AI’s key principles, told through legendary stories audiences remember forever
Mark Adams is a serial entrepreneur that sits at the intersection of Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the Fortune 500. Known as “Hollywood’s AI Insider.”
He is trusted by the A-list to navigate the tides and trends of AI and he has guided over 150 global icons; from Taylor Swift to Tom Cruise, Lady Gaga to Leonardo DiCaprio, Barack Obama to Buckingham Palace to embrace AI and thrive. From his unique vantage point inside the brain trust of Hollywood's elite, Mark has been the architect behind many of the defining moments in modern culture from the Box Office to the Ballot Box.
His talks pull back the curtain to expose the shocking and hilarious truth behind legendary events, movements and transformations in a way that shifts AI from an abstract buzzword into living mythical narratives audiences never forget. This story-first approach has led to his being the #1-rated speaker at more than 500 events worldwide and twice named “Speaker of the Year” in Global Polls.
Mark has co-founded five companies, including VICE which he scaled from a scrappy punk magazine into the world’s largest youth-media empire —launching TV shows with HBO, feature films, record labels, award-winning creative agencies, and digital platforms that redefined how a generation consumed media. By the time Mark exited the company in 2018, it was a multi-billion-dollar global powerhouse and the most disruptive media brand of the 21st century.
Marks now sits on the boards of many iconic brands including Gymshark, Headspace, and Ocean Bottle and continues to drive AI transformation in the worlds most ambitious boardrooms by applying his radically simplified “Match Point” methodology—a system that has swept every major stage in AI-driven creativity, earning him 53 Cannes Lions, 37 Emmys, 11 Grammys, and 3 Oscars Nominations.
Recognized by The Guardian as the “Star of Tech City,” featured in the Silicon 60 Global Tech Entrepreneurs and The Sunday Times Top People in Britain, "Evening Most Influential Londoner," "The Sunday Times Top People in Britain," "The Drum's Digerati List," and "The Debrett's Top 10 Digital List" and has given a TED Talk, which quickly accrued millions of views.
His forthcoming book, ‘Enter the Cult of Extreme Innovation AI, Creativity, and the End of Business as Usual’ will be published on Penguin in 2026.
Talking Points
Enter the Cult of Extreme Innovation
AI isn’t about slick demos or prompt-wizard theatre. It’s about who has the courage to move first, hardest, and fastest. In this keynote, Mark Adams calls bullshit on the endless hype cycle and shows leaders how to build the only thing that matters: a system that turns AI noise into real business outcomes.Enter the Cult of Extreme Innovation
This is not a sermon. It’s an operating system. A blueprint for capability, speed, and momentum. A rallying cry for leaders who are done with “innovation tourism” and ready to actually win.
Key Takeaways:
- Slice through AI hype and turn it into business wins you can measure
- Kill the side shows and double down on moves that matter
- Move from pilot to scale without losing speed (or your soul)
- Spread capability across the whole team, no bottlenecks, no “AI priesthood”
- Lock in governance and metrics that fuel momentum, not bureaucracy
How to Stay Sane in the AI Hurricane
AI isn’t just a technology shift, it’s an anxiety epidemic. Every headline screams disruption, every vendor swears they’re the future, and every team risks burning out before they even start. This session is strategy with a side of therapy: the field guide for staying clear, focused, and fearless when the storm hits.How to Stay Sane in the AI Hurricane
Sanity is now the ultimate competitive edge. Forget the hype merchants, this keynote gives your team the first principles, the rituals, and the playbook to embrace AI transformation without losing their minds.
Key Takeaways:
- Build a hype filter that cuts noise and saves your team’s sanity
- Know exactly when to explore, when to experiment, and when to scale
- Run a roadmap rhythm that keeps focus under fire
- Forge a common language that unites tech and non-tech tribes
- Create rituals that crush anxiety and hard-wire clarity under pressure
Tomorrow Is Ours to Steal
The future doesn’t belong to the patient. It belongs to the predators, the ones who move before anyone else dares. In this talk, Mark Adams arms your team with the mindset and mechanics to spot undefended ground and take it, fast.Tomorrow Is Ours to Steal
This is a war cry for bold moves and unfair advantages. Audiences leave hungry to steal time, steal markets, and steal the next chapter of their industry before their competition even wakes up.
