About
Tony de Bree
If you are looking for a hands-on online trendwatcher, AI keynote speaker, AI online event & workshop facilitator, boardroom consultant, and someone who uses different AI-tools every day to make money and save money instead of just observing from a distance, ‘benchmarking with dinosaurs’ as professors already called it in the Financial Times in 2000, what primarily large companies say and do regarding AI and ‘the future of AI’, then Tony is THE man to book.
He is a successful online trend watcher, AI-entrepreneur, AI-consultant, facilitator, myth buster, financial and economic columnist, and bestselling author of management books, e-books, and audiobooks in English and Dutch.
He worked for 26 years at ABN Amro Bank. As program manager eLearning & AI, in business ICT & strategy development, as EU-pm eCommerce, eBusiness, data mining & platforms for SMEs; in corporate venturing, as global pm eTrust in offshore banking with AI-powered KYC & eDMS; in restructuring, outsourcing, M&A, splits and reorganizations; as program manager Global Compliance & global split-up manager ‘Know Your Customer (KYC).
In 2001, he started making money online with short e-books on ‘Online Marketing’, ‘Making Money Online’, ‘Working At Home’ & ‘Online Freelancing’ as a side job next to his permanent job at ABN Amro.
In 2011, he said goodbye to his permanent job, ‘pivoting his life’ as he calls it, to become a successful self-employed individual with a new happy and healthy balance between private life and work.
At the beginning of the Covid-10 pandemic, he had to quickly change his business model to survive the global and national pandemic. Among other things, he stopped writing traditional management books and focused on short e-books and audiobooks just like in 2001.
In 2022, when ChatGPT first impacted online entrepreneurs like himself worldwide, he had to quickly design and implement a new AI-powered business model and revenue model to survive that ‘meteorite’ & be able to survive and thrive as AI entrepreneur in the AI-powered economy. He succeeded using a tsunami of non-corporate AI applications, fast learning with non-degree-oriented right-skilling in the non-corporate online gig economy and by co-designing new models, methods and tools like the AI-Model Canvas© and other short and simple tools.
1. Corporate & Non-Corporate AI Trends.
Many people are unaware that there are corporate AI trends and non-corporate AI trends for and by AI entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups, scale-ups, and other SMEs in the digital economy. What are significant non-corporate AI trends, how do they differ from corporate AI trends, and why should executives, managers, employees, and future entrepreneurs be aware and keep updated on non-corporate AI trends? This presentation provides the latest updates regarding rapid developments due to AI democratization in the non-corporate world and its impact on large companies and government organizations.
2. ChatGPT & the Job Market
Due to the rapid democratization of AI through ChatGPT and OpenAI-based apps, there has been a large AI layoff wave worldwide since late 2022 in high-tech, finance & marketing sectors. Which industries and jobs are affected within and outside large organizations, and what are the expectations for the future?
3. The Future of ChatGPT and OpenAI
Since November 2022, OpenAI has been launching more new language models (LM/s), and many large and small companies are developing and launching AI software based on these LMs. What does the future hold for ChatGPT and OpenAI?
4. The AI-Powered Company©
The world around us is changing rapidly. With the aid of ICT and, more so, AI, various forms of virtual organizations have emerged. New Lean & Mean companies are continually starting up, growing, and scaling by staying small with AI without becoming bureaucratic and slow. How can large companies integrate AI to quickly become an ‘AI-Powered Company©’ with a new culture and a healthy, positive work environment using the AI-Model Canvas©? What steps should be taken? And what are the qualities of future leaders? This talk provides insights, cases, examples, and a clear action plan.
5. AI – Powered Digital Transformation
Research from McKinsey and Harvard Business School repeatedly shows that AI technology is not the problem in AI-powered digital transformation of large companies and government, but the culture is. How can you transform your organization digitally with everyone integrated to successfully implement the right culture, values, norms, and AI strategy? This talk demonstrates which new tools and models can be used for this and what steps can be taken if you want to do this quickly and on time.
6. The AI-Powered Bank©
Traditional major banks, ‘dinosaurs’, must quickly become AI-Powered banks to survive and grow in the new digital economy. This means not only automating old business processes and saving costs by implementing ChatGPT but transforming the entire organization integrally to retain and attract customers and talents using the AI-Model Canvas©. New AI business models are visible online from FinTech and RegTech startups and scale-ups. This talk provides insight into how existing major banks can become AI-powered banks and how FinTech & RegTech startups & scaleups use to grow and scale using AI.
