Ben Afia

Ben Afia

Brand and AI strategist, keynote speaker on AI governance, brand distinctiveness and AI-enabled marketing. Author of The Human Business.

Ben Afia

Specialist Topics

  • Brand distinctiveness in the AI era
  • AI governance & guardrails
  • AI agents & workforce transformation
  • AI adoption & change management
  • Marketing transformation
  • Brand strategy
  • Tone of voice

Biography

Ben Afia is a brand and AI strategist who has spent 30 years helping organisations stay distinctive through change – and now helps them stay distinctive through AI. Everyone is using the same AI models, so everyone is starting to sound the same. Ben shows marketing and leadership teams how to use AI to amplify what makes them different, not erase it.

He brings hands-on AI capability rather than theory. Ben is currently leading a multi-year programme for a Fortune 500 life science company, turning their brand governance from 90 guidance documents nobody read into a team of AI agents marketers actually use – now rolling out to 400 marketers, backed by training and change management. He is an alumnus of SmarterX’s AI Academy and a Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association.

That capability rests on three decades of building brands and leading culture transformation for organisations including Vodafone, Aviva, Google, AirBP, E.ON, Boots, Aldermore Bank and Legal & General. His work has included transforming customer service for 1,000 Vodafone agents (boosting NPS by 15–20 points), training 20,000 people across 28 countries for Aviva, and reaching 16,000 people through E.ON’s culture transformation.

Ben is the author of The Human Business: How to Love Your Customers So They Love You Back, and has run his own consultancy since 2004. His keynotes and workshops – including How to Stop AI from Erasing Your Brand, Your Next Hire Won’t Be Human, and the hands-on workshop Brief. Build. Back. – leave audiences clear on what to do about AI and confident enough to do it. He has spoken at leadership offsites, marketing conferences and CEO/board-level events across energy, finance, healthcare and telecoms.

Book Ben Afia to help your team get all the benefits of AI while keeping what makes them different.

LATEST VIDEOS

Ben Afia: Brand + AI Speaker Showreel

Ben Afia: Brand + AI Speaker Showreel

Your Next Hire Won’t Be Human

Your Next Hire Won’t Be Human

Don’t Get Replaced by AI, Lead the Change

Don’t Get Replaced by AI, Lead the Change

Beyond the Numbers Podcast

Beyond the Numbers Podcast

WHAT PEOPLE SAY

I’ve had the pleasure of watching Ben speak on several occasions over the last few years, and every single time he does something that I believe is really important when it comes to speaking. He doesn’t speak to an audience, he speaks with them. He is great at creating rapport, and there’s a real natural warmth and workshopper’s instinct that comes through in his delivery. Not only does he get that connection, but he also gives people something they can actually use. He brings genuine expertise around AI, but also a very human approach to it.

Dave James
Speaker Coach, Dave the Coach

Ben spoke for us at Business Marketing Club. He was careful to understand our audience and objectives, as well as the setting for the event. His presentation was brilliant – passionate on the topic of bringing the human into business, engaging with his audience throughout the presentation and Q&A. Recommended.

Dave Stevens
CMO, Baringa

Ben helped us transform our organisation – elevating our customer experience and making us more human. Ben’s incredibly engaging, knows what he’s talking about and is a pleasure to work with. This has been cultural transformation which has captured the imagination of the whole organisation.

Simon McGuiness
Head of Customer and Broker Experience, Aldermore Bank

Ben worked with our entire organisation, from trustees to frontline staff, to help us with our brand and tone of voice. He totally “got” our personality through interviews and several workshops – which he facilitated wonderfully! As well as getting the output he needed, our staff found them one of the best team-building activities ever. Thank you, Ben, for everything!

Dr Penny Woods
CEO, Asthma + Lung UK

Ben has a smart presentation style. He’s a solid speaker with game-changing approaches to corporate and consumer communication. Ben helped BCD transform to a global communication engine, where our strategy and goals are understood and the messages are fun and easy to read.

Anja Turner-Schulz
VP Marketing, BCD Travel

Such a fantastic session Ben, our Newcastle members took so much away from your talk. The way you broke down AI into real, practical applications for assistants made it easy to see how powerful these tools can be in day-to-day work. Thank you for delivering such an engaging and insightful evening!

The PA Hub

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