Futurist Jim Carroll
Know What Changes Next.
Move Before It Does.
For over 30 years, Jim has guided the world’s most iconic brands
through transformation, economic volatility, and industry upheaval.
Today he turns AI, accelerating technology and industry disruption into a customized
action map for your leadership team, grounded in deep research into your sector.
2,000+ keynotes · 2M+ audience members · 60+ countries
Jim reads and answers every inquiry personally, usually the same day.
Futurist Jim Carroll is on a mission to help organizations understand how to align to tomorrow, today.
Jim Carroll has been the trusted advisor to the world’s most influential organizations, including NASA, Disney, and The World Bank. He provides the insight they need to move forward with big ideas and bold action. His expertise is rooted in detailed, customized research, delivering actionable strategies for an era of relentless disruption.
This focus on opportunity is at the heart of every keynote. Jim’s goal is to energize the room, shifting the audience’s perspective from a fear of the future to an excitement for its potential.
VIDEO: The Jim Carroll Advantage
Thirty years of pattern recognition, plus current research into your industry. Here’s what that means for your event.
VIDEO: Trusted by World-Class Innovators
World-class innovators turn to Jim for insight on what comes next. Learn why NASA, Disney, Pfizer and the PGA selected Jim for their event.
VIDEO: Leadership Meetings
You thought you had time to prepare for a faster future – and then the explosive acceleration of all trends happened. Now what? I’ll show you the way!
VIDEO: A Keynote As Unique As Your Challenges
Deep insight based on extensive, customized insight – that’s what Jim Carroll is known for.
Partial Client List
ACCELERATE INNOVATION,
DELIVER GROWTH!
In a world of relentless change, it is a given that you need to know how to align to tomorrow, today.
That’s the insight that Futurist Jim Carroll will share with you. Imagine if you could accelerate your way into the future, by clearly aligning future trends, your strategic thinking, and your internal engine of creativity. Countless global organizations have engaged Jim Carroll for his unique insight and proven track record in providing a customized leadership program that will let you:
- SEE DISRUPTIVE TRENDS: you’ll better understand the trends that will impact you in the near and longer-term
- FOCUS ON OPPORTUNITY: you will achieve clarity on the trends that matter
- ALIGN TO DISRUPTION: you will shift your thinking to the actions that matter
- UNLOCK CREATIVITY: you will discover that it’s buried in your teams – and how you can let it out
- ACHIEVE AGILITY: you will learn more about the role of fast-teams
- ENHANCE YOUR SPEED: you will discover how to better align to our faster future
- ACCELERATE INNOVATION: you will find ways to rethink your strategic pipeline
- COLLABORATE MORE: you will maximize the benefit of your internal idea factory
- DELIVER ON GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES: you shift from reactive defense to disruptive offense
You will join the company of global leaders at Disney, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, BASF, Nikon, and hundreds more who have found that Jim’s crystal clear trends and innovation insight take them into a world in which the future belongs to those who are fast!
Signature Keynotes:
Know What Changes Next in Your Industry
Every keynote is built on deep research into your sector, and ends with what your leaders should do next. Choose the brief that fits your audience; Jim customizes it from there.
The Opportunity Horizon: What Changes Next in Your Industry, and What to Do About It
When the brief is: our audience needs to understand what changes in our industry between now and 2030, and leave ready to act.
Jim cuts through the hype to reveal the specific megatrends—from AI and economic volatility to supply chain reinvention and the future of work—that will define the next decade of your industry. Your team leaves with a clear framework to identify transformative opportunities, mitigate emerging risks, and build an actionable plan for growth.
The AI Acceleration Advantage: What AI Changes in Your Industry, Your Workforce and Your Competitive Model
When the brief is: we need an AI keynote that isn’t another generic ChatGPT talk.
AI isn’t just a technology; it’s a total business transformation. Jim shows leaders what generative AI, machine intelligence and automation will do to their specific business model, and how to close the skills gap as the pace of change outruns the workforce. The result is a practical roadmap from experimentation to real advantage.
Lead at the Speed of Change: Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast
When the brief is: our leadership team understands change, but isn’t moving fast enough.
Speed is the ultimate competitive advantage, and volatility is the single greatest opportunity for innovation. Drawing on lessons from companies that thrived during past downturns, Jim delivers a battle-tested playbook to foster agility, empower bold thinking and execute with precision. Based on his books Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast and Dancing in the Rain.
Being Unique: Why the Odd One Out Gets to the Future Faster
AI just handed everyone the same tools, the same data—and increasingly the same ideas. The result is a crushing sameness, and in a world moving this fast, sameness means arriving at the future last. In this provocative keynote, Jim makes the case that tomorrow never belongs to those who fit in—it belongs to the rebels and the odd ones out who refuse to conform and get there first. Based on Jim’s new book, Being Unique.
Proven on the world’s biggest stages
In a world of big disruptive change, you don’t need to be chasing small ideas!
Senior leaders at the world’s most demanding organizations turn to Jim Carroll to align their people to tomorrow.
Jim right now
Recent keynotes
April 2026 · Agriculture & Food
CPMA
The Produce Industry Was Moving At Consumer Speed. Fresh Was Becoming Smarter.
February 2025 · Automotive & Transportation
CADA 2025
The Dealership Was Entering The Age Of Digital Mobility.
November 2024 · Construction & Infrastructure
DCA
Construction Was Entering An Era Of Acceleration.


