Kate O'Neill
Founder and CEO, KO Insights; author of What Matters Next
The Tech Humanist
Kate O'Neill is widely known as the "Tech Humanist"[1]. Her work looks at the effect of technology on humanity and tries to bridge business interests and human needs[1]. She is founder and CEO of KO Insights, a strategic advisory firm[1].
KO Insights describes itself as a technology and strategy consulting firm that works to improve human experience at scale[2]. It focuses on data-driven, algorithmically optimised and AI-led interactions[2]. Its work covers how digital transformation and emerging technology affect people[2]. It also covers AI ethics and decision-making[2].
Her Wiley author biography lists Google, IBM, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Yale and the United Nations among her clients[3]. Thinkers50 notes that she has appeared as an expert tech commentator on the BBC and NPR[1]. It also notes that she is an invited attendee at United Nations AI Advisory Body meetings[1].
Netflix, Toshiba and an early analytics agency
O'Neill has more than 25 years of experience in digital innovation[2]. She was one of the first 100 employees at Netflix, where she held the company's first content management role[1][2].
She also built Toshiba America's first intranet[1][2]. She later founded [meta]marketer, which Thinkers50 calls one of the first digital strategy and analytics agencies[1].
Her book list includes Lessons from Los Gatos, about her time at Netflix[4].
Books on human-friendly technology
O'Neill published Pixels and Place: Connecting Human Experience Across Physical and Digital Spaces in 2016[1]. Tech Humanist: How You Can Make Technology Better for Business and Better for Humans followed in 2018[1]. In 2021 she published A Future So Bright: How Strategic Optimism Can Restore Our Humanity and Save the World[1]. That book was shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Digital Thinking Award in 2023[1].
Wiley published her latest book, What Matters Next: A Leader's Guide to Making Human-Friendly Tech Decisions in a World That's Moving Too Fast, in January 2025[3]. The book shows leaders how to move from questions to insights to what she calls "Bankable Foresights"[3]. It also covers how human knowledge and machine intelligence can work together, and how to frame digital transformation in human terms[3].
Thinkers50 named What Matters Next one of its Top 10 Best New Management Books of 2025[1][3]. The book was also longlisted for the 2025 Porchlight Business Book Awards and was a finalist in the International Book Awards[3]. Thinkers50 lists O'Neill as a ranked thinker in 2025[1]. Her next book, The Weirding, is in development and treats the world's growing strangeness as something that can be studied[4].
Views on AI and work
Her keynotes cover AI ethics, responsible technology, digital experience strategy and human-centric digital transformation[5]. In a September 2025 interview with Allwork.Space she explained what separates people from AI[6]. "The fundamental difference between humans and machines is that humans are sense making beings," she said[6]. AI, by contrast, starts from data, prediction and statistical models[6].
In the same interview she supported using AI "in an additive way to the capabilities and the capacity of your organization" rather than to replace human labour[6]. She said that in some cases replacing parts of human work will be needed[6]. She added that adopting AI in a purpose-centred, values-based way matches what she argues in What Matters Next[6].
Known for
- The "Tech Humanist"
- Founder and CEO of KO Insights
- Author of What Matters Next (Wiley, 2025)
- One of the first 100 employees at Netflix
Sources
- Thinkers50: Kate O'Neill biography — checked 8 Nov 2026
- KO Insights: About — checked 8 Nov 2026
- Wiley-VCH: What Matters Next — checked 8 Nov 2026
- KO Insights: Books — checked 8 Nov 2026
- KO Insights: Speaking — checked 8 Nov 2026
- Allwork.Space: Why AI and ESG must evolve together, with Kate O'Neill, September 2025 — checked 8 Nov 2026