Karl Smith is a futurist involved in both writing about the future and inventing it, he is available for public speaking and news insights, please contact him through this form to book him.

Interviews

Jan 22, 2026 AI Effectiveness and Human Eminence Recored Session

LinkedIn live session 22 Jan 2026 AI Effectiveness and Human Eminence.

AI is not new in 2026 its 75 years old. What is AI? Everyone thinks that it is LLMs well there are a lot more types of AI and they all do different things. Here they are described as Solution Tools.

How are Human Eminent? Human can do things that AI can’t and in many cases should not do.

“AI can replicate many outputs of human intelligence, but it does not possess the underlying subjective, intentional, and value-forming capacities that characterise human minds.”

“Humans must retain authority to decide, override, and bear responsibility whenever fundamental rights, safety, liberty, or life outcomes are at stake.”

You cannot sue an AI, at least not yet!

This presentation has been used to explicitly set the perimeters of the session linked below. 

https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/ai-effectiveness-and-human-eminence-recored-session/285477165

Feb 10, 2025 All me social app interview with Karl Smith by Founders Futures

Filmed in December 2024 and Premiered Feb 10, 2025.

All me is a direct response to Enshittification (Cory Doctorow Nov 2022), also known as crapification and platform decay, is the term used to describe the pattern in which online products and services decline in quality over time. Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers, and finally degrade their services to users and business customers to maximize profits for shareholders.

April 2023 A new perspective with Karl A L Smith

“Did we answer the problems that customers have and that the business has? This is the true metric of success.”

For some, the digital age has opened up more questions than it answers.

Karl A L Smith, President and CIO of Agile World has a long history of guiding global leaders as they navigate the ever-changing tech landscape. When it comes to digital transformations, he’s supported brands including Accenture, Tesco Bank and more. Karl now joins the XTech podcast to delve into the latest trends. Tune in to hear his thoughts on everything from big data to the metaverse where should we prioritise investment?

https://fox.agency/insights/xtech-new-perspective/

Karl A L Smith unpacks the latest technology trends in this episode, a must-listen for business leaders looking to prioritise investment. A new perspective with Karl A L Smith Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts

Future of the Agile Movement with LeadersHum

Karl A L Smith Managing Partner of Agile World Inc. talks about the three strands of his work experience, changing the paradigm, changing the context (of working environments) and experimenting. He highlights key characteristics of Leadership and Leaders and talks about what it means to be an Agile Leader. Lastly he talks about his consultancy in delivering Agile Transformation in a Customer Centric way (this not being they way it often dione), then he talks about his philanthropic activities with Agile World Incorporated a 501(c)(3) charity, based in California and how agile is no longer focused in software, but rather affords a way to solve complex problems.

Sep 2, 2021 Agile is for Everyone Agile World ®

Aug 10, 2022 Customer Experience in the 21st Century and Beyond 

May 18, 2022 Agile ERP Transformation & Enabling New Ways of Working 

Dec 15, 2021 Agility in business | Karl A L Smith talks to Engati CX 

May 7, 2021 Agile an Unexpected Journey Author Interviews 

Apr 16, 2021 HCM Software and “Agile” versus “Ways of Working” 

Feb, 2021 The Agile Confessional – Episode 14, Karl Smith

Dec 02, 2020 Agile transformation: Faster, smarter and responsive marketing

Nov 28, 2020 Karl Smith, Polymath, Influencer, Authority UX UI, AI, IoT & Founder Human-Centered Design Society 

Aug 26, 2020 Imagine If The Way We Now Live Became Redundant 

Events

6 Feb 2023 World OPEX Summit 2023 – Operational Agile ™, Business and Technology Value Realisation

12 Feb 2019 Enterprise Agility the Customer Revolution, AgileFest 

21 Jun 2018 DIGIT Leader 2018, Scotland’s Annual IT & Digital Summit 

The role of DevOps in business transformation
– Why DevOps: core principles and where they can help
– Next generation of DevOps; customer, business, finance, change, IT
– Vertical slicing; an enterprise enabler
– Transformation; hearts and minds with skills and delivery 

Oct 2018 Blockchain Friend or Foe 

MIPIM . Is Blockchain the new Doomsday Book, will it make every property unique and will that fundamentally change the property business? Will Blockchain aid the secondary data economy around property or create brand new new opportunities?

23rd Nov 2017 The Treachery of News.  The House of Lords in London. On a panel as a guest of Lord Laird of Artigarvan

23rd Feb 2017 Digital Transformation 2017

Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, Digital Transformation is about People

28 Oct 2016 IoT in Retail, Takeaways from IoT in Retail Pioneers & Early Adopters – Panel Session

15 Oct 2016 UCD2016 Conference, Being Human IoT Design Principals – Panel Session

2016 Cognition Clash in The Internet of Things at SXSW Interactive 
The Internet of Things is the next great opportunity for commerce to engage with business enterprises. However there is no unified approach to the mental load between physical interaction, mental interaction and digital interaction. This cognitive landscape is inhabited by associated experiences that gel human behaviour and machine interfaces through, touch, mouse and keyboard. The usage of sight, voice and thought create new complexities and risks which have until recently been the subject of defence technologies, where clear outcomes and prescribed mental models exist. The diversification of these touch points and multi-point human logic models clash and derail human thinking patterns.[/su_column][/su_row]

2016 Enabling Client Communications at St Andrews University
There is a huge and complex social psychology to managing client engagements effectively. Merely presenting actionable solutions that have valid data to back them up is not enough for clients. They become lost with the simplest of justifications and proof often focusing factors of little importance to the end users. In this talk I will offer some meeting navigation concepts that will enable people to facilitate client meetings, establish and reach defined outcomes and establish clear dialog and interaction methods.[/su_column][/su_row]

Oct 2015 Humanity in Digital Landscapes: Mind, Cognition & Psychology at UCD2015 Conference Workshop on Cognition Clash in The Internet of Things – Designing for Chaos and Crash

Oct 2014 UCD2014 Program Exploring the challenges and opportunities of globalisation and commoditisation in Enterprise User Experience EUX

Nov 2013 UCD2013 Conference, Program Chair 

11th April 2013 Technology: Why there’s no longer an off switch http://lanyrd.com/2013/harvey-nash-technology-survey/ Why User Experience on Vimeo

21st Mar 2013 Nextgen SCADA Europe
HMI & Mobile Workforce: Optimising the human machine interface for a range of devices as data volumes increase and operations staff become increasingly mobile.
Accenture Connected World – NextGen SCADA Smart Grid on Vimeo 

10th Nov 2012 UCD2012 Conference
Technical Chair User centred design within investment banking and wealth management: The world of finance and wealth provides unique problems for the UCD practitioner, this short session will describe some of them, how to circumvent them and how UCD can make a critical difference to the projects success.  

Stock Images of Karl A L Smith