Amy Webb

Amy Webb may not be a superhero – but she does have a powerful ability to anticipate trends and emerging technology that will disrupt tomorrow. And she can envision and help prepare for the impact they’ll have on business and society. Now she’s teaching others, including corporate leaders, innovators and governments, to do the same.

Founder of the Future Today Institute, Webb is a renowned futurist and strategist. For her, it’s not simply an interest; it’s a profession and a passion. Nor is “forecasting the future” about creating fantastical scenarios. Webb doesn’t simply make speculations or predictions; her work is evidence based, drawn from mapping and modeling quantitative and qualitative data collected in the present to understand what’s coming (5-20 years from now). Her new book “The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity” (PublicAffairs, March 2019) examines how Artificial Intelligence is being shaped by a handful of big companies, and how the rest of the world should respond.

Named to the 2017 Thinkers50 Radar list of management thinkers most likely to shape the future – and winner of its 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award – Webb is already making an impact on today’s Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, government agencies, large nonprofits, universities and startups worldwide. Focusing on the intersection of technology, business and society, she takes a purposefully broad lens to her work. When thinking about the future, most only look at their industry and direct competitors. Webb is adamant about looking at multiple, adjacent landscapes. “You have to be able to see the top of the forest in order to see where all the trees are and how they connect,” she says.

Webb’s “clear, insightful and humorous” style, in writing and in speaking, makes it easy to understand why audiences are drawn to her and her work. “The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream” (Public Affairs, December 2016) – Webb’s most recent best-selling and award-winning book – delves deep into her forecasting methodology. Professors at major universities include “Signals” in their courses and teach her forecasting tools. Numerous mainstream media, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, New York Times and Fast Company, have featured Webb’s forecasting methodology and her work as a futurist. Her viral TED Talk, based on her memoir, “Data, A Love Story,” has been viewed more than six million times, was translated into 32 languages, and has been featured as in-flight (Delta) and hotel (Marriott) entertainment. Webb’s upcoming book about the real future of artificial intelligence (2019) promises even more data-rich perspectives and actionable intelligence.

Every one of Webb’s engagements – from keynotes to hands-on workshops – is highly customized. She uses original research and insights specific to an organization, industry or conference. And attendees typically receive a digital folder full of resources, tools, and actionable ideas to help them think like a futurist and prepare and plan for the exciting changes on the horizon.

Webb designed and teaches the futures forecasting MBA course at the New York University Stern School of Business. She was a 2014-2015 Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, where her research on the future of education reform received a national Sigma Delta Chi award. Every year, she lectures about the future of media and technology at a number of universities, including Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, Temple University, Tokyo University and National University of Kyiv. In 2018, a Digital Certification developed by Webb and based on her published research at Harvard was adopted by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, as part of the national U.S. curriculum on educating journalists and communicators.

Webb is a 2017-18 Delegate in the prestigious U.S.-Japan Leadership Program. She is also a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, where she has served as a Blue Ribbon Panel Emmy Judge for emerging technology categories. She sits on several advisory boards, including the SXSW Accelerator, and she is a consultant to Hollywood writers and producers on future technologies included in their movies and shows.