marc curtis
I've spent the last eight years trying to get large organisations to take AI and innovation seriously. Not the strategy presentation - the actual change. It turns out that's harder than it sounds, and most of the difficulty is human rather than technical. At Lyreco I lead innovation and AI strategy across 25 countries. The work ranges from defining where AI creates real value, to building the internal programmes that help people actually use it, to running pilots that turn into something commercial rather than a proof of concept that nobody mentions again. Outside of that I run the Future of Work conference (www.future-of-work.eu) - an annual event for 600+ senior leaders, this year focused on AI. I also host the Pioneers Podcast (https://pioneerspodcast.buzzsprout.com/), talking to practitioners and founders about what's genuinely working in AI adoption rather than what should work in theory. I started my career as a nurse, then spent a decade in digital and software before ending up here. It's an odd route but it turns out useful when the job is understanding how people and technology interact under pressure. If you're working on AI adoption, organisational change, or the future of work - in any serious sense - I'm always interested in the conversation.