How AI, emerging technology, and changing customer expectations are shaping the future of business
What happens when customers ask an AI assistant which companies to consider before they ever visit your website? How will your team respond if buyers arrive with a shortlist, a price comparison, and expectations set by tools you’ve never seen?
Chris N. Cheetham-West, MBA, is a futurist keynote speaker who helps leaders decide what to prepare for as technology and customer behavior change. He draws on his experience as a Google marketing manager and founder of LevelGrowth SEO to explain how buyers discover and evaluate businesses. Through LR Training Solutions, the company he founded, he helps teams put emerging tools to work.
Check Chris’s availability for your event
Event formats · In-person and virtual keynotes, leadership briefings, and interactive workshops
Best fit · Corporate conferences, association conventions, leadership offsites, and sales kickoffs
Featured keynote
The Future of Business and What Leaders Can Do Now
A customer asks ChatGPT or Google Gemini to compare providers. A sales team uses AI to prepare for the first meeting. A service team automates routine requests and gives employees more time for complex cases. Each shift changes a different part of the customer relationship. Together, they ask leaders to decide where technology can make the biggest difference for customers and employees.
In this keynote, Chris examines how AI, automation, digital platforms, and changing customer expectations are reshaping marketing, sales, operations, and leadership. He shows how to use changes already underway to test assumptions about what customers and employees may need next.
What to watch, what to test, and what to prepare for
- Watch how buying behavior changes. Compare what customers see in a traditional search with what an AI assistant says when asked to recommend providers. Look for the questions buyers ask that your website or sales materials leave unanswered.
- Test one change now. Give a sales team an AI-assisted way to prepare for discovery calls. Compare prep time and the quality of the questions reps bring to meetings.
- Prepare for two plausible futures. If buyers keep relying on referrals and traditional search, make it easier for them to verify what you do. If more buyers arrive with AI-generated shortlists, make your services and evidence of results easier to find and compare. Ask which investments help in both situations.
What your audience will take away
- Recognize which trends deserve attention. Assess emerging technologies against customer needs, team readiness, and business priorities.
- Spot practical uses for AI and automation. Explore ways teams can reduce repetitive work, prepare for customer conversations, and share information more effectively.
- Make better decisions about the customer experience. Identify where faster service helps and where customers still need empathy, judgment, or a conversation with a person.
- Leave with a 30-day next step. Identify one change to test, who should own it, and what result would justify expanding it.
Related keynote topics
- The future of business and growth. Explore how AI and customer experience influence business decisions across departments. Explore the Future of Business keynote
- AI for sales and marketing. See how teams can use AI to research prospects, sharpen messaging, and understand how brands show up in AI-assisted search. Explore the AI for Marketing keynote
- The future of marketing and consumer behavior. Examine how audiences discover brands, what earns their attention, and how to communicate clearly across channels. Explore the Marketing Trends keynote
- Emerging technology and workplace productivity. Explore how AI, data, automation, and collaboration tools can support everyday work and better decisions. Explore the Technology keynote
How the keynote can fit your event
- Association convention. Help members consider how AI-assisted search and changing service expectations could affect their industry, then give them a way to compare what they’re seeing across their businesses.
- Executive offsite. Use two plausible scenarios to test assumptions behind a growth plan and decide which investments would make sense in either case.
- Sales or marketing kickoff. Follow a buyer from an AI-generated shortlist to a first sales conversation and examine where your team can provide clearer answers or better evidence.
About Chris N. Cheetham-West
Chris is an international keynote speaker, author, and entrepreneur. At Google, he helped organizations understand and adopt emerging technologies. Today, his work spans AI adoption and training through LR Training Solutions and search visibility through LevelGrowth SEO. He has presented in 48 U.S. states and worked with audiences internationally. His books include Digital Marketing for Results and Leading in a Virtual World. Read Chris’s speaker bio
Read feedback from past speaking audiences
Frequently asked questions
What does a futurist keynote speaker do?
A futurist keynote speaker helps an audience understand changes already underway, consider how those changes could play out, and decide what to do today. Chris focuses on what shifts in AI, emerging technology, and customer behavior could mean for how your organization grows and serves customers.
Does the keynote include live demos?
Live demos can be included based on your audience and format. For example, Chris can show how an AI assistant responds to a customer’s buying question, then walk through what the response could mean for the businesses being compared.
Is the presentation available in person or virtually?
Yes. Chris offers in-person and virtual presentations. The topic can also be adapted into a leadership briefing or an interactive workshop for groups that want to work through examples together.
Book Chris for your next event
Share your event date, location or virtual format, and what you want your audience to take away. Chris and his team can help you choose a focus that fits your agenda.
