Linda Leopold
Linda Leopold brings the human side of AI strategy into focus, exploring leadership, human-AI collaboration and responsible adoption.
Photo: Evelina Carborn
Photo: Evelina Carborn
Why book Linda Leopold for your next event
- Gain practical perspectives on human-centered AI transformation from an expert with seven years of senior AI leadership experience at H&M Group.
- Explore Responsible AI and Digital Ethics with Linda Leopold, who established H&M Group’s Responsible AI program and led key initiatives in the field.
- Understand AI through a rare combination of technology, innovation, media and creativity from an internationally recognized AI thought leader.
Non-binding request for Linda Leopold
Explore the human side of Artificial Intelligence
Linda Leopold is a strategic advisor and public speaker specializing in AI transformation and responsible technology adoption. Drawing on seven years in senior AI leadership roles at H&M Group, she brings firsthand experience of turning Responsible AI and Digital Ethics into organizational practice. Linda established H&M Group’s Responsible AI program and spearheaded initiatives in Digital Ethics. Today, she speaks about human-centered AI transformation and how organizations can approach rapidly evolving technology responsibly. Named by Forbes as one of nine “Inspirational Women Leaders in AI Shaping the 21st Century,” Linda is also a regular contributor to MIT Sloan Management Review’s expert panel on Responsible AI.
From Media & Innovation to AI Leadership
Linda Leopold brings a distinctive background spanning AI leadership, innovation, media, fashion and culture. Today, she works as a strategic advisor, author and public speaker specializing in AI transformation and responsible technology adoption, drawing on a career shaped by the intersection of technology, creativity and organizational change.
For seven years, Linda held senior AI leadership roles at H&M Group, where she established the company’s Responsible AI program and spearheaded initiatives in Digital Ethics. Before joining H&M Group, she worked as an innovation strategist at the intersection of fashion and technology.
Linda’s earlier career was rooted in media and culture. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the critically acclaimed fashion and culture magazine Bon, has been a columnist for Scandinavia’s largest financial newspaper and is the author of two non-fiction books. Alongside her professional work, she also explores the creative possibilities of AI by creating art with the technology.
Responsible AI & Digital Ethics
For organizations adopting AI, technological possibilities are only part of the conversation. Responsible AI and Digital Ethics raise important questions about how technology is developed, introduced and used.
Linda Leopold has worked directly with these issues at organizational level. At H&M Group, she established the Responsible AI program and led initiatives within Digital Ethics, giving her practical experience with an area that has become increasingly important as AI moves deeper into business and society.
Her speaking engagements draw on this combination of strategic understanding and hands-on leadership experience. Rather than approaching responsible technology as an abstract concept, Linda can connect the topic with the realities organizations encounter as they transform.
Audiences can gain perspectives on topics including:
- Human-centered AI transformation and responsible technology adoption
- Responsible AI and its role within organizations
- Digital Ethics in an era of rapidly developing technology
- The organizational dimensions of AI transformation
- The relationship between people, innovation and emerging technologies
Technology meets creativity
Alongside her professional work with AI transformation, Linda Leopold explores AI creatively. As a side project, she creates art with AI, adding a practical and experimental dimension to her engagement with the technology.
This intersection of technology and creativity reflects a career that has consistently moved between different disciplines. From fashion and culture to innovation strategy, AI leadership and Digital Ethics, Linda has worked in environments where established assumptions are challenged by new ideas and technologies.
Her creative work with AI complements her strategic perspective by engaging directly with what the technology can enable. It also connects naturally with her broader focus on human-centered AI: how people interact with technology, what new forms of creativity and innovation become possible, and how organizations can approach these developments thoughtfully.
Book Linda Leopold for your event
Linda combines experience in Responsible AI and Digital Ethics with a broader professional background in innovation, media, fashion, culture and writing. She brings together perspectives that are often treated separately, creating a wider conversation about what AI transformation means for organizations and the people within them.
As a frequent public speaker on human-centered AI transformation and a regular contributor to MIT Sloan Management Review’s expert panel on Responsible AI, Linda Leopold brings current AI questions into a broader strategic and organizational context.
For audiences navigating the opportunities and complexities created by AI, Linda offers perspectives grounded in direct leadership experience, responsible technology adoption and a career spent exploring the relationship between people, innovation and technological change.
Keynotes
Keynote by Linda Leopold:
To succeed with AI, study people
While companies are busy rolling out AI tools and strategies, employees and customers are forming their own relationships with AI – relationships most leaders don’t see. Drawing on global research, new behavioral patterns, and her own experience operationalizing AI at scale, Linda Leopold shows why AI success has more to do with people than technology.
AI adoption is happening faster than any technology in history, but not always in the way executives expect. Employees use unauthorized AI tools at work. Customers are bonding with chatbots. At the same time, many companies struggle to capture value from AI – often because they overlook the human dimension.
Through compelling storytelling combined with the latest data, Linda explores three patterns shaping AI adoption today:
- The wonder and the worry: Why people both love and hate AI
- Shadow AI: Why employees hide their AI use, and what we can learn from it
- The intimate relationship: How AI became human-like and is reshaping business
This keynote challenges leaders to think like anthropologists – observing how people actually relate to AI – and translate those insights into smarter strategies.
Audiences walk away with:
- A human-centered lens for AI leadership
- Practical communication approaches for navigating AI’s benefits and risks
- Tools for understanding real employee and customer AI behavior
Keynote by Linda Leopold:
Responsible AI in practice
Responsible AI has moved from nice-to-have to board-level priority. But what does it look like in practice? Drawing from seven years of implementing Responsible AI at scale, Linda Leopold reveals what makes it work – and why policies alone will never be enough.
The challenge sounds simple: doing AI ethically and responsibly. Yet the execution is anything but. From biased algorithms and hallucinating chatbots to workforce disruption and AI’s environmental impact – the complexity can be paralyzing. Many organizations respond with impressive frameworks but struggle to translate them into action.
Through real-world examples – including how creative approaches like storytelling and ethical dilemmas can make AI ethics tangible – Linda reveals a critical insight: successful Responsible AI requires reaching both brains and hearts. You need governance structures and cultural transformation working together.
The keynote explores:
- What Responsible AI actually means
- Why it’s become a business priority
- Real dilemmas organizations face
- How to make it work in practice
Audiences walk away with:
- Understanding why Responsible AI is good for business, not just compliance
- A framework for combining governance with culture-building
- Practical methods for making Responsible AI concrete and actionable
Keynote by Linda Leopold:
AI for Leaders
This session is for leaders navigating AI transformation. (In other words: ALL leaders today.)
You may not think of yourself as an “AI leader” – but if you are leading people through this shift, Linda Leopold argues you already are. And it comes with challenges unlike any leadership context before.
AI is not like other technological shifts. The pace is faster, the stakes are higher, and the emotional reactions stronger. Linda paints a clear picture of the forces shaping AI development and adoption today, and what they mean for leaders specifically.
The session covers two areas:
- Leading others in the age of AI. Good leadership hasn’t changed, but the context has. What makes companies succeeding with AI stand out? Why does visible leadership commitment matter so much? And how do you lead with confidence when you are still learning yourself? This section explores the role of clarity, communication, and culture in making AI transformation work.
- AI as a leadership multiplier. Linda presents a practical framework for using AI in day-to-day leadership – to think better, communicate better, and make better decisions. The focus is on enhancing your own judgment rather than replacing it, and using AI intentionally. She also shares a method for learning AI with AI.
Participants leave with a sharper understanding of what AI-era leadership demands, and both the mindset and the methods for leading others through the transition and applying AI in your own leadership.
