Matthew Drinkwater

Biography

Matthew Drinkwater has led the Fashion Innovation Agency at London College of Fashion, UAL, for 14 years. The lab puts emerging technology to work on real creative problems, with partners including Microsoft, ILMxLAB, Epic Games and Burberry. Its 59 projects span AI, motion capture, real-time engines, spatial computing and immersive storytelling.

His work has produced industry firsts, including the global debut of ILMxLAB’s LiveCGX, real-time VFX at London Fashion Week in 2018. His core argument is that deep craft knowledge is the scarce ingredient that makes AI tools useful, a position that is pro-technology and pro-worker at the same time.

Beyond the lab, Matthew advises the UK Government on AI and technology policy through DCMS’s AI and Society team. He sits on the BFI CoSTAR Creative Industry Technology Insight Board and the H&M Foundation’s Global Change Award Expert Panel for 2026, and has served on the UK Government’s AI and Copyright Technical Working Group, the Innovate UK BridgeAI Advisory Board and the LVMH DARE jury.

He is regularly cited in Vogue Business, Wired, Bloomberg, Business of Fashion, the BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph and Forbes, and has appeared on BBC Click, BBC World News and BBC Radio 4.

What Matthew brings to the stage

• Proof, not prediction. Every talk is built on work the lab has shipped, so audiences see AI and immersive technology in use, with the results and the lessons.
• A grounded view of AI and creativity. He makes the case that human craft is what turns AI into something valuable, which lands with leadership teams and creative teams alike.
• The view from policy. His government and industry advisory roles let him connect what is happening in studios to the decisions being made about AI, copyright and skills.
• Range of audience. He has spoken on 74 stages since 2015, across 28 cities and five continents, from SXSW London and Web Summit to the Global Investment Summit and the UN’s AI for Good Global Summit.
• Every format. Keynotes, panels, moderating, fireside chats, hosting, masterclasses, broadcast and private leadership sessions for teams such as Nike and Rolls-Royce.

Keynote themes

Each theme can be tailored to the audience, sector and slot length.

1. AI and creative craft. Why human skill is the input that makes generative AI worth using, shown through the lab’s own AI projects.
2. Identity and trust in a synthetic age. Digital likeness, avatars and virtual try-on, and what audiences and brands now need to trust.
3. Building worlds you can step inside. Real-time engines, live VFX and immersive storytelling, from London Fashion Week to transmedia projects.
4. Life beyond the screen. How motion capture, spatial capture and live performance are taking stories off the screen and into physical space.
5. The future of the creative industries. Talent, skills and the economics of creative work as AI changes how it gets made.

Selected stages

SXSW London · Web Summit · Global Investment Summit, Paris · AI for Good Global Summit, Geneva · Google Future Forum · Global Change Award Summit, Stockholm · Expo 2020 Dubai · Kering Imagine · Nike leadership team · Rolls-Royce

Speaking fees go to London College of Fashion to support FIA’s work and its students.