Technology is only as good as the human in it. Don’t AI you out of yourself.
Danielle Di-Masi is a university lecturer, global advisor and international keynote speaker on the human side of AI and technology.
For 16 years, her work has tracked the human impact of technology across major shifts in how we communicate and work, from human behaviour and digital communication to online identity, social platforms and now artificial intelligence.
The technology changed. Her subject never did.
Today, Danielle examines what becomes more valuable about humans as AI makes polished output, information and capability increasingly accessible. Her position is pro-human and pro-technology: use the tools, but do not outsource the judgment, instinct, context, identity and original perspective that create real human value and impact.
Danielle has advised Fortune 100 companies and worked with organisations including Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Meta, Samsung, Cisco, Uber, Mastercard, American Express, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ, Deloitte, KPMG, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Porsche, Toyota, Qantas, Telstra, 3M, Bayer and Pfizer, alongside universities and government.
A university lecturer for more than 14 years, she has taught from undergraduate through MBA and PhD level and advised academic boards. Before moving into digital communication and technology, Danielle spent more than a decade in senior roles across corporate finance, investment banking and private banking.
For years she was a resident expert on Australian national television. Her work has appeared in Bloomberg, Forbes, Business Insider, GQ, Cosmopolitan, Psychology Today, the Los Angeles Times and the Australian Financial Review.
Danielle is a four-time award winner of the Most Innovative Communications Professional of the Year and has also won awards for Most Innovative Woman in Marketing, Female Entrepreneur of the Year, Innovator of the Year and Woman of the Year. She is also a Guinness World Record holder.
Based in Los Angeles and working globally, Danielle brings a current international perspective to the human side of AI and technology.
Talking Points
The Human AI-Advantage: The Human Side of an AI-Shaped World
Technology has spent decades becoming better at helping humans do more. AI has changed the scale.The Human AI-Advantage: The Human Side of an AI-Shaped World
It can now make almost anyone faster, more capable and more polished in seconds. That is extraordinary. It also changes where value lives.
When information is abundant, polished output is easy and capability is increasingly augmented by the same tools, what becomes more important is what the human brings to them.
Judgment. Instinct. Context. Perspective. Trust. Identity. Accountability. Lived experience. The ability to understand another human being.
Danielle has been speaking about the human side of technology for 16 years. In this keynote, she brings that work directly into the AI era: what technology should make easier, what humans should get better at and what we should never outsource.
AUDIENCES LEAVE WITH:
• a clear understanding of what AI is changing about the value of human work
• the human capabilities becoming more important as technology becomes more capable
• a way to identify where AI is sharpening their work and where it is flattening it
• practical principles for what to accelerate with AI and what to retain as distinctly human
• greater clarity around the judgment, context and perspective they uniquely bring
• a useful and optimistic framework for working with AI without becoming less themselves
WORKSHOP VERSION
Teams apply the Human Element directly to their own work. They identify where AI is creating genuine advantage, where it is creating sameness and which decisions, capabilities and interactions still require meaningful human ownership.
Participants leave with a practical map of:
What AI should do.
What the human should do.
And where the two together create something better than either could alone.
Who the Tech Are you?! Personal and Professional Brand in an AI World
Before people meet you, they increasingly meet a version of you.Who the Tech Are you?! Personal and Professional Brand in an AI World
Your LinkedIn profile. Your Google results. Your digital footprint. Your bio. Your content. Your emails. Your presentations. And now, increasingly, communication created or shaped by AI.
Danielle has spent 16 years working at the intersection of human identity, communication and technology.
Her central question has always been deceptively simple:
Who are you?
Because technology can help communicate an identity. It cannot decide what that identity should be.
When millions of people ask the same technology to make them sound smarter, stronger, more polished and more professional, everyone gets better on paper and everyone risks sounding increasingly alike.
Who The Tech Are You?! shows people and organisations how to establish professional identity, trust and visible credibility while remaining recognisably human in a world where everyone has access to the same tools.
AUDIENCES LEAVE WITH:
• a clear understanding of what others actually experience when they encounter them professionally
• a way to define and articulate what is distinctly valuable about them
• practical ways to build visible credibility without becoming performative or self-promotional
• an approach to personal brand that strengthens the organisation they represent
• a way to align offline reputation with online presence
• principles for using AI without outsourcing voice, judgment or identity
• a far better answer to: Who are you and why you?
WORKSHOP VERSION:
Participants audit their professional presence in real time.
They examine what currently appears when someone searches them, clarify the professional identity they want to communicate, rebuild key profile and introduction language and create an approach to professional visibility that is useful, credible and sustainable.
They leave sounding more like themselves. Not more like everybody else.
Four Generations. One Team: Human Connection and Impact Across the Modern Multigenerational Workforce
Multiple generations are now working alongside one another while AI simultaneously changes how all of them work.Four Generations. One Team: Human Connection and Impact Across the Modern Multigenerational Workforce
But they are experiencing that change from completely different professional starting points.
