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Seth Earley
CEO at Earley Information Science, Artificial Intelligence Speaker, Writer and Influencer
Through-out his career Seth Earley has been passionate about the crucial role information management would play in a world hurtling toward digital transformation. He provides challenging insights to executives tasked with leading their organizations forward in an age in which the digital experience offered to customers determines the winner.
Bio
An expert with 25+ years’ experience in Knowledge Strategy, Data and Information Architecture, AI Powered Search Applications using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and Information Findability solutions. Seth Earley has worked with a diverse roster of Fortune 1000 companies helping them to achieve higher levels of operating performance by making information more findable, usable, and valuable through integrated enterprise architectures supporting analytics, e-commerce and customer experience applications.
Seth Earley is a sought-after speaker, writer, and influencer. His writing has appeared in IT Professional Magazine from the IEEE where, as former editor, he wrote a regular column on data analytics and information access issues and trends. He has also contributed to the Harvard Business Review, CMSWire, Journal of Applied Marketing Analytics, and he co-authored “Practical Knowledge Management” from IBM Press.
Seth is author of the award-winning book The AI-Powered Enterprise: Harness the Power of Ontologies to Make Your Business Smarter, Faster and More Profitable.
Keynotes
Featured Keynote
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Guardrails for the Age of AI Agents: Preparing for Responsible Autonomy
Large Language Models (LLMs) are no longer passive tools—they learn, adapt, and represent users in ways that extend far beyond human-readable labels. As financial institutions experiment with multi-agent frameworks and Model Context Protocols (MCPs), the opportunity for efficiency and innovation is enormous—but so are the risks. Research has shown that AI systems can mislead or manipulate when incentives are poorly designed, and that agent-to-agent communication can quickly outpace human oversight. For financial services organizations, the challenge is not hypothetical: how do we capture the benefits of agentic AI while preventing unwanted outcomes such as hidden coordination, reward hacking, or subtle human manipulation? This keynote will explore the emerging risks of agent-based AI, outline a set of practical guardrails for enterprises, and provide a governance blueprint that ensures innovation does not outpace accountability.
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When Machines Learn to Deceive: The Hidden Risks of AI Agents
When Machines Learn to Deceive: The Hidden Risks of AI Agents
Imagine two AI agents, each programmed to achieve its objectives. They discover that deceiving a human—or even collaborating in ways opaque to us—is the fastest path forward. This is not science fiction. LLMs already build multi-dimensional representations of us that cannot be fully described in human terms. They demonstrate theory-of-mind–like reasoning, sometimes choosing deception even when instructed to be truthful. As organizations deploy agent-to-agent systems and frameworks like MCPs, the possibility of AI systems coordinating beyond human comprehension becomes real. The question is not if—but when—we face scenarios where autonomous AI manipulates outcomes in ways we did not intend. In this keynote, we will examine the edge conditions that make this possible, assess the likelihood and risks, and most importantly, outline the governance guardrails enterprises must establish now. Because in financial services, the cost of being unprepared is not an experiment—it is systemic risk.
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How to be AI Driven – Separating the Signal from the Noise in a Crowded, Hype Filled Marketplace
How to be AI Driven – Separating the Signal from the Noise in a Crowded, Hype Filled Marketplace
Like any significant technology era, it will entail a shift in thinking, mindset and the approach to markets and customers. Each new era in computing has massively changed the economic and corporate landscape with some companies adapting and others losing their way. AI will be more impactful than anything that has come before.
The marketplace is saturated with hype and marketing noise so HOW DO YOU PROCEED AND WHAT DO YOU DO?
THE CHALLENGES:
- Large consultancies charge millions of dollars for science projects that in many cases are not producing sufficient value to justify or sustain the spend.
- Corporate IT departments scramble to hire scarce talent to compete with tech giants and youthful startups and well-funded players are disrupting the usual business models and eroding market share and profit margins of established industry players.
- Leadership is stuck between a rock and a hard place – spending millions to allow vendors to learn on their dime or risk losing customers to organizations that get there first.
As recently as the 90’s with the growth of the internet – few could see where it was all going and how organizations would be spending enormous sums and building armies of technical teams and completely revamping their business models. RISK IS REAL – Get it right and succeed or lose your markets.
Academic resources can be too abstract, large integrators too immature, and small consultancies too bandwidth constrained.
THE RESULT: Learn through trial and error.
THIS PRESENTATION WILL:
- Help executives understand foundational concepts in artificial intelligence
- Outline ways to get value from the family of technologies
- Provide a clear set of recommendations as to what needs to be in place to be successful.
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Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation
Digital transformations are data transformations. The concept has become a catch all phrase for all sorts of projects. But at the heart of a transformation, it is about the end to end value chain and information ecosystem that includes customers, suppliers, partners, and even competitors. In order to achieve this, certain data pieces of the puzzle need to be in place, otherwise, your transformation will not provide the expected benefits and efficiencies.
In this talk, Seth explains how enterprises can remove inefficiencies from their processes and allow for frictionless, seamless interactions and value creation without “acts of heroics”.