7. AI - Learning & Development and personal right-skilling
Like in other sectors, ChatGPT and AI in general have a significant impact on learning and development. This talk shows how a new online AI learning and development (AI L&O), Learning & Development (AI L&D) world is rapidly evolving with the support of AI besides the traditional world of regular low, middle, and higher education. The differences between ‘digitization’ at universities and business schools and online learning platforms are discussed. Executives, managers, and employees quickly need new soft and hard skills based on a personal right-skilling plan, a personal development plan, a ‘PDP’, for AI. So educational institutions and HR professionals must prepare everyone quickly and on time. Are you the entrepreneur, teacher, educator, HR professional, professor, or policy preparer who becomes an AI leader in AI L&D?
8. AI and a citizen-centric government
The same that applies to large existing companies also applies to all parts of the government at central, provincial level. AI offers an excellent opportunity for people working within the government to transition to a faster and less bureaucratic government. A government where everyone puts the citizen at the center with servant leadership and employs AI throughout the organization to achieve this. How do we accomplish this?
9. AI - The future of your work & income
Contrary to what many ‘corporate trend watchers and futurists’ tell you, hybrid working, working from home, online working, and working as a digital nomad are not new and not future music, but quite common for millions of people worldwide. And the same applies to virtual teams and virtual organizations. Since the beginning of the 21st century, self-employed entrepreneurs have already been working from home worldwide and hiring people for jobs. The ‘traditional Dutch job market no longer exists, and the global gig economy, especially the global online gig economy, is only growing while the number of permanent jobs is decreasing due to AI. What does this mean for the future of your work and income and that of managers and employees? And what can you do?
10. AI - The future of marketing & communication
This talk discusses the impact of AI democratization on marketing and communication developments in the online gig economy and the impact of ChatGPT and other AI applications on the marketing & communication sectors and on functions and professions. This talk provides insights into developments in the non-corporate world including generative ai, concrete examples, and a clear personal development plan depending on which next step you want to take in your career including starting your own business part-time or full-time.
11. AI - The future of Compliance & Risk
The use of AI within organizations, but also outside, offers many possibilities but also carries risks. For example, AI-powered cybercrime is increasing rapidly. People with wrong intentions can cause damage by attacking critical hardware and software infrastructure. This means that compliance & risk professionals need to be retrained quickly and then continue to learn continuously to keep up. In addition, AI offers many possibilities to partially or fully automate Compliance & Risk-related tasks. This talk provides a tailor-made overview of the opportunities and threats including practical tips.
12. AI in the board room
In the boardroom, questions are asked such as ‘what are the ethical implications of using AI, including ChatGPT?; how can we ensure that AI is used safely?; how can we save costs with AI?; how can we generate income with AI?; how can we ensure that AI is applicable in practice?; what is the impact of AI on our company?; how can we use AI to improve our competitive position?; how can we retrain and reskill everyone and how do we deal with staff who will lose their job due to AI? All these questions and other questions can be answered tailor-made in the lecture.
13. Workshop 1: AI-Powered Transformation with the AI-Model Canvas©
In the 1st workshop, participants are tasked with using the AI Model Canvas© and other simple tools to create an integrated AI-powered digital transformation plan. Where ‘the 7 levers of change’ in the organization design using the innovative AI-Model Canvas© are changed aligned with each other: people & skills, culture, core goals and core values, structure, strategy, processes & systems. Including the change of culture by using the right levers.
14. Workshop 2: Personal right-skilling for the AI-Powered Economy
The 2nd workshop is about creating a personal right-skilling plan for AI. In light of career planning for both existing staff and new talents to be attracted, and as plan-b in case of possible dismissal. Based on what we already know about which functions, jobs, and roles are disappearing due to ChatGPT as part of ‘the Great AI-Layoff’ and if people for example are forced or choose to become a successful AI entrepreneur/online entrepreneur part-time or full-time with a healthier balance between work and life.
15. Workshop 3: Pivoting your life for a better life/work balance
The 3rd workshop aims to help participants drastically change their personal and professional life: ‘pivoting your life’ in English. Many people dream of a different life because, for example, they work in an unhealthy work environment, because they are at risk of losing their permanent job due to AI or because they want to start their own business. In this workshop, practical tools are provided in combination with a step-by-step plan to proactively change your life instead of reactively like many people do when it is often already (almost) too late. Practical examples are central, combined with checklists and a workbook.