Menno Lanting
AI speaker, author, and advisor. An authority on AI, leadership, and digital transformation. Book Menno Lanting as a speaker and moderator through Assemblee Speakers.
Biography
- Menno Lanting helps boards, executives, managers, teams, and employees turn the AI revolution into practical strategic decisions. His keynotes focus not on technology or tools, but on AI’s impact on leadership, collaboration, the future of work, and value creation. His insights are grounded in more than 25 years of advisory experience and over 2,000 keynote presentations.
AI Is a Leadership Challenge, Not a Technology Challenge
While many AI speakers showcase the latest tools and applications, Menno deliberately takes a different approach. Through his work advising organizations every day, he has found that AI initiatives rarely fail because of technology. Instead, they stall because of leadership decisions, unclear responsibilities, organizational change, and the willingness to abandon outdated ways of working.
These are the questions that matter most—for executive teams as well as the employees expected to work with AI every day. Those are the issues his keynotes address.
More Than 25 Years of Executive Advisory Experience
For over 25 years, Menno has advised executive teams, business leaders, HR, and marketing and communications departments on AI strategy and digital transformation.
For his books, he has interviewed hundreds of CEOs, executives, and entrepreneurs around the world, including leaders from NASA, Google, Philips, Apple, LEGO, Spotify, Telefónica, Airbnb, Netflix, and WWF. Earlier in his career, he worked at the Dutch leadership institute De Baak and founded several internet ventures.
From 2013 through 2021, Menno served as Chair of the Jury for the Dutch BI & Data Science Award, evaluating the Netherlands’ leading data-driven organizations for eight consecutive years—well before the rise of generative AI. The role gave him firsthand insight into what successful data-driven transformation truly requires.
Thirteen Books, More Than 250,000 Readers
Connect! was named Management Book of the Year 2011 and remains one of the ten best-selling Dutch-language management books of all time.
For Oil Tankers and Speedboats, Menno interviewed leaders from 100 innovative organizations worldwide to explore how established companies can reinvent themselves.
His 2021 book Escaping the Transformation Swamp has become the Dutch reference work on why digital transformation initiatives so often fail.
In 2025, he published 20 Questions & Answers About AI, which examines the organizational and leadership implications of artificial intelligence rather than its technical capabilities.
Digital Menno: Putting AI to Work in His Own Practice
In 2024, Menno launched Digital Menno, an AI-powered dialogue system trained on his own books, articles, and keynote content.
The project has given him something no theory can provide: firsthand experience with what AI can—and cannot—replace in advisory work, which questions people still prefer to ask a human expert, and where AI delivers meaningful productivity gains. These practical lessons are woven directly into his keynote presentations.
Trusted Voice on AI and Digital Transformation
Menno is a frequent expert commentator for leading Dutch business and national media, including MT/Sprout, BNR News Radio, CHRO.nl, CFO.nl, Het Financieele Dagblad, NRC, and de Volkskrant. In 2022, he wrote a regular column for MT/Sprout on AI and digital transformation, helping business leaders navigate one of the most significant shifts in modern management.
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KEYNOTE TOPICS
Every keynote is tailored to the audience, industry, and event context. Below is an overview of Menno’s keynote topics, including the intended audience, the central question, and the key takeaways.
Navigating the AI Revolution
For: Executive teams, business leaders, managers, and employees
The central question: How do you set a clear course when technology is evolving faster than organizations can adapt?
What audiences take away: A practical understanding of what AI means for their organization and day-to-day work today, along with a strategic framework for making informed decisions in an AI-driven world.
Leadership in the Age of AI
For: Boards, executive teams, senior leaders, and managers
The central question: How does AI change decision-making, leadership, and the way organizations are managed?
What audiences take away: A clear understanding of the leadership capabilities that will define successful organizations, and practical guidance for leading through uncertainty without getting caught up in hype or rushing into technology for technology’s sake.
Working Alongside AI
For: Teams, professionals, and employees
The central question: Which jobs will change, which tasks will disappear, and where will human judgment become even more valuable?
What audiences take away: A realistic perspective on their evolving role alongside AI, plus practical ways to become more productive, confident, and effective when working with AI tools.
Digital Transformation: Why It Succeeds—or Fails
For: Leaders, managers, and employees
The central question: Why do so many digital transformation initiatives fail because of people and organizations rather than technology?
What audiences take away: The five most common reasons digital transformations fail, and a practical roadmap for moving beyond organizational resistance and transformation fatigue.
Innovation That Delivers Results
For: Innovation teams, strategy teams, executives, and professionals
The central question: What do truly innovative organizations do differently?
What audiences take away: Practical lessons drawn from one hundred international case studies, along with a clear distinction between innovation that creates measurable business value and innovation that never moves beyond good intentions.
