Michael Wooldridge Keynote Speaker

Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize & Lecture (2025)
Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (elected 2025)
Presenter, Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on BBC (2023

Michael Wooldridge's Biography

Michael Wooldridge is one of the UK’s clearest voices on artificial intelligence. An Oxford professor who brings clarity, rigour and perspective to a field too often dominated by hype. As a keynote speaker, he helps leaders make sense of what today’s AI can and cannot do, and what that means for strategy, risk, and competitive advantage. In 2025, the Royal Society awarded him the Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture, with his Faraday Prize Lecture scheduled for February 2026.

Michael is the Ashall Professor of the Foundations of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow at Hertford College. From 2014–2021, he led Oxford’s Department of Computer Science, and his research helped shape modern AI especially multi-agent systems, where multiple AI systems interact to achieve complex goals. His work has been recognised with honours including the BCS Lovelace Medal (2020) and election as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2025).

Beyond academia, Wooldridge is a rare communicator: precise enough for specialists, accessible enough for any boardroom. He presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on the BBC in 2023, chaired AAAI-24 in February 2024, and advised the House of Lords inquiry into Large Language Models and generative AI in 2023. He is the author of popular introductions to AI including The Ladybird Expert Guide to Artificial Intelligence, The Road to Conscious Machines (Pelican, 2020) and A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence (2021), and he brings that same clear-eyed storytelling to every stage helping organisations engage AI with confidence, realism and responsibility.

The New AI: LLMs, capabilities, limits, and what comes next

AI Strategy for Leaders: turning possibility into performance.

Trustworthy AI: governance, risk, and responsible deployment.

Multi-Agent AI: autonomous systems and the future of work.

AI Policy and Society: regulation, public trust, and real-world impact.

He is the Ashall Professor of the Foundations of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Oxford, bringing world-leading authority on how AI works and where its limits sit.
He translates fast-moving advances in generative AI and multi-agent systems into clear, practical guidance leaders can use to set strategy and manage risk.
He brings policy-level perspective from advising the House of Lords inquiry into large language models, helping organisations navigate governance, regulation and public trust.
He is an accomplished communicator and keynote speaker, equally effective in mainstage keynotes, fireside conversations and executive roundtables.
His briefings help boards and senior teams cut through hype, make better decisions on AI investment, and communicate confidently with stakeholders.