Danielle has a rare view across that spectrum. She teaches university students preparing to enter professional life and works with senior leaders running organisations, often around the same underlying human and communication challenges.
Her work has shown her something important:
The problem does not automatically solve itself with experience.
Questions about identity, value, communication, audience, relevance and trust can begin at graduation and follow someone into the executive suite if they are never deliberately addressed.
This keynote moves beyond generational stereotypes and focuses on how people at different career stages understand one another, communicate and contribute inside a rapidly changing workplace.
AUDIENCES LEAVE WITH:
• an understanding of when generational friction is actually a communication problem
• insight into how career stage changes the way people experience AI and workplace change
• practical ways to accelerate the credibility and contribution of early-career hires
• ways for experienced professionals to remain visible, current and valuable
• stronger approaches to onboarding, feedback, development and knowledge transfer
• a shared language for multigenerational teams
• a clearer understanding of what each generation can contribute to the others
WORKSHOP VERSION:
Mixed-generation teams identify the moments where communication is breaking down, what each group is interpreting incorrectly about the others and what people at different career stages genuinely need from one another.
The goal is not to make everybody the same. It is to make difference useful.
Get Picked: How to Become the Clear Choice When AI Makes Everyone Look Good on Paper
The best candidate does not automatically get the job. The most impressive sales professional can still lose the deal. The best business does not automatically win the client. The strongest idea does not automatically win support.Get Picked: How to Become the Clear Choice When AI Makes Everyone Look Good on Paper
And when everyone has access to tools capable of creating polished proposals, presentations, profiles and pitches, looking excellent becomes even less useful as proof that you are the best option.
The decision moves to relevance, trust, fit, clarity and perceived risk.
Danielle teaches a practical framework built around making sure you become the clear choice in an AI-polished world. It applies wherever one human needs another human to understand why the value in front of them matters: sales, leadership, professional services, client relationships, entrepreneurship, recruitment, careers and high-stakes communication.
AUDIENCES LEAVE WITH:
• a way to recognise where they have become indistinguishable from competitors
• a stronger understanding of what the decision-maker actually needs
• a method for translating capability into relevance
• an approach to reducing perceived risk and building trust
• language that makes their value immediately easier to understand
• a framework for competing on something more meaningful than price
WORKSHOP VERSION:
Teams work on real opportunities.
They audit live pitches, proposals or client conversations, identify where they are blending into the competitive set and rebuild the communication from the other person’s point of view.
Participants leave with stronger live material and a repeatable method for preparing for high-stakes conversations.
What You Cannot Delegate to Tech: Leading Humans Through the AI Era
AI can accelerate analysis, communication, decisions and execution.What You Cannot Delegate to Tech: Leading Humans Through the AI Era
But capability and responsibility are not the same thing.
Leadership still owns judgment. Accountability. Context. Ethics. Trust. Organisational voice. Responsibility for consequences.
AI can inform a decision. It cannot be responsible for one.
Danielle gives leaders a practical framework for determining what technology should accelerate, what people should continue to own and how to lead humans through technological change without slipping into either hype or fear.
AUDIENCES LEAVE WITH:
• a practical test for what should be delegated to technology and what should remain human
• greater clarity around judgment and accountability when AI contributes to work and decisions
• useful language for talking to employees about AI
• ways to protect organisational voice and judgment as tools standardise output
• a clearer view of where human capability creates strategic and commercial value
WORKSHOP VERSION:
Leadership teams map the decisions, work and communication currently moving toward AI.
They establish what technology should accelerate, where accountability must remain human and how they want to communicate their position internally.
They leave with a clearer organisational view of AI and a shared answer to one fundamental question:
What will we never outsource about who we are?
MC, Moderator & Facilitator
Danielle is an experienced international MC, moderator and facilitator across conferences, corporate events, summits, panels and leadership programs.MC, Moderator & Facilitator
Years of live national television give her the instincts required for live timing, unscripted conversation, senior interviews, audience interaction, in-room energy and last-minute changes.
She also brings genuine subject expertise across business, AI, technology, communication, leadership and the future of work, allowing her to contextualise an event rather than simply move it from one agenda item to the next.
Danielle has hosted internationally across Australia, the US, India, New Zealand, Dubai and Singapore and has worked as an MC for organisations including Cisco, Mastercard, X/Twitter, Commonwealth Bank, Verizon, Yahoo! Finance, Genesys, Schneider Electric, Nespresso and major corporate and government events.
She can also combine MC and keynote roles within the same program and, on one occasion as MC, had the honour of introducing herself as the keynote speaker.
Customisation
Danielle’s keynote territories can each be delivered as a complete session or drawn apart and recombined around the specific brief.Customisation
A client may want the human capability work from one keynote, the leadership component of another, the professional-brand material from another and a workshop exercise from a fourth. That becomes the session.
Every engagement begins with a discovery conversation about the audience, organisation, industry and desired outcome.
