Joe Davis helps organisations build high-performing teams in an AI-enabled world.
An AI strategist, innovator and entrepreneur, Joe works directly with leadership teams to turn the potential of artificial intelligence into practical business results. His presentations combine real-world experience, live demonstrations and actionable insights that help audiences understand not just the technology itself, but how people and organisations can perform at their best alongside it.
Joe advises organisations around the world, including RTX, a global aerospace and defence company, on AI capability, use cases and deployment. He also leads Toyota New Zealand's innovation programme and works with businesses across a wide range of industries to build AI capability, improve performance and identify new opportunities for growth.
His work focuses on the intersection of technology, leadership and culture. From implementing AI tools that dramatically increase productivity to helping teams embrace new ways of working, Joe brings practical examples of what's happening inside organisations right now and what leaders can do to prepare for what's next.
With a background spanning software engineering, executive leadership and company building, Joe brings both technical depth and commercial understanding. He is equally comfortable discussing AI strategy with senior leaders as he is demonstrating practical tools that teams can implement immediately.
Joe's sessions are energetic, interactive and highly relevant. Audiences leave with a clearer understanding of how AI is reshaping performance, what separates high-performing teams from the rest, and how they can apply those lessons within their own organisations.
Beyond his work in AI and innovation, Joe co-founded Nanogirl Labs, helping inspire a love of science in more than one million young people around the world. He is also co-author of Silver Linings, a study of how New Zealand organisations adapt, innovate and perform under pressure.
Whether leading keynote discussions, facilitating panels or hosting large-scale conferences, Joe brings a calm, polished presence that helps create a memorable event experience.
Talking Points
Human × AI: The High-Performance Organisation
How organisations build capability, reduce risk and turn AI into measurable valueHuman × AI: The High-Performance Organisation
Most organisations are trying to write an AI strategy before their people have developed enough practical understanding to know where AI will create real value.
Joe Davis argues that the sequence should be reversed. Because high performance with AI turns out to look a lot like high performance anywhere else: choose better problems, build strong habits, shorten the distance between idea and evidence, and learn faster from what happens. High-performing AI organisations build capability first: they get people hands-on, identify high-value use cases, test them
quickly and create evidence before making larger commitments. Governance matters from day one - not simply to constrain activity, but to create safe, repeatable ways for people to experiment, learn and prove value.
This is not a choice between long-term strategy and short-term delivery. High-performing organisations need both: a clear direction and the ability to put something useful into the world this quarter.
Drawing on his work inside organisations including Toyota, RTX and Tribe Group, Joe shares real examples of AI moving beyond prompting and productivity hacks into workflow redesign, better decision-making, reduced operating cost and new sources of value. The result is a more commercially disciplined approach to AI: small bets, fast learning, clear evidence and confident
scaling.
AUDIENCES WILL LEAVE UNDERSTANDING HOW TO:
• Build practical AI capability before making major strategic or technology commitments.
• Create governance that enables safe experimentation while protecting data, reputation and operational integrity.
• Identify intellectual manual labour that can be automated or redesigned for meaningful productivity gains.
• Find where the money actually is - distinguishing impressive AI demos from use cases that materially improve margin, capacity, customer value or growth.
• Create a flywheel between capability, experimentation, strategy and deployment.
• Move from scattered AI activity to repeatable, measurable value creation.
Human × AI: The Unfinished Human
AI is rapidly changing the economics of individual performance.Human × AI: The Unfinished Human
Work that once required hours of research, administration, analysis or production can increasingly be compressed into minutes. But the real opportunity is not simply to produce more. It is to redirect human attention toward higher-value work.
In this practical keynote, Joe Davis explores what distinguishes high performers when everyone has access to increasingly capable AI. The answer is not better prompting alone. It is the ability to learn quickly, exercise judgement, recognise quality, make good decisions and use AI deliberately to extend personal capability.
Drawing on his own AI operating systems and real client examples, Joe shows how people are removing low-value intellectual labour, preparing better for important decisions, learning new skills and creating capabilities that previously required specialist support.
The commercial question becomes simple: If AI gives you back 20% of your time, what will you do with it that creates disproportionately more value?
AUDIENCES WILL LEAVE WITH:
• Practical ways to use AI to increase personal productivity without sacrificing quality.
• A framework for deciding which work should be automated, accelerated or kept deliberately human.
• Ways to use AI to learn new skills and extend capability quickly.
• An understanding of why judgement and taste become more valuable as content and analysis become easier to generate.
• A clear challenge to redirect recovered time toward customers, decisions, relationships, creativity and growth.
• A more rigorous view of AI as a performance tool rather than simply a content-generation tool.
Human × AI: Think Better. Build Faster.
How AI compresses the journey from problem to proofHuman × AI: Think Better. Build Faster.
One of AI's biggest commercial advantages is not simply that it makes existing work faster. It makes ideas cheaper to test. Businesses have traditionally spent weeks or months debating opportunities, writing business cases, specifying requirements and commissioning builds before discovering whether the original idea was any good. AI dramatically compresses that cycle.
In this highly interactive keynote, Joe Davis combines mental models, systems thinking and AI to show audiences how to frame problems more clearly, challenge assumptions, identify the highest-value opportunities and turn ideas into working experiments at extraordinary speed.
Joe draws lenses from physics, biology, economics, mathematics, systems theory and the arts - from friction, leverage and feedback loops to inversion, second-order consequences, incentives and judgement. Then the audience applies those ideas to a real problem. Together they interrogate it, make choices, use AI as a thinking partner and build a working prototype live on stage.
