Tracey Follows
Futurist. Author. Founder of Futuremade.
Helping organisations anticipate and navigate the changing relationship between systems and selves.
Tracey Follows is a futurist, author and founder of Futuremade, known for original work on identity, agency and the relationship between systems and selves.
Her work sits at the threshold between human agency and intelligent systems. Through Me:chine®, System & Self and Futuremade’s executive education, she helps organisations understand what changes when AI and other systems reshape identity, capabilities, culture and decision-making.
Me:chine® is her research programme exploring the tension between machinable and unmachinable selves and human capabilities in an AI-mediated world.
System & Self is her methodology for perceiving and authoring futures under systemic pressure.
Ranked in the Global Gurus Top 30 Futurists in 2025 and 2026, Tracey is recognised internationally for her work on the future of technology, identity, commerce, culture and human agency.
Her philosophy is simple: every future is written between the system and the self.
Tracey advises, teaches and gives selected keynote talks for organisations including Google, the United Nations, US State Dept, FT’s Global Boardroom, Virgin, Coca-Cola, Farfetch, Aviva, Tesco, BAE Systems, and Fortune.
Leadership, Awards & Appointments
World’s Top 30 Futurist Professionals 2025 & 2026, Global Gurus • Jury President, Inaugural Creative Strategy Lions, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity • Associate Fellow, World Academy of Art & Science • Co-Chair, Emerging Technologies Cross-Technology Group, ITU Global Initiative on Virtual Worlds and AI • Guest Lecturer, Futures & Strategic Foresight, London Business School • Visiting Professor in Digital Futures & Identity, Staffordshire University • Advisory Board, Human Trajectories Programme, Lifeboat Foundation • Winner, Best Tech Show, Independent Podcast Awards • BusinessCloud Top Trailblazing Women in Tech • Advisory Board, Doteveryone • Chair, Account Planning Group • Non-Executive Director, Advertising Standards Authority • Campaign Top 25 UK Marketing Influencers on Social Media • Ad Age Woman to Watch • Outstanding Contribution to Marketing, Women in Marketing Awards
Why organisations work with Tracey
1. She helps organisations anticipate systemic change before competitors do.
For more than thirty years, Tracey Follows has helped leaders understand how emerging technologies, changing patterns of human behaviour and broader societal shifts reshape markets, organisations and institutions.
Rather than predicting a single future, she helps organisations become better prepared for multiple futures. Her work examines how AI, automation, demographics, geopolitics, digital infrastructure and culture interact to create systemic change—and what leaders need to do in response.
2. She makes complex change understandable.
AI is changing far more than technology. It is reshaping identity, work, decision-making, trust, capability and the relationship between people and systems.
Tracey is recognised for making these complex shifts understandable through clear language, memorable concepts and practical frameworks. Whether speaking to boards, leadership teams or conference audiences, she helps people see the bigger picture without losing sight of what matters today.
3. She develops original ideas that become practical tools.
Tracey's work is grounded in original research and concept development.
Her work includes System & Self, the Me® research programme, Database Brands, Database Selves, Identity as Infrastructure and emerging work on machinable and unmachinable capabilities.
These are not abstract theories. They are designed to help organisations think more clearly, make better decisions and build capability for an AI-mediated world.
4. She turns foresight into action.
Futuremade combines research with advisory, executive education, workshops and practical methods that organisations can apply immediately.
From board strategy sessions and executive education programmes to the System & Self cards and the AAA curriculum, the emphasis is always on helping leaders move from insight to action.
5. She brings more than 30 years of strategic, futures and foresight experience.
Before becoming recognised internationally as a futurist, Tracey spent decades in senior strategic roles across marketing, communications and corporations doing innovation and business transformation.
She has advised some of the world's leading organisations, served as a Non-Executive Director on the board of the UK Advertising Standards Authority, chaired and judged international industry awards including as Jury President at Cannes Lions, and continues to work with global organisations navigating technological and societal change.
This combination of long strategic experience and original thinking enables her to connect emerging ideas with practical leadership challenges.
Keynotes & Executive Sessions
Click each keynote title below to view the full talk outline →
Tracey’s Keynote & International Speaking Enquiries:
Managed by Sandra Nolan
Connect Speakers Bureau
Contact
“She really does see trends before anyone else”
INDUSTRY KEYNOTES
AGENDA-SETTING TALKS
OPENING KEYNOTE
THE FUTURE OF YOU
CLOSING KEYNOTE
PANEL EXPERT
STADIUM SPEAKER
Q&A
INSPIRING AUDIENCES
"Exceeded all expectations"
"Mind-blowing"
"An exceptional futurist"
"Stayed with me long after it ended "
"So inspiring - loved it!"
"Favourite Session of the Day"
"Exceeded all expectations" "Mind-blowing" "An exceptional futurist" "Stayed with me long after it ended " "So inspiring - loved it!" "Favourite Session of the Day"
International Events
International events include FT’s Global Boardroom, UN HQ, UNDP Women’s Leadership in Digital in Doha, Nobel Visions in Moscow, FTLIve Tech, Virgin’s FutureVisions with Sir Richard Branson, and more

