Dr Kate Barker
Dr Kate Barker is an Australian-born futurist, board adviser, keynote speaker and author. She works with boards, chief executives and governments on the effects of artificial intelligence on leadership, corporate governance and the future of work. She serves as Chief Futurist and Executive Advisory Board Director at NEOM, and has advised the world's leading consulting firms. She speaks on these subjects at international business and leadership conferences worldwide.
Kate asks a question that often gets lost in the conversation about AI: as the technology becomes more capable, what do our people need to become better at? Her work brings much-needed focus to the capabilities organisations should continue to build deliberately rather than assume the technology will replace.
I asked Kate what our leaders still needed to be exceptional at as AI became part of how they worked. Her findings challenged some of our assumptions about leadership. We changed part of our leadership development as a result, particularly where we had assumed technology would compensate for capability rather than change what capability was required.
Kate works from an unusually substantial evidence base and is prepared to follow the findings when they challenge established assumptions. What makes the work particularly valuable is the connection between rigorous research and the decisions leaders and organisations are actually facing.
Kate treats AI as infrastructure rather than another technology cycle. She understands where the systems are heading, but also asks whether our institutions, governance and leadership are keeping pace. That ability to connect technological change with institutional consequence is rare.
Human & AI Intelligent Leadership
How leaders combine human judgement with machine intelligence without losing either. When machine output arrives fluent and confident, leaders must decide what to trust and who carries authority for the decisions that follow. Kate's doctoral research examined the effect of generative artificial intelligence on organisational trust, and her advisory work turns that research into daily leadership practice.
AI Dread or Unimaginable Prosperity
The stakes of the AI era, and the choice inside them. Organisations and nations are deciding now between fear-driven drift and deliberately built prosperity. Drawing on her book Hidden Power, Kate helps leaders name what they want most from the technology, and fight for it.
Governing AI in the Boardroom
How directors govern, challenge and deploy artificial intelligence without surrendering judgement to it. Boards now face decisions their training never anticipated: what to approve, what to challenge, and where accountability sits when machine analysis shapes the choice. Kate works with directors on the governance structures, questions and disciplines that keep human judgement in charge of the machine, not the other way round.
The Cognitive Advantage to Fight AI Atrophy
The capabilities executives must protect and build as machines take over analysis. As artificial intelligence absorbs analytical work, unused executive capabilities quietly erode, and the edge moves to what machines cannot supply: judgement, discernment, and the confidence to challenge a polished answer. Kate helps leadership teams identify which capabilities are atrophying, which to protect, and which to build deliberately.
Futures Foresight
Strategic foresight at national and enterprise scale. Kate has led futures work inside one of the world's most ambitious development projects and advises governments and global organisations on building the same capability. Her focus is making foresight decision-grade: turning long-range scenarios into choices a board or a cabinet can act on now.
Shaping the Future of Work
How work, workforces and careers change as artificial intelligence reshapes organisations. Kate advises on workforce strategy, the redesign of roles and careers, and what organisations owe their people through the transition. She has addressed business and human resources conferences on the subject across six continents.
Education
Kate holds a Doctor of Business Administration from the Swiss School of Business and Management Geneva. Her doctoral research examined the effect of generative artificial intelligence on organisational trust. She also holds a master's degree in organisational psychology from the University of Sydney and a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) at UNSW Sydney. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors' Company Directors Course.
Beyond work
Kate was raised in Sydney, Australia, and has lived and worked in New York, London, Singapore, India, Hong Kong, Moscow, Riyadh, Doha and Dubai. Her interests include marathon running. Above all, she loves staying curious.
Hidden Power
AI Dread or Unimaginable Prosperity and the Fight for What We Value Most
Hidden Power explores the capabilities organisations sharpen, weaken or surrender as AI becomes embedded in decision-making, leadership and work. It is the intellectual foundation behind Dr Kate’s advisory work on human + AI performance.
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