Headline engagement
The Prime Minister’s Office of the UAE
The Challenge: A nation built to move faster than the world wanted a blueprint to stay out in front — across the economy, technology, the environment, society, and government itself.
The Result: The UAE Prime Minister’s Office commissioned Jim’s bespoke keynote “The Future in 5 Perspectives,” mapping the megatrends to 2035 and the mindset a fast nation needs to lead.

Invited twice
NASA
Shifting the mindset of astronauts and engineers for the era of space commercialization.

The World Bank
Helping a pillar of global development think decades ahead — including the IFC in Marrakesh.

Disney
Even a company built on imagination wanted an outside read on what comes next.

Ahead of the curve
Pfizer
A keynote on the future of healthcare — months before those trends reshaped the industry.

PGA of America
Opened the Annual Meeting and keynoted the Merchandise Show — before 40,000 attendees.

Volvo
Navigating the biggest shift in automotive history — electrification and autonomy.

The BBC
A futurist’s read on the wholesale disruption of media and audience behaviour.

Microsoft
Where accelerating technology takes business, work, and industry next.

World Government Summit
On stage before heads of government for the “Fast Forward to the Future” session.
Also on the client roster
READY TO ADD YOUR ORGANIZATION TO THE LIST OF GLOBAL INNOVATORS WHO TRUST JIM CARROLL? CHECK HIS AVAILABILITY AND BOOK NOW!
From the Stage to the Page: A Playbook for the Future
Jim’s actionable insights aren’t just for the stage. They are captured in a series of influential books that provide leaders with a practical playbook for innovation, growth, and navigating uncertainty. This is the deep strategic thinking that fuels every keynote.
- Being Unique: Why the Rebels, the Odd Ones Out, and the Crazy Ones Always Win! (new in 2026!)
- Dancing in the Rain: A leader’s guide to growing stronger in stormy times. (new in 2025!)
- Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast: Your playbook for momentum in the era of acceleration.
- Escaping Mediocrity: The antidote to inaction and a roadmap to the extraordinary. (new in 2025!)
- Embracing Mediocrity: A satirical masterclass on how to play small, think less, and stay comfortably stuck. (new in 2025!)
Futurist Jim Carroll is regularly booked by CEOs and senior executives of major organizations to provide an opening or closing keynote, on a highly customized topic. Learn more!
EXTENSIVE, CUSTOMIZED
INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC EXPERTISE
“How long have you been a farmer?” asked one audience member of Jim after his keynote for a global agricultural organization.
That’s a testament to the massive in-depth industry expertise that Jim Carroll carries onto the stage for his highly specific, information-rich, heavily researched industry keynotes. He has *extensive* expertise in all of these industries and can delight you with his background and share a list of the global clients within the industries who have arranged for his industry insight.
- agriculture
- banking and finance
- education
- insurance
- healthcare
- automotive, trucking, and transportation
- manufacturing
- retail
- global economic development
Need to know more? Visit Jim’s industry page -> industries.jimcarroll.com
GLOBAL AUDIENCES
Jim Carroll has done a LOT of international work; he’s presented in Dubai, São Paulo, Budapest, Sydney, Munich, Athens, Stuttgart, Prague, London, Paris, Brussels, Ghent, Stockholm, Zurich, Tokyo, Muscat, Mexico …. and in all of these situations, he has ensured that he is respectful of the audience in terms of pace, culture and local content, and translation requirements. Global experience matters.
WORKING WITH A SPEAKERS BUREAU?
Jim Carroll is represented by leading global bureaus, including the Harry Walker Agency, Washington Speakers Bureau, APB Speakers and BigSpeak. Booking through a bureau or direct costs the same. Bureaus and planners: get the 2027 Planner Pack.





From the Stage to the Page: A Playbook for the Future


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