ABOUT MAURICE...
Maurice has worked with Autodesk, NIKE, Tesla, Disney, Google, Airbus, the Navy SEALS, the Government of Japan, and many others, to help build the products and services of the future.
As a futurist, deep tech authority, innovation executive, and international keynote speaker he has developed products, strategies, and experiences to help companies thrive in our rapidly changing landscape. He is a rare blend of hands–on practitioner and big thinker.
Maurice's work focuses on new product/venture ideation, disruptive innovation, moonshot thinking, emerging technology, and the future of work, cities, mobility, and climate.
Maurice’s keynote talks engage audiences around the world with provocative and illuminating insights on how technology is changing the ways we live, work, and conduct business. His vision for how technology can help us build a better world can be seen in his TED talk. Viewed more than 12 million times, it is one of the most viewed talks about AI on the Internet.
An explorer of geographies and cultures, Maurice has sailed around the globe once and been half-way around twice. In 2009 he was awarded the Medal for Exceptional Bravery at Sea by the United Nations, the New Zealand Bravery Medal and a U.S. Coast Guard Citation for Bravery for risking his own life to save three shipwrecked sailors.
Maurice is based in the Silicon Valley.
AREAS OF FOCUS
Disruptive Innovation and Moonshots
With a 20-year career delivering real innovation results, Maurice is a sought-after collaborator and advisor. He has developed and launched innovation labs, products, and practices, and has inspired audiences around the world to rethink their approach to innovation.
As the Chief Innovation Officer and head of New Moonshots for Telefonica Alpha (Europe’s Moonshot Factory- modeled on Google’s [X]) he assembled a diverse, world-class team, and built a ground-up process to ideate, scale, manage and launch new Moonshots: projects designed to affect 100’s of millions of people, grow into $1B+ businesses, and be a positive impact on the planet and society. Maurice and his team developed Moonshots in education, clean energy, food security, and even a cyborg.
As Head of Applied Research and Innovation at Autodesk, Maurice built a strategy, team, and facility from the ground up to explore, understand, and develop the emerging technologies and products that would matter most to Autodesk’s future. There he developed prototypes in advanced robotics, AI, early metaverse, digital twins, media production, VR-controlled robots, and additive manufacturing systems.
Emerging Technology
In his labs at Alpha and Autodesk, Maurice has not only imagined future technologies, but actually built them. He holds multiple technology and design patents.
At Autodesk his team designed and built the world’s first AI-controlled large-scale metal 3D printer; one of the first realtime digital twins of a robotic work cell; the first biophysically accurate digital twin of a human athlete; the first collaborative voice-controlled construction robot; and one of the first AIs that could measure human performance of soft-skills. He is particularly adept at seeing the technological potential in a company’s future and taking the steps to develop the products to reach that potential.
Future of Work, Cities, Health, and Mobility.
Maurice has worked with Tesla, BMW, Ford, United Healthcare, NIKE, Arup, BCG, Airbus, Virgin America, and more to explore the trends that will shape the future of cities, health, work, and mobility. His unique perspective seeks to make sense of the rapidly approaching changes in technology, demographics, and culture to provide a nuanced understanding of how we will work, live, and move in the future.
VIDEOS AND TALKS
TED Talk. More than 12 Million views on TED.com and YouTube.
What do you get when you give a design tool a digital nervous system? Computers that improve our ability to think and imagine, and robotic systems that come up with (and build) radical new designs for bridges, cars, drones and much more -- all by themselves. Take a tour of the Augmented Age with futurist Maurice Conti and preview a time when robots and humans will work side-by-side to accomplish things neither could do alone.
Maurice Conti: Can Machines Think And Feel For Themselves?
Futurist Maurice Conti says we've entered a new era where machines and humans partner to do what neither can do alone. He calls it the "Augmented Age."
What do rising sea levels mean to you? Maurice Conti wants to make the ocean personal through stories. He shows some perspective-altering examples that utilize traditional storytelling, new technology and ancient history to engage people and make conservation personal.
Alpha Chief Innovative Officer Maurice Conti explains why a data-driven IT infrastructure matters in the era of AI.
FILM AND TELEVISION
Maurice’s work extends to the small and big screens too! He has used his unique position of working with some of the world’s most advanced technologies and combined it with a rare ability to project this knowledge into compelling, fantastical narratives. He has partnered with major studios, producers, directors and writers to build worlds, to invent future technologies rooted in science, and to create narrative arcs with writing teams based on his vision of future societies, technology and climate. His past clients include Showtime, AGBO, Atlas Entertainment, Blue Sky Studios, and more.