Tracey Follows

Tracey Follows is a futurist who helps leaders understand how AI, technology, and systems are reshaping strategy, identity, and human agency. Ranked in the Global Gurus Top 30 Futurists for 2025 and 2026, she is founder and CEO of Futuremade, a strategic foresight consultancy that has advised Google, the United Nations, Coca-Cola, Virgin, BAE Systems, and the Financial Times. She is also Visiting Professor of Digital Futures and Identity at Staffordshire University and named in Forbes' list of the top 50 female futurists in the world. Her work equips organisations to develop strategic foresight and navigate the space between what she calls the machinable and unmachinable self, ensuring they lead technological disruption with clarity and confidence.

Long before emotion AI and neurotech became mainstream industries, Tracey Follows had already forecast their arrival. In 2016, she predicted the rise of human augmentation, synthetic intimacy, and the evolution of communication from connected devices to direct mind-machine links, transformations that now define how organisations engage with customers, employees, and the future itself. Her ability to see what's coming years before it reaches boardrooms has made her one of the most sought-after voices in strategic foresight. Ranked in the Global Gurus Top 30 Futurists for both 2025 and 2026, she is founder and CEO of Futuremade, a consultancy that has advised Google, the United Nations, Coca-Cola, Virgin, BAE Systems, and the Financial Times. She is also Visiting Professor of Digital Futures and Identity at Staffordshire University, Associate Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, and named in Forbes' list of the top 50 female futurists in the world.

Tracey's expertise is grounded in rigorous academic training and real-world application. She holds a First Class BA Honours in Philosophy and an MSc in Technical Change and Industrial Strategy from the University of Manchester, and studied Futures and Strategic Foresight at the University of Houston. Her critically acclaimed book, The Future of You: Can Your Identity Survive 21st-Century Technology?, explores how health passports, biohacking, digital voting, and virtual legacies are transforming personal freedoms and potential in the age of synthetic identity. The book has become essential reading for leaders navigating technological disruption, and her podcast of the same name was named Best Tech Show at the Independent Podcast Awards 2023. She has spoken at the Financial Times Global Boardroom, Virgin FutureVisions with Sir Richard Branson, and delivered her TEDx at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She writes a monthly column for Management Today, is a regular commentator on BBC Radio 4 and TimesRadio, and serves as Jury President for the Inaugural Creative Strategy Lions at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Tracey equips leaders with practical frameworks to navigate what she calls the space between the machinable and unmachinable self. Her Systems & Self, Identity as Infrastructure, and Me:chine models give organisations the tools to think beyond AI as a tool and recognise it as an environment we now live inside, one that demands new approaches to leadership, customer engagement, and human potential. Whether opening a conference, closing a summit, or leading boardroom discussions, her keynotes inspire audiences to spot trends, develop strategic foresight, and fully prepare for what comes next. Her work ensures organisations don't just survive technological disruption but lead through it with clarity, confidence, and purpose, creating lasting impact that extends far beyond the event itself.