Neil Thompson

Does your organization find itself on the back foot as AI headlines upturn one area after
another? As the technology behind tools like artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing matures and the business applications multiply, business leaders need to know how to plan for these technologies in their strategic and operational plans.

Neil Thompson, Ph.D., has become one of the world’s leading experts on helping organizations understand these technologies so they can harness the best the tech has to offer while avoiding the pitfalls that can lead to expensive project failures.

Director of the FutureTech research project, one of the largest labs at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), and a Principal Investigator at MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, Thompson combines practical business savvy from being a management consultant with deep technical knowledge in computer science, economics and statistics. He advises businesses and government leaders on how deep technical and economic trends can be built into their forecasting and strategies to stay abreast of fast-moving developments in AI. His talks build on his lab’s extensive work studying what drives AI progress, how much it costs, and what risks it creates.

A former Bain management consultant to companies on three continents, his main avenues of research focus on AI – how it is developing and what this means for the economics of AI deployments, how AI will lead to automation and augmentation of human work, the unique challenge of scaling AI technology through the lens of Moore’s Law, and the policy implications of AI task automation. He also helps business leaders understand how they should be thinking about the next evolution of technology: quantum computing.

“Many businesses can be improved by just understanding what can be done with this technology that’s advancing incredibly fast,” explains Thompson, who previously co-directed MIT’s Experimental Innovation Lab (X-Lab). “Applied strategically, technology like AI can help leaders make really important decisions that they may have been struggling with before.”

From Jobs to Economies, How to Design a Cost-Effective AI Path

As widespread adoption of AI continues to unfold, many leaders are wondering how the economy will be impacted. Powerful systems are both shifting the traditional paradigm of the monetary value of human expertise and require vast infrastructure to operate.

Thompson helps leaders address questions ranging from understanding the cost of implementing sophisticated AI systems to investigating whether such systems would improve on existing human skills. With strategies for assessing if tasks are even economically attractive to automate in the first place, Thompson applies his advanced training in both computer science and economics to provide a unique, cross-discipline expertise of the interaction between emerging technology and economics.

“A lot of what’s going on in AI from a technical standpoint is very predictable,” explains Thompson, who holds seven degrees, including a master’s in computer science from U.C. Berkeley as well one in economics from the London School of Economics. “Because the tech advancements are predictable, you can also gather a lot of insight into what it’s going to mean for economies.”

Explaining that the same tools researchers use to foresee coming technological advancements can be applied to demystify how the economic impacts of AI will play out, he provides executives with practical strategies for gleaning useful economic wisdom, allowing companies to forge a cost-effective, AI-enabled path ahead.

Don’t Throw it All at the Wall – Understand the Applications of Emerging Technologies First

As AI continues to advance and diffuse across businesses, governments, economies and society at large, virtually all aspects of life will be touched by advanced technologies. With so many terms swirling around emerging technology today – “generative AI,” “computer vision” and “quantum computing” to name a few – it can be difficult for executives to identify how such tech advances can be practically applied in their organization.

Thompson helps leaders sort through the various technologies to show how they may – or may not – provide new avenues of prosperity and growth.

“With talk around advanced systems increasing, it’s important to understand that tools like quantum computing for example are only going to affect a small subset of tasks firms want to do,” explains Thompson, who previously worked at the elite Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “Technologies like quantum aren’t going to replace everything, which is why I help leaders figure out how to think about them, what kinds of problems they can be used for, and when they’ll even arrive in the first place.”

By helping business, government and non-profit leaders become familiar now with the powerful technology tools of tomorrow and how to leverage them, Neil Thompson lifts the curtain on potential implications on jobs, the business world and even policy and geopolitics.

Neil Thompson, Ph.D., is the director of the FutureTech research project at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab and a Principal Investigator at MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy.

Previously, he was an Assistant Professor of Innovation and Strategy at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he co-directed the Experimental Innovation Lab (X-Lab), and a visiting professor at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard. Thompson has advised businesses and government on the future of Moore’s Law, has been on National Academies panels on transformational technologies and scientific reliability, and is part of the Council on Competitiveness’ National Commission on Innovation & Competitiveness Frontiers.

Thompson has a Ph.D. in Business and Public Policy from Berkeley, where he also completed master’s degrees in computer science and statistics. In addition, he holds a master’s in economics from the London School of Economics as well as undergraduate degrees in physics and international development. Prior to academia, Thompson worked at organizations such as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Bain and Company, the United Nations, the World Bank, and the Canadian Parliament.

Neil Thompson is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers & Advisors, a division of Stern Strategy Group®.