Verity Harding Keynote Speaker

One of TIME100's Most Influential People in AI
Known for influential roles at Alphabet
Co-founder of multiple leading AI ethics organisations

Verity Harding's Biography

One of TIME100’s Most Influential People in AI, Verity Harding is one of the world’s foremost experts on technology, power and politics.

She is Founder of Formation Advisory, where she advises the world’s leading CEOs and public figures on AI strategy, and Director of the AI & Geopolitics Project at the University of Cambridge. Her book AI Needs You: how we can change AI’s future and save our own, was featured in the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Economist and named as one of McKinsey’s Best Books of 2024.

As Google DeepMind’s first Global Head of Public Policy, she co-founded the company’s policy, ethics and socio-technical teams as well as independent multi-stakeholder group Partnership on AI. Prior to her career in tech, Harding was a political adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK, focussed on national security. She has served on the boards of organisations including the Royal Academy of Arts and the Cabinet Office Digital Advisory Board, and is a current member of the Board of Trustees for The King’s Trust.

She sits at the crossroads of AI innovation, geopolitics and public policy, bringing board-level clarity on how the technology is reshaping competition, security and global influence.
She draws on senior leadership experience at Google and DeepMind to translate fast-moving AI developments into practical decisions leaders can act on with confidence.
She helps organisations anticipate regulatory and societal pressure, stress-test AI strategy and build responsible approaches that stand up to scrutiny from governments, investors and the public.
She equips audiences to engage with AI’s future constructively, combining rigorous research with real-world insight on how to shape outcomes rather than simply react to them.
She is a trusted voice in the global AI conversation, recognised by TIME100 AI, and brings that authority to keynotes, executive briefings and high-stakes stakeholder discussions.