Key Takeaways:
- See undefended spaces before your rivals even know they exist
- Launch cheap, fast experiments that unlock billion-dollar doors
- Master the rules of speed, risk, and alignment to out-execute the hesitant
- Scale the wins into a repeatable system without slowing down
- Keep score with brutal KPIs that hard-wire aggression into the culture
The Post-AI Brand Playbook
When every brand has the same AI toys, the real question is: who has the guts to use them differently? In this session, Mark Adams lays out a fierce roadmap for building brands that thrive when algorithms decide attention, machines shape identity, and trust is the rarest currency.The Post-AI Brand Playbook
Forget optimisation, this is about creating brands that cut through the noise, build communities that can’t be faked, and engineer equity that compounds in a machine-mediated world.
Key Takeaways:
- Crack the new rules of brand growth when algorithms run the show
- Make your brand machine-readable and unforgettable across every channel
- Scale content and personalisation that feels human, not spammy
- Architect communities and trust that competitors can’t copy or fake
- Prove brand power with metrics that link directly to demand and dollars
How to Be the Luckiest Team on Earth
Luck isn’t random, it’s engineered. Mark Adams rips the lid off the so-called “lucky breaks” that shaped culture and shows how they all follow the same hidden playbook.How to Be the Luckiest Team on Earth
This is the science of serendipity. The art of spotting soft signals before anyone else. The system for building teams that don’t wait for lightning to strike, they rig the storm.
Audiences leave knowing exactly how to manufacture their own breakout wins, again and again.
Key Takeaways:
- Hack the mechanics of serendipity and make “luck” inevitable
- Train your eye to catch weak signals before the crowd
- Build feedback loops that turn curiosity into game-changing outcomes
- Forge partner networks that multiply opportunity without extra weight
- Turn every near-miss into a repeatable win with ruthless reviews
Video
Enter the cult of extreme productivity | Mark Adams | TEDxHSG
In this talk Mark shares a dramatic and powerful system that takes productivity thinking to whole new and terrifying level, allowing a person to achieve almost any goal they set themselves with rapid speed. The secret to this type of exponential success? Bin your ‘affirmations’ and ‘goals’ and instead embrace fear as your friend by making irreversible decisions. Instead of hapless resolutions members of the "Lock-In" cult contract with themselves in a way that they cannot escape from (without suffering brutal consequences). The “Lock-In" system harnesses our most primal evolutionary instinct - to avoid pain - and uses it to radically supercharge our lives. Many of the most successful people in history have used its phenomenal power to create extraordinary success. Think you're hardcore enough? Then enter the Cult of Extreme Productivity Mark Adams is Vice President and Head of Innovation at VICE, which has come from humble beginnings as a print magazine to digitally transform into a 5 billion dollar youth media empire. In this talk, Mark describes the cult of extreme productivity that he became part of alongside his brother. The cult is all about making irreversible decisions that make “manifesting” your dreams the only option because not achieving it would create indescribable suffering.Mark has a rare gift for making complex ideas about technology and culture instantly relatable. His talk at our company offsite was the highlight of the event, equal parts inspiring, hilario ... keep reading Gymshark
Few speakers can electrify a room the way Mark does. His session at our internal event was unforgettable, witty, insightful, and deeply moving. He makes the future feel not just understandable, but actionable. Simply brilliant.
Mark is the only guy I’d hate to follow on stage. Every time I see him speak, I’m blown away by his mix of energy, truth, and straight-up humour. He cuts through the bullshit and rewires the mindset of every person in the room. His talks are pure alchemy every single time.
Mark is the sharpest futurist I know. With a crazy ability to connect culture and tech and make is it entertaining as hell. He’s pure fire on stage and has every audience eating out of the palm of his hand .
Not only does Mark ooze compelling strategic smarts and insight but he has a special gift for unlocking creative awareness and confidence of every single member of his audience. Mark’s energy is highly contagious. When he’s on stage time flies and the truth is no one wants his time in front of them to end. ‘Recommend’ is too weak a word to describe the impact of his speeches. ‘Absolutely compulsory’ is getting closer to the mark. The guy is INCREDIBLE.
