// Keynotes

AI Keynote Speaker

Keynotes on the changing business landscape, the future of work and what it takes to stay human as AI moves into everything.

Josh Horneman is a Perth-based business advisor and keynote speaker. He speaks to conferences, industry bodies and leadership teams in Australia and internationally.

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Josh Horneman speaking on a panel, microphone in hand

// Recent keynote

Featured keynote

Josh Horneman delivering the Curiosity Agent keynote for IPMA Australia, beside a large screen showing a human figure dissolving into streams of orange light

“Curiosity Agent: Staying Human in the Age of Automated Answers”

Drawing on years of putting AI inside real businesses, Josh shows where teams get burned by handing over their judgement, and where the technology genuinely makes people smarter. The thread is curiosity, the one capability no machine can replace.

“Most of the AI conversation in Australia is built on fear, and fear keeps you a passive user of tools someone else owns.”
Josh Horneman, Curiosity Agent

Delivered for: IPMA Australia
Audience: Commercial and public sector major projects leaders, PMO managers, change specialists, business analysts, project controls experts and AI practitioners

// Topics

What Josh speaks about

Curiosity Agent: staying human in the age of automated answers

When answers arrive instantly, the questions we ask become the work that matters. Josh shows how curiosity keeps people in charge of their judgement and their data while the tools do more of the heavy lifting.

The changing business landscape

The ground under most organisations is moving faster than their plans. Josh looks at what is shifting in how businesses compete, price and operate, and what leaders can do about it now.

The future of work and the workforce

Roles, skills and teams are being reshaped as AI takes on more of the routine work. Josh talks about what that means for the people doing the work and for the leaders responsible for them.

A WA Tech Company Went From 40 Developers to 20. He Expects 9 by Year End. — A WA tech company went from 40 developers to 20
A Western Australian tech company halved its developers in a year with no change to revenue, and expects nine by year end. The people who stay are the high-agency ones using these tools creatively.
From Josh's conversation on the Up A Tier podcast.
Read the transcriptHide the transcript
The only barrier between things changing are the people sitting in those processes. So your comment about the job market and people losing jobs: it is already happening. The decision that the leader of a business needs to make, empathetic or otherwise, is almost inevitably going to have a negative impact on humans as a result of this tech. I sat down at an event last night and a guy said, my buddy's the head of a technology company. He had 40 developers 12 months ago, and he's now got 20. We're having a drink this week and he reckons it'll be nine by the end of the year. With no change to revenue, and no change to their trajectory. That's a business here in Western Australia that's doing well, valued at probably over 100 million. And this guy is like, I understand the technology, I understand the potential, I understand the opportunity. The only people that will stay in that business are the highest agency ones, able to use these tools creatively to drive outcomes that give value to whoever the customer is.

The future of humanity and economic systems

The questions raised by AI reach well beyond any single business. Josh steps back to look at how work, value and opportunity may be shared out as the technology spreads.

Anthropic Switched Off Its Best Model. It Never Really Came Back. — What this does to the economy
A chapter from a longer conversation on where AI is taking work, jobs and the economy, and why the people who stay in control of it matter.
From Josh's conversation on the Up A Tier podcast.

Human first, technology second

This sits inside the stance Josh brings to all of his work: business first, technology second. Start with the people and the problem, then decide where the technology belongs.

// Formats

Formats

Conference keynote

A main stage keynote for conferences and professional bodies, shaped around the event theme and the audience in the room.

Leadership offsite

A session for executive and leadership teams that pairs the bigger picture with practical first moves for the organisation.

Industry event or panel

A shorter talk, fireside conversation or panel seat for industry events and leadership gatherings.

// Audiences

Who has booked Josh

Josh speaks to conferences, industry bodies and leadership teams, in Australia and internationally. Organisations that have booked him include:

// Enquire

Bring Josh to your event

Share the event, the audience and the date, and Josh will come back to you within 24 hours.

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