line to catch a bus. If you're all-in despite what I've just described then make a full-throttle commitment to learn everything you can about your craft and to stay the course for the long-term. That's the irony of speaking professionally, while you're on stage for just 30-60 minutes, there's an enormous amount of effort that goes into building your brand and track record, and that takes years. The good news--no, the great news--is that if you invest the time land this gig the personal and professional payback is enormous. There's no greater joy than being able to do something you truly love to do, to share that love with others, and to continue learning and growing through it. Never stop being grateful for that.

How To Become (And Stay) A Thought Leader
Thinkers360
July 25, 2018

Nearly 20 years ago I had a meeting with Jim Champy, to whom, in an act of self-adulation I had sent a copy of my first book with a note saying that we had a lot in common. Jim had just published Reengineering the Corporation, one of the best-selling business books of all time. During the meeting Jim graciously referred to us as Thought Leaders; a term I’d never heard before. I recall thinking that writing a book had somehow given me license to carry that moniker. I was only partially right. Fast forward 20 years and 11 books later, and it seems that becoming a thought leader is the objective of every professional. But if you are serious about doing that then you should also be aware of the most important aspect of thought leadership; embracing the perpetual pain and discipline of learning through writing. First off, yes, I did say pain, specifically because if it’s not painful then you’re really not stretching yourself or learning. I know that most people reading this will say “But, I like to learn.” Sure, we all do. But I’d suggest that it may be closer to the truth to say we all like to “have learned.” Pretty much anything worth learning, is going to stretch and rewire your brain. It will create new neural pathways. That’s not easy and it’s not painless. Second, I said writing. My advice to anyone who wants to carry the mantle of thought leader with integrity is to impose a discipline on yourself of writing constantly. This is not simply keeping a journal for yourself, but rather publishing. Writing something that you know will be judged by others is the best way to force yourself to truly understand what you think you know and then to expand beyond what you already know. Personally, I write six columns of 1500-2500 words each for Inc.com every month. Every 2-3 years I write a 250-300 page book. Sure, this open doors, creates incredible visibility, and adds credibility to my brand, but its greatest value is that it forces me to explore, research, learn, and carry the mantle of TL with integrity.

The three touchpoints of digital transformation
Thinkers360
July 02, 2018

As with most labels that we use liberally, “Digital Transformation” means many things to many people – and much of that depends on where an organization is to begin with when it comes to creating, capturing, and leveraging digital assets. However, there is one way to look at this journey that applies to any organization serious about competing in the coming decade. The simplest way to describe this is with what I call the three touch-points of digital transformation: product, service, and experience. Each of these needs to be part of an overall integrated digital system that allows an organization to work with its customer across all three touch-points seamlessly. An excellent example of this, one that I use in my book “Revealing the Invisible”, is how Tesla responded to customers who were trying to evacuate Florida during the devastation of hurricane Irma in 2017. Tesla used to offer its Model S with seventy-five kWh batteries that were locked by software to limit battery access just sixty kWh. This limited the effective range of the car to two hundred miles, about a thirty-to-forty-mile lower range than the seventy-five kWh option. A Model S owner trying to evacuate called Tesla to ask if they would unlock his extra fifteen kWh to provide the added range for his evacuation. Tesla not only unlocked his battery’s capacity, but also did the same for every Tesla owner whose battery was similarly limited. This is only possible with a digital ecosystem that integrates the three touchpoints into one view of the customer’s digital self, as shown in the illustration. Can you imagine how that same scenario would play out with a traditional automobile manufacturer where the product, service, and experience touch points are orchestrated by different disconnected players, the manufacturer, the dealer’s service, and sales? What about a used car where there’s no attachment whatsoever to any of those parties? A traditional automobile manufacturer’s digital ecosystem is not only fragmented and disconnected, but it insulates the company from the customer. The bottom line is that digital transformation means that you have a digital business ecosystem in which each touchpoint is integrated with the other two.

Healthcare in 2025: Are you ready?

Even before COVID-19 shook the world, the life sciences and healthcare industry was evolving rapidly. Data-empowered patients, pricing and regulatory pressures, new modes of virtual diagnosis and intervention, and demands for more transparency were already ushering in change.

Join Kathleen A. Kadziolka, Vice President, Technology Enterprise Products, CVS Health and Tom Koulopoulos, healthcare futurist, innovator, and technology expert and Genpact as we explore the industry in 2025. Learn about the three macrotrends we highlight in our research and see how forward-thinking organizations are already adapting to deliver:

-Truly patient-centric services and experiences, enabled by virtual care and digital technology
-Trusted, reliable, and affordable treatments focused on patient outcomes
-Greater collaboration across the industry with integrated data and care

Register your place to see what steps your organization can take today to adapt, rise, and thrive in this future environment.