Danielle works across:
AI · technology · human behaviour · communication · future of work · leadership · professional and personal brand · multigenerational teams · sales teams · customer experience and service · recruitment · early careers and career readiness
Available as keynote presentations, interactive sessions, workshops, leadership programs, half-day and full-day sessions, facilitation, moderation, MC engagements and combined MC + keynote programs.
Video
The Choice of Online Kindness | Danielle Di-Masi | TEDxPaloAltoCollege
Why are so many people mean on the internet? Chances are you have experienced some form of rudeness or negativity from others while online. In this talk, Danielle Di-Masi discusses what she found as a result of a social experiment and a meeting with the Dalai Lama that could transform our relationships with others. Danielle Di-Masi is a futurist and specialises in digital communications and social media engagement. Obsessed with how technology and human behaviour interacts, Di-Masi's main focus is her work as an international keynote speaker and ensuring her sessions not only have the most cutting-edge content and insights but also are dynamic, entertaining and actionable. Di-Masi is also an emcee, popular media commentator, and writes for The Huffington Post, all while maintaining a role as a university lecturer. Di-Masi works between Australia and the USA, holding strong relationships with tech giants in Silicon Valley which allows her to share the most up-to-date strategies. Although Danielle is a university lecturer, her discussions are far from standard, as she always seeks to understand her audiences and their needs, business goals, and obstacles to ensure her interactive sessions are game-changing moments. Among other awards, Di-Masi recently won the International Business Award for the 2019 Most Innovative Communications Professional of the Year, making it the third year she has received it.Highlight Video: Twitter Tips @ Twitter HQ with Danielle Di-Masi
Tips from Twitter Head Office with Danielle Di-Masi on social media engagement, how to and most up to date information on digital networking. How to cut through the noise online and connect the most effectively with your network on Twitter. For both personal and business standing out and having real human connection digitally has never been more important. Danielle Di-Masi is a futurist and specialises in digital communications and social media engagement. She is obsessed with how technology and our human behaviour interacts. Danielle is a keynote speaker, popular media commentator, Huffington Post Blogger and University Lecturer.Danielle Di-Masi - Speaker and Media Reel - The Digital Communicator
Danielle Di-Masi specialises in digital communications and social media engagement. She is obsessed with how technology and our human behaviour interacts. Danielle is a keynote speaker, popular media commentator, Huffington Post Blogger and University Lecturer. Danielle along with an MBA has won the International Business Awards for the 2019 Most Innovative Communications Professional of the Year, this is the 3rd year she has won this award and in previous years she also won the awards for Most Innovative Woman in Marketing, Female Entrepreneur of the Year and the Stevie award winner of 'Woman of the Year' all for her work in technology, business and education.Keynote Summary of Digital Business with Danielle Di-Masi
Keynote given by Danielle Di-Masi on digital business and social media engagement. This hour keynote was delivered at a conference on Hamilton Island with 1000+ business owners in attendance. How to cut through the noise online and connect the most effectively with your network. For both personal and business standing out and having real human connection digitally has never been more important. Danielle Di-Masi is a futurist and specialises in digital communications and social media engagement. She is obsessed with how technology and our human behaviour interacts.Danielle Di-Masi | Saxton Fireside Chat
Danielle Di-Masi is a multi-award-winning international Keynote Speaker, author and University lecturer that shows her audiences how to make their best impact online in a very noisy and transaction lead business landscape. In this series of virtual Fireside Chats, you can gain unprecedented access to the world's greatest storytellers and thought leaders. In this session, Danielle unpacks how the way we present ourselves online can impact trust and provides insights on the best ways to stand out in the crowded digital space.Danielle is an absolute delight. She's one of those rare speakers that is passionate about her workbefore, during, and after your event. She comes to every pre-meeting prepared with ideas a ... keep reading Zendesk
Danielle was so easy and professional to work with. She took the time to get to know our industry and tailored her presentation accordingly. Danielle engaged with our conference delegates via social media prior to, during and post conference and even took time out of her personal schedule to continue to answer delegate questions and speak to delegates further during our social events program. Her presentation about how businesses small through to multinational can better engage with customers through the use of social and digital media was one of the most popular and well received of all our speaker presentations. We would definitely recommend Danielle to any business or industry wanting to learn more and engage better via social and digital media platforms.
Danielle Di-Masi spoke recently at our annual Marketing Day / Ideas Exchange. Danielle's presentation and attendee interaction were interesting, informative and perfectly delivered. Danielle demonstrated, through her presentation, how to achieve impactful digital communications strategy in a way that was easily translatable no matter what level of digital marketing you are currently using in your business. Her entertaining stories captured the interest of our attendees and in fact caused many to comment on how valuable her presentation was. Danielle's message of understanding your audience for the most effective communication was inspiring and provided a valuable message to our group.
Danielle has presented to us before but this was to a female audience with a focus on leadership. Her session was the last on a 2 ½ day program and was very well received.