Joe does not demonstrate what AI might someday make possible. The audience watches an idea become working software in the room. The live build is not a stunt. It demonstrates a new commercial capability: the ability to move from assumption to evidence before committing significant time, money or organisational energy. Participants receive the working afterwards - the questions, mental models, prompts, decisions and build process - so they can apply the same approach themselves.
AUDIENCES WILL LEARN HOW TO:
• Frame problems more clearly before investing in solutions.
• Use mental models to expose assumptions, consequences, constraints and hidden opportunities.
• Use AI to expand context, challenge thinking and rapidly compare alternatives.
• Shorten the loop between idea, prototype, evidence and decision.
• Test commercial assumptions cheaply before committing significant resources.
• Distinguish activity and speed from genuine progress toward a valuable outcome.
Human × AI: Where Do We Start?
The skills, the tools and the mindset for organisations at the beginning of their AI journeyHuman × AI: Where Do We Start?
Everyone is talking about AI. Most leadership teams have already agreed it matters and put it on the agenda. The harder question is where to start.
This session focuses on three things: the skills your people need, the tools and how they actually work, and the mindset that helps teams adapt as technology continues to evolve.
First, Joe cuts through the noise and hype, explaining AI in plain language. Audiences gain a clear understanding of what these tools do well, where they fall short, and how to identify genuine opportunities for value.
From there, the focus shifts to practical application. How do you approach a task with AI? What should you hand over, and what should remain human? Audiences learn simple, effective ways to work with AI and develop habits they can put into practice immediately.
Real-world case studies, tailored to your industry, help attendees recognise where AI could create value within their own organisation. Many start identifying opportunities long before the session ends.
The final piece is mindset. Joe's Explorer Mindset framework helps people approach AI with curiosity rather than anxiety, providing a practical way for individuals and teams to navigate change, move faster, and build confidence while managing risk.
Suitable for everyone from AI beginners to teams already running pilots, this is a highly interactive session that leaves audiences with practical tools, fresh thinking, and clear next steps.
Optional: Add a live build component, where Joe workshops an AI opportunity from within your organisation and builds a working prototype live on screen. Audiences leave with a real tool they can access and a first-hand understanding of how it was created.
MC & Facilitation
Joe is a highly engaging MC and facilitator who combines professionalism, energy and genuine curiosity.MC & Facilitation
Known for his ability to connect with both speakers and audiences, Joe creates engaging conversations that bring ideas to life and keep events moving with purpose. His technical knowledge allows him to confidently moderate complex discussions, while his facilitation experience ensures content remains accessible, practical and relevant.
Joe is particularly well suited to conferences focused on leadership, innovation, technology, business transformation and the future of work.
Having produced events himself, he understands the importance of working closely with organisers, adapting to changing circumstances and maintaining momentum throughout the programme.
Workshop - Hands on with Generative AI
Generative AI is challenging and changing the way we do business. This hands-onWorkshop - Hands on with Generative AI
workshop gives participants the opportunity to put a range of the latest GenAI tools to use in solving a problem. Participants explore the available toolsets, share existing knowledge, and ultimately share the solutions they find with the group.
Suitable for: Any business audience interested in exploring GenAI concepts and tools.
Key takeaways:
● An enjoyable, highly interactive opportunity to experiment and explore with a purpose
drives great learning.
● Discussion and thought on the mindset needed to thrive in an AI-powered future.
● With an emphasis on solving wicked problems, this workshop drives innovation
thinking and creativity, supercharged by the GenAI tools used in the exercise.
Joe Davis was a wonderful addition to our annual conference. He was engaging, professional and connected naturally with our team. His thought-provoking topic sparked interest and encouraged ... keep reading Hynds Group
Energising, thought-provoking and interactive - a breath of fresh air. You really shifted the conversations for us around resilience, diversity and innovation.
Thank you for joining us at the conference, and for the fantastic contribution you made as our dinner speaker. Your perspectives and insights hit exactly the right mark for the dinner!
A wonderful session and your contribution was the highlight as reported back by the team! Really really inspirational and the poignancy of finishing on that final question was brilliant - shows that shared values and beliefs can truly make a difference.
Thank you SO much for the last couple of days. You have mad skills. And needed to deploy a fair range of them of the course of the two days which you did with sublime grace judgement and focus. I'm in awe! You set that group up so well which gives us the best possible chance to have an impact.
Very engaging and personable. A lot of notes were taken during his talk and his points were referenced back on throughout the rest of the days topics.
Joe was an engaging and super polite speaker, with awesome humorous elements that fit really well with our 'informal', casual style of event. We really liked his ability to include personal topics and experiences, as well as his eagerness to answer questions and hear from the event-goers too.
Excellent! I have never seen an MC bring a rowdy audience into line so well!
Joe is a natural presenter who captured the audience's attention. He delivered his message with clarity and enthusiasm, making the session both engaging and impactful. He ensured the key points of his presentation aligned with the goals we had for the day. Joe was great to work with.
Joe made everything run very smoothly. He had a great presentation style that was well recieved by the audience.
Given this work relied on advice from and engagement with international stakeholders, Joe was able to adapt and align content based on the feedback provided. Also Joe was very flexible when it came to meeting the advisors in person. On the day we found Joe very energetic and engaging, he was able to clearly articulate what was expected of the participants on the day and guide them to provide output that would shape our strategic perspective. Thank you Joe!
