Laura Ellis

Laura Ellis – book Laura Ellis for your event

Laura Ellis combines journalism, technology forecasting and hands-on leadership experience to help organisations understand what technological change means in practice. As Head of Technology Forecasting at the BBC, she plays an important role in identifying emerging technologies and exploring how they can create value while protecting ethical standards and journalistic integrity.

Her expertise covers AI, machine learning, generative models, personalised and automated journalism, disinformation, media provenance and the wider future of digital communication. Rather than focusing on technology as an abstract trend, Laura looks closely at how new tools affect people, organisations and decision-making.

Her career began in journalism, working across radio, television and online news. That experience gave her a detailed understanding of fast-moving editorial environments and of the ways technology can reshape storytelling, audience engagement and newsroom operations.

Laura later led two regional news and current affairs teams through major periods of change. Among her most significant achievements was creating the BBC’s first end-to-end digital newsroom. The project demonstrates her ability to turn technological ambition into operational change while bringing teams through the transition.

For organisations facing similar challenges today, Laura offers a valuable perspective: innovation succeeds when technology, leadership and people are considered together.

AI, ethics and responsible adoption

AI is transforming the way organisations create content, analyse information, communicate with audiences and make decisions. Laura Ellis helps audiences understand the opportunities while also addressing the questions around responsibility, accuracy and trust.

Her work at the BBC places her close to developments in generative AI, machine learning and emerging digital technologies. In her keynotes, she moves beyond both hype and fear to examine how organisations can approach adoption thoughtfully and practically.

Laura explores topics including:

• Responsible adoption of AI and emerging technologies
• Generative AI and its impact on information and communication
• Accuracy, transparency and media provenance
• The relationship between AI, trust and organisational credibility
• Personalised and automated journalism
• Ethical questions surrounding machine learning and automation
• Preparing organisations for technologies that are still developing

Her approach helps audiences understand that successful AI adoption involves more than choosing the right tools. Organisations also need clear principles, informed leadership and an understanding of how technological choices affect employees, customers and wider society.

Disinformation and the future of information

As generative AI becomes increasingly capable, questions surrounding authenticity, provenance and disinformation are becoming harder for organisations to ignore.

Laura brings these issues into focus through her experience in technology forecasting and journalism. She explains how false or misleading narratives can spread, how machine learning systems may amplify or counter them, and why organisations need stronger ways of assessing the information they encounter and produce.

For media organisations, these questions are closely connected to journalistic integrity and audience trust. For businesses and institutions in other sectors, many of the same principles apply. Transparency, credibility and confidence in information increasingly influence relationships with customers, employees and stakeholders.

Laura makes these complex subjects accessible to audiences without oversimplifying them. Her talks provide a practical understanding of how the information landscape is changing and what leaders should consider as AI-generated content becomes more widespread.

Leadership through technological change

Laura Ellis also brings extensive leadership experience to conversations about transformation. Having guided teams through substantial changes in technology, workflows and working practices, she understands that transformation is rarely just a technical project.

Employees need time to develop new skills. Leaders need to communicate why change is happening. Organisations need a clear direction while remaining flexible enough to respond when technology develops faster than expected.

In her keynotes, Laura addresses the human realities of transformation, including change fatigue, uncertainty and decision-making under pressure. She explores how leaders can build environments where experimentation is encouraged while maintaining focus and accountability.

Her experience creating the BBC’s first end-to-end digital newsroom provides a strong practical foundation for these discussions. She has seen how new technologies affect established teams and processes, and how leadership can determine whether change creates momentum or resistance.

For executives, leadership teams and organisations undergoing transformation, Laura provides frameworks and perspectives that connect long-term strategy with everyday organisational realities.

A clear perspective on the future of technology

Laura’s strength as a keynote speaker lies in her ability to explain complicated technological developments in language that works for audiences with different levels of technical knowledge.

She combines current technology forecasting with experience from journalism and organisational leadership. This allows her to connect emerging trends with the practical questions audiences are already asking: What should we adopt? What should we be cautious about? How do we protect trust? How do we prepare our teams? And how can leaders make decisions when the technology continues to change?

Her presentations give audiences both context and practical takeaways. Whether the subject is generative AI, digital transformation, disinformation, ethics or the future of media, Laura helps organisations look beyond immediate technological developments and consider the broader direction of change.

Book Laura Ellis as a keynote speaker

Book Laura Ellis for your event if you want audiences to understand AI and technological transformation through the perspective of someone working directly with emerging technology inside one of the world’s best-known media organisations.

She is a strong fit for conferences, leadership events, transformation programmes and industry gatherings focused on AI, digital innovation, the future of work, media, communication and organisational change.

Whether speaking to executives, creative professionals, policy groups or cross-industry audiences, Laura offers clear explanations, practical guidance and a forward-looking view of the technologies changing the way organisations operate.

A keynote with Laura Ellis equips audiences to approach technological change with greater clarity, make more informed decisions about AI and build the leadership capabilities needed to guide people through an increasingly fast-moving digital environment.