Sharold Palmer

AI is advancing faster than the structures designed to govern it. But regulation alone cannot tell leaders what they should build, where AI should be used, whose interests it should serve or when human judgement must take precedence. In this provocative and practical signature talk, Sharold Palmer challenges organisations to move beyond compliance checklists and place people, accountability and values at the heart of AI leadership. Drawing on more than 20 years of international digital transformation and product leadership, Sharold introduces her Capability Before Complexity approach: a framework for building the visibility, ownership, human oversight, workforce confidence, vendor accountability and evidence required to adopt AI responsibly. She also makes a clear case for women and diverse voices to be central to the leadership and development of AI technologies, not simply using the systems or living with their consequences, but shaping what is created, how it is governed and whose future it represents. Audiences leave with a more demanding set of questions, a practical route from AI ambition to accountable action, and a powerful central message: regulation establishes the minimum standard, but values determine whether AI earns trust, strengthens human capability and creates progress worth having.