AI and Digital Transformation in Government
For: Government agencies, public-sector organizations, healthcare, education, and other public or semi-public institutions
The central question: How can organizations embrace AI while maintaining a human-centered approach to public service?
What audiences take away: A realistic understanding of what AI can—and cannot—deliver in public services, and what successful implementation requires from leadership, collaboration, governance, and execution.
Book Menno Lanting through Assemblee Speakers for:
- Leadership conferences, executive retreats, strategy off-sites, and board events
- Client events, customer conferences, annual meetings, and knowledge-sharing sessions
- Employee town halls, company kickoffs, and all-hands meetings
- In-house leadership programs, executive moderation, and strategy workshops
- Presentations in both Dutch and English
Menno Lanting at a Glance:
- 2,000+ keynote presentations worldwide
- Average audience rating: 9.1/10
- 13 books with more than 250,000 readers
- Management Book of the Year 2011 (Connect!)
- 25+ years advising organizations on AI, digital transformation, and leadership
Literature
20 Vragen & Antwoorden over AI
Menno Lanting geeft in dit boek - in duidelijke en begrijpelijke taal - antwoord op de twintig meest relevante vragen over digitale transformatie. Deze antwoorden ondersteunt hij met praktische inzichten en concrete voorbeelden uit de praktijk, waarbij hij kan putten uit de ervaringen van mensen uit zeer uiteenlopende organisaties, zoals Gemeente Amsterdam, Politie Nederland, Suitsupply, Talpa, VGZ, Albert Heijn en Vopak.
Uit het transformatiemoeras | De 5 faalfactoren die organisaties in hun greep houden [Dutch version]
90% of all entrepreneurs say they are working on digital transformation, but that process is difficult to get off the ground. Despite the large investments, the introduction of digital technologies has hardly paid off in higher business results. In Out of the transformation swamp Menno Lanting puts his finger on the sore spot and analyzes the five most important failure factors.
De disruptieparadox
Menno Lanting wijst je in zijn nieuwe bestseller 'De disruptieparadox' de weg naar echte innovatie.
Als bedrijven ten onder gaan, is dat maar zelden een direct gevolg van disruptie, oftewel van een innovatie die de bestaande markt compleet verdringt. De oorzaak is eerder dat organisaties lang niet altijd meer in staat zijn om op een onderscheidende en winstgevende manier te anticiperen op de snel veranderende behoeften van consumenten. En hierin zit de grote paradox voor de gevestigde partijen, want hoe ga je op een disruptieve manier een superieure klantbeleving realiseren als je daar in je huidige business al niet in slaagt?
Menno Lanting onderzocht het fenomeen disruptie en hoe organisaties ermee omgaan. 'De disruptieparadox' ontkracht de mythe van disruptie, schetst de verborgen paradoxen en geeft 5 stappen naar echte innovatie.
Olietankers en speedboten
Speedboten zijn proactief, wendbaar, met de blik naar buiten gericht, verbonden in een netwerk, waarde toevoegend voor de consument, burger of collega en voortdurend lerend. Dit in tegenstelling tot professionals en organisaties die nog volharden in een manier van samenwerken en organiseren geworteld in het industriële tijdperk: de olietankers,' vertelde ik op een bijeenkomst voor hr-managers. Vanuit mijn ooghoek zag ik een van de aanwezige directeuren steeds fanatieker aan haar servet plukken. Uiteindelijk hield ze het niet meer: 'Maar Menno, ik zie ook wel wat van die ''speedboten'' in mijn organisatie, maar die zijn vooral op weg om ons bedrijf te verlaten! Wat doe ik straks met die heel grote grijze middenmoot, die niet vooruit te branden is en zich in verzet vastklampt aan vakbond en or?' Een diepe stilte daalde over ons neer.
Menno Lanting, bekend van de bestseller Connect!, ging op onderzoek uit om te
achterhalen hoe de toekomst van innovatie, organisaties en werk eruitziet. Hij
sprak met honderd inspirerende professionals en ondernemers over de hele wereld. Lanting vertaalt hun cases en ervaringen naar praktische tips en inzichten. Kijk de kunst af van organisaties als Airbnb, Audi, het wwf, Philips, de nasa en Netflix.
De slimme organisatie
Mensen maken steeds beter gebruik van digitale technologie. Maar terwijl zij met behulp van hun netwerk het beste uit zichzelf halen, lukt het hun werkgevers vaak niet om dat potentieel ook in de organisatie te benutten. In dit boek laat Menno Lanting zien hoe bedrijven slimmer kunnen worden en hun cultuur en organisatie kunnen verbeteren met behulp van de nieuwste technologie. Met veel praktische tips en voorbeelden van onder meer NASA, Google en Philips laat hij zien wat je kunt doen: van virtuele teams en crowdsourcing tot serious games en feedbacksystemen.