Kate O’Neill is the leading experience strategy expert and thinker top organizations turn to for solving human problems at scale along with her signature “optimism about the role of technology in the world along with a firm reality check” (according to one Google executive). Kate is CEO of KO Insights, a strategic advisory firm committed to improving human experience at scale.
The organizations we have helped have included the likes of IBM, the United Nations, Yale University, and the city of Amsterdam. They’re organizations with storied histories, big futures, and complex challenges — perhaps not unlike yours. Each of them is responsible for a whole lot of humans and a whole lot of human experiences, and they all rely on big human insights to pull their strategies together.
Need consulting? Workshops? Guidance for your team? Reach out to inquire.
Engaging, insightful, expert content to help a wide variety of audiences rethink their approach to technology and humanity for better business results and better human experiences. More topics and details listed here.
Helping companies and organizations facing digital transformation — or any transformation
Kate introduced the term “human-centric digital transformation” in Tech Humanist and her Human-Centric Digital Transformation model and canvas helps leadership teams think through and work through how their own transformation can be more human-centric and more successful overall.
Whether our team is leading executive strategy workshops in Barcelona, Hong Kong, or Washington D.C., the KO Insights priority is to help leadership teams align on their priorities, so they can become better stewards of the human experiences they create and accelerate through digital transformation.
Need a keynote speaker, strategic advisor, or strategic workshop facilitator on Digital Transformation? Inquire with us.
Helping cities and regions looking ahead to a complex future

Kate has helped cities from Amsterdam to Austin, from Nanaimo (on Vancouver Island) to Nashville think about their forward-looking strategies through the lens of meaningful human experiences, addressing vast and integrative topics like AI and the future of work, equitable housing strategies, climate mitigation, digital services, public spaces and placemaking, and so on.
In the face of complexity, focusing on human experience gets you surprisingly far.
Need a keynote speaker for your city’s event, or strategic guidance on the Future of Cities? Contact us.
How can we help you help the humans who rely on you succeed?
Kate is helping humanity prepare for a future driven by emerging technology and other changes at scale. Along the way, she helps companies, organizations, and cities adopt integrative strategies with meaningful human experience at their core — leading to successful use of data and emerging technology while creating more meaningful and profitable connections with the humans who do business with you and rely on you.
Need a Futurist perspective? How about a hopeful view of the future?
Kate has been called “the optimistic futurist” and her newly-released book, A Future So Bright, introduces the concept of “Strategic Optimism,” a hopeful yet disciplined approach to help us fulfill the best possible outcomes for humanity. She applies this model to the role of tech in the future of meaningful human experience, climate change and sustainable business strategy, the future of work and jobs, the future of cities, the future of trust and truth, the future of privacy, and even beyond.
Need a human-centric perspective on emerging technologies?
Long known as the “Tech Humanist,” Kate is known industry-wide as the voice of humanity in tech.
Doing a virtual event and need a speaker you can count on?
Kate literally wrote the book on how the physical and digital worlds connect. It’s more than the Internet of Things; it’s about how both online and offline experiences can be as rich and meaningful as possible. More than that, Kate’s a Certified Virtual Presenter who has given rich, interactive keynotes over just about every platform. Learn more about our virtual programs.
A wide range of experiences distilled into insightful experience strategy
Author of several books including her newly-released A Future So Bright: How Strategic Optimism and Meaningful Innovation Can Restore Our Humanity and Save the World, as well as earlier books Tech Humanist: How You Can Make Technology Better for Business and Better for Humans and Pixels and Place: Connecting Human Experience Across Physical and Digital Spaces, Kate brings depth, breadth, humor, and humanity to data, technology, and business topics, and bridges the gap between business interests and human needs. An award-winning entrepreneur, author, technologist, and strategist, Kate has a diverse and accomplished background — in analytics, strategy, technology, marketing, and linguistics. That wide-ranging personal and professional experience allows her to connect with and be trusted by an array of audiences — from senior executives to students, from engineers to artists.
Trusted to speak to leaders and customers by brands you know and love:
Kate has spoken for tech giants like Google and IBM, conglomerates like Comcast, food brands like McDonald’s and Coca Cola, health leaders like Cleveland Clinic, universities like Cambridge and Yale, cities like Amsterdam and Austin, several groups within the United Nations, and hundreds of technical and marketing industry conferences, association conferences and annual meetings, corporate events, and more.

“I definitely recommend Kate as a keynote speaker at any type of professional event. Her experience creates an arsenal of expert subjects she can share to inspire a variety of audiences.”
— event organizer