Speaking Engagements
The Human Side of AI: Why Culture Will Determine Whether Your Organisation Survives the AI Revolution
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Organisations are spending billions on AI technology and almost nothing on the people expected to adopt it. The result is resistance, disengagement and cultural fractures that no algorithm can fix. In this keynote, Dr Anna Kiaos draws on her research in organisational mental health and her frontline experience inside a university navigating AI transformation to reveal what leadership teams are consistently getting wrong — and the cultural framework that separates organisations that thrive through disruption from those that quietly fall apart.
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When Culture Makes People Sick: The Intersection of Organisational Culture and Mental Health
We talk about workplace mental health as if it is an individual problem — something employees bring through the door and manage with an EAP hotline and a mindfulness app. It is not. The research is clear: organisational culture is one of the most powerful determinants of psychological wellbeing. Toxic leadership erodes mental health. Cultures of silence breed anxiety. Environments where people feel unseen, under-valued, or unsafe do not just reduce productivity — they make people unwell. Dr Kiaos's work sits at the precise intersection of these two fields, examining how the cultures organisations create shape the mental health of every person inside them. This keynote dismantles the myth that wellbeing is explicitly a personal responsibility and places it where it belongs — at the feet of the culture leaders build and tolerate. It offers a confronting but ultimately empowering framework for leaders who are ready to stop treating symptoms and start addressing the cultural root causes that are quietly damaging their people.
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The Frontline Fallout: How AI Is Transforming Customer Service and Breaking the People Behind It
AI is revolutionising customer service — chatbots handle the routine, agentic systems resolve complaints autonomously and organisations are racing to automate every interaction they can. The promise is faster resolution, lower costs and happier customers. But nobody is asking what happens to the humans left behind. Frontline workers are watching their roles shrink, their skills devalue and their job security evaporate in real time. Those who remain are increasingly handling only the most complex, emotionally charged and escalated interactions — the work AI cannot do — without the cultural support or psychological preparation to sustain it. The result is a workforce absorbing the hardest parts of customer service with none of the routine that once provided balance, operating inside cultures that celebrate the efficiency gains of AI while ignoring the human cost of achieving them. Dr Kiaos draws on her research in organisational culture and workplace mental health to expose what the customer service transformation is really doing to the people delivering it — and what leaders must do differently if they want AI to enhance the customer experience without destroying the employee experience. Because an organisation that automates its empathy outward while neglecting it inward is building a service model on a foundation that will not hold.
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Minds Under Pressure: The Hidden Mental Health Crisis in the Modern Workplace
One in five employees is struggling with their mental health right now and most of them are invisible to their managers. The cost to organisations is measured in billions — through absenteeism, attrition, presenteeism and the slow erosion of team performance that no engagement survey captures. Drawing on her background in mental health research and workplace consulting, Dr Kiaos cuts through the corporate wellness noise to reveal what is actually driving psychological distress in modern workplaces — and what leaders can do about it that goes beyond posters in the tearoom.
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Cultural Misalignment: AI, Why Restructures Fail and What Leaders Get Wrong About Change
Most organisational restructures achieve their structural objectives and fail their people. The departments are reorganised, the reporting lines are redrawn and within 18 months, the best people have left, morale has cratered and the culture the organisation relied on has quietly disintegrated. Dr Kiaos's research on government department restructures reveals a pattern she calls cultural misalignment — where formal structures and lived culture pull in opposite directions. This keynote gives leaders a diagnostic lens for understanding why change efforts fail and a practical framework for aligning structure and culture before the damage is done.
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Speaking engagements are tailored to your audience, format, and objectives. To discuss availability and fees, book a conversation
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