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The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau

A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.

Alexandra Samuel

We are the founding generation of the new workplace. Leading this workplace means embracing a pragmatic, creative approach to AI and online work.

Digital Workplace Expert | Author of Remote, Inc. | Author of JSTOR Daily's "Unfolding AI" Column

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Lavin Exclusive Speaker

Alexandra Samuel is a leading expert on the AI and the digital workplace, inspiring people with a joyful, actionable approach to AI that keeps human creativity and collaboration front and center. Drawing on her frequent AI stories for The Wall Street Journal and The Harvard Business Review, Alex shows audiences how to tap the productivity and innovation-boosting potential of AI, while managing its very real risks. “A.I. can redefine your professional and personal limitations,” she wrote in her cover story for The Wall Street Journal’s Report on Artificial Intelligence. That’s especially true if we harness these emergent technologies to make the most of what we now know about cognitive diversity—and that’s exactly what Alexandra does in her forthcoming book on how neurodiversity insights and tools can address the challenges of the digital workplace. “AI creates new opportunities for us to translate across different working styles, and to amplify each team member’s greatest talents,” she says. “Wherever you stand out, instead of fitting in—that’s where you can’t be replaced by AI.”

Remote, Inc. is a timely and practical guide, explaining how we can recharge, reset, and bring our full attention to the work that really matters.—Arianna Huffington

Alexandra Samuel’s unique approach to AI is showcased in her podcast Me + Viv, from Canadian broadcaster TVO. Featuring interviews with AI experts from around the world, it’s Alex’s personal story of navigating the new workplace by creating an AI coach; it’s a journalistic documentary, a tech guide, and a musical. That combination of big-picture thinking, practical how-to’s and contagious enthusiasm is what Alex brings to all of her keynotes and workshops.

Alexandra is also the author of Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work…Wherever You Are (with Robert C. Pozen) and Harvard Business Review’s Work Smarter with Social Media series. Her insights on workplace productivity, digital transformation, and neurodiversity have been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Fast Company and beyond. As the data journalist for Forbes‘ annual list of the World’s Most Influential CMOs, she has a deep understanding of how top brands navigate the changing landscape of work.

Alexandra holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University and brings both scholarly rigor and real-world experience to her analysis of how technology is reshaping the way we work and live. As the co-founder of one of the world’s first social media agencies, she has firsthand experience in building effective digital teams and cultures.

Through her work, Alexandra shows professionals and organizations how to thrive in the digital workplace by embracing neurovariety and harnessing the power of technology. Her insights offer a roadmap for transforming our approach to productivity and well-being in the 21st-century workplace.

Testimonials

As I started looking for experts to share practical tips and strategies to help our customers manage the remote and hybrid experience, I found Alexandra. She came highly recommended as a passionate, authentic speaker on this topic. Alexandra was a pleasure to work with and always responsive. The webinar audience comments were overwhelmingly positive. I highly recommend her as a speaker for your next event!

Zoom

Testimonials

Alexandra listened to the briefing that we gave her, which meant that she uniquely tailored her keynote to the needs of our audience. It was so perfectly aligned to the workshop prior to her speaking, that it really added to our meeting. Alexandra was engaging, confident, and backed all her points up with research—we especially valued that she prompted us to think differently about how we approach our hybrid workplace. I would certainly recommend Alexandra as a keynote speaker.

BC Lottery Corporation

Testimonials

Alex is amazing! We just loved her, and the audience did as well.

SGI/SGI CANADA

Lavin Exclusive Speakers

Angela Duckworth

Author of Grit, the #1 New York Times Bestseller | Pioneering Researcher on Grit, Perseverance, and the Science of Success

Daron Acemoglu

2024 Nobel Prize Winner | 3rd Most Cited Economist in the World | Bestselling Co-Author of Why Nations Fail and Power and Progress

Alison Wood Brooks

Harvard Business School Behavioral Science Professor | "40 Under 40 MBA Professor" | Author of TALK: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves

Derek Thompson

#1 New York Times Bestselling Co-Author of Abundance | Host of thePlain English Podcast | Founder of the Substack Derek Thompson

Clint Smith

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author of How the Word Is Passed and Above Ground | The Atlantic Staff Writer

Speech Topics

Generative AI and ChatGPT

AI-Powered CollaborationThe Future of Teamwork

The rise of AI isn’t just changing how we work as individuals—it’s transforming how we work together. In this practical and engaging talk, Alexandra Samuel shows how leading teams and organizations are using AI to reshape collaboration, communication and innovation. You’ll learn how AI can help break down silos, foster creativity, and ensure every team member’s strengths are utilized to their fullest potential. Alex will share real-world examples of AI-driven collaboration, and provide a roadmap for integrating AI into your own collaborative processes.

In this illuminating session, you’ll discover how to use AI to streamline workflows, enhance communication across distributed teams, and break down organizational silos. You’ll learn strategies for leveraging AI to facilitate more inclusive brainstorming, provide real-time language translation for global teams, and analyze team dynamics for improved performance. Alex offers inspiring case studies of organizations that have successfully integrated AI into their collaborative processes, and you’ll leave with a practical roadmap for transforming your own team’s approach to collaboration.

“AI gives us an unprecedented opportunity to rethink how we work together,” Alex says. “The organizations that thrive will be the ones that harness AI to create more vibrant, engaged and productive teams.”

Artificial Intelligence

Re-Imagining AI

What happens when machines think for us? The rapid adoption of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools has raised profound questions about the future of critical thinking, learning and innovation. But AI doesn’t have to be the end of the human story: Instead, it can open a new chapter—once we reckon with how AI transforms our relationship to knowledge, creativity and one another.

Drawing on her AI stories for The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review, Alexandra dismantles the false choice between either uncritically embracing AI’s productivity gains or rejecting it as an existential threat. Instead, she argues for using AI to hone our own human capacities for creativity and critical thinking and provides practical tactics you can use and share.

You’ll gain a new framework for thinking about AI—one that will transform how you approach your own work, your relationships, and ultimately, how you help others navigate this new landscape.

Corporate Culture

Humanizing Work in the AI Era

AI can boost individual performance, strengthen teams and drive organizational innovation—once we embrace the tactics that ensure AI makes the most of our human talents.

In this engaging talk, journalist and technology researcher Alexandra Samuel show you how to apply the approaches she covers in her AI stories for The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. When we use AI to address the chores and frictions that drain our energy and chip away at our relationships, Alex shows, it can become a catalyst for more effective, rewarding and collaborative work.

In this talk, Alex shares specific tactics that deliver on the promise of AI-supported collaboration, so that you leave with a new understanding of AI, and concrete steps to put it into practice.