Anna Baird

Speaking topics

Presentations listed below include in-person and virtual keynotes, as well as workshops, fireside chats, and other presentation formats.

• Data Fluency for the AI Era

  AI is moving at lightning speed, but it only works as well as the data behind it. However, in most organizations, “data” means something different depending on who you ask — a data scientist and a creative director can both say “let’s explore the data” and mean two completely different things. That mismatch keeps valuable data siloed and teams working against each other instead of together.

  Anna Baird argues the fix isn’t a shared glossary — it’s a shared practice. In this keynote, she shows leaders how to build data-literate cultures where everyone, from the C-suite to the frontlines, works with data in a compatible way. That shared foundation unlocks five critical “data superpowers”:

  • Perception: A clear, real-time view of what’s actually happening in the business.
  • Collaboration: Data that moves freely across teams instead of staying locked in silos.
  • Categorization: Messy data turned into organized, usable groups.
  • Prediction: Shifting from “what happened” to “what’s coming”.
  • Recommendation: Using data to decide what to do next, not just report on the past.

  Audiences will leave this session with a practical starting point for building data literacy in their own organization — and a stronger foundation for whatever AI systems they build on top of it.

• How to Move from Ideas to Innovation

  How do you stop a brilliant idea from “dying on the vine”? Anna Baird has advised thousands of enterprise companies in her former Google CXO role and she knows that true innovation requires more than just talent and tech; it requires a structural ecosystem designed to protect and grow it.

  In this session, Baird breaks down the six organizational tenets of transformation used by tech giants such as Google and LinkedIn to foster psychological safety and high-level performance and productivity.

  She equips audiences with a proven roadmap to help leaders in any industry transition from simple ideation to impactful innovation.

  Key takeaways include:

  • The Blueprint for Ideation: Learn how to align talent, structure, and strategy so employees know exactly how to scale a great idea.
  • The Power of Environment: Discover how empowerment and morale-boosting incentives create a “bottom-up” culture of crowdsourced solutions.
  • Embracing Productive Failure: Understand how psychological safety improves employee well-being while fueling smarter risk-taking.
  • Measuring What Matters: Gain insights into modern productivity metrics and how to leverage data to drive deeper organizational conversations.

• Build Your AI Test Kitchen

  As companies race down the AI path, it’s easy to get lost in the hype and lose sight of actual ROI. Anna Baird argues the best meals (business outcomes) are born from ingredients (data) and a thoughtful chef (human in the loop) using the right equipment (the tech).

  Her solution is what she calls an AI Test Kitchen: a low-stakes and safe sandbox where teams can experiment with AI tools without the pressure of getting it right immediately. The goal is exploration, not perfection. Sorting data use and examples into open vs. closed environments removes the guesswork — employees can focus on what’s possible with the technology instead of worrying about exposing sensitive data.

  Baird will walk through real examples of low-barrier AI trials that any team can run as they get oriented in this new landscape. She also shows how to design a Test Kitchen around your own team’s culture, and how to position it as a career-building opportunity — a chance to build in-demand skills in a collaborative, low-risk setting.

  Key takeaways include:

  • Examples of how different types of industries build AI Test Kitchens.
  • How to communicate with managers and individual contributors regarding fears of job loss, cognitive offloading, and adoption challenges.
  • How to reinvigorate or reinvent culture of innovation in your teams.

• How to Combat the Hidden Costs of the Intelligence Age

  The machines are learning, the servers are humming, and the earth is feeling the burn. The question leaders should be asking themselves today isn’t “What can AI do?” but “Can our world afford the price of the answer?”

  Many CXOs and boards are trying to run the cost-benefit analysis on AI but between ROI questions, budget constraints, and org structure debates, the harder questions are starting to surface: what are we actually giving up as we scale toward an AI-led future? How should our workforce prepare for what’s changing?

  In this session, Anna Baird breaks down the hidden costs of the intelligence age and the real differences between consumer-grade AI and what enterprise use actually demands. From cognitive offloading and security to environmental risk and emerging data sufficiency, she unpacks what businesses need to consider next as we reckon with the world’s bet on AI — a bet that’s quietly costing us physical and mental currency.

  Audiences will leave this session thinking differently about the AI race and their place within it. Baird equips leaders with the insight needed to build a sustainable AI strategy, instead of getting buried under the heat and weight of their own unmanaged data.