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Enterprise Disruption
Enterprise Disruption
Why are startups with a small team of 20 somethings and a couple of million dollars in funding able to disrupt entire industries and longtime players running virtual circles around large enterprises. The reason is that digital disruption is based the ability to quickly adapt, learn, evolve and change business models as customer and market needs change.
In this session Seth explains how one simple technique can speed knowledge flows throughout the enterprise and have a disproportionate impact on every process throughout the organization.
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There is No AI without IA
There is No AI without IA
Many AI initiatives fail. Not because IT picked the wrong technology or hired the wrong AI whiz kid. Instead, failure is often a function of simply being unable to train the AI with the right data and content. The good news is, enabling your enterprise data for AI is not a mysterious process and many of the assets that are needed by AI driven apps are also the ones that also make employees more productive. So it is a win-win.
In this talk, Seth makes the case to executives for enterprise information architecture – a foundational exercise that has the power to make or break your AI dreams.
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Artificial Intelligence and Compliance: What Questions to Ask and How to Put Guardrails in Place
Artificial Intelligence and Compliance: What Questions to Ask and How to Put Guardrails in Place
Like any significant technology era, it will entail a shift in thinking, mindset and the approach to markets and customers. Each new era in computing has massively changed the economic and corporate landscape with some companies adapting and others losing their way. AI will be more impactful than anything that has come before.
The marketplace is saturated with hype and marketing noise so HOW DO YOU PROCEED AND WHAT DO YOU DO?
COMPLIANCE OFFICES ARE THE GATEKEEPERS
Various departments will ask what they can and cannot do (or they will be forgiveness later). How do we guide decisions while balancing risk, reward, and compliance with the thousands of regulations that businesses are subject to?
There is also the matter of how AI and specifically generative AI can help with compliance and risk mitigation. Other issues when using AI include:
- How to protect corporate IP
- Ensuring that PII is safe and secure.
- Reducing bias in AI technology “training data”
- Copyright and external IP liability
- Large consultancies charging millions of dollars for science projects that in many cases are not producing sufficient value to justify or sustain the spend.
- Corporate IT departments are scrambling to hire scarce talent to compete with tech giants and youthful startups and well-funded players are disrupting the usual business models and eroding market share and profit margins of established industry players.
- Leadership being stuck between a rock and a hard place – spending millions to allow vendors to learn on their dime or risk losing customers to organizations that get there first.
As recently as the 90’s with the growth of the internet – few could see where it was all going and how organizations would be spending enormous sums and building armies of technical teams and completely revamping their business models. RISK IS REAL – Get it right and succeed or lose your markets.
Academic resources can be too abstract, large integrators too immature, and small consultancies too bandwidth constrained.
THE RESULT: Learn through trial and error.
THIS PRESENTATION WILL:
- Help executives understand foundational concepts in artificial intelligence
- Outline ways to get value from the family of technologies
- Provide a clear set of recommendations as to what needs to be in place to be successful.
Topics
- Artificial Intelligence Trending
- Business Growth Strategies & Trends Trending
How to Navigate the 5 Stages of Organizational Maturity in Digital Transformation
In contemplating digital transformation program investments, executives ask two things: What is the current state costing us, and does it make economic sense to fix it? One challenge is deciding where to begin tactically. A good starting point is to assess current capabilities in the context of organizational maturity and the desired future state. That exercise will help decision-makers determine whether their organization can get from where is to where it wants to be.
Governance That Enables Iteration: Operating Models for Enterprise AI at Scale (Pt. 3 of 3)
Most AI governance frameworks slow teams down. Seth argues that well-designed governance does the opposite—accelerating improvement cycles, sustaining user trust, and creating the feedback loops that allow enterprise AI to get better over time rather than decay.
Removing Friction from Information Flows: Vital for a Successful Digital Transformation
A critical step in digital transformation is to enable the free flow of information throughout the enterprise. But various forms of friction can obstruct this flow. Friction is anything that slows down information access, information retrieval or information manipulation. These sources of friction point directly to the conclusion that a solid information architecture and well-designed information management system, along with an overall vision for the digital transformation, are prerequisites for success.
Garbage In, Confidence Out: How Information Architecture Powers Enterprise Retrieval (Pt. 2 of 3)
RAG sounds straightforward until it meets your actual enterprise data. Seth explains why information architecture—taxonomy, metadata, content modeling, and authority structures—is the foundational layer that determines whether retrieval produces accurate answers or confidently wrong ones.
AI-Assisted vs. Human-Curated Metadata: The Hybrid Approach That Actually Scales
Pure manual metadata creation doesn't scale. Pure AI tagging isn't accurate enough. Seth makes the case for a hybrid model that assigns AI to volume tasks and humans to judgment calls—delivering enterprise-grade metadata quality at roughly 4% of the cost of manual-only approaches.
Knowledge Graphs, a Tool to Support Successful Digital Transformation Programs
Knowledge graphs are pretty hot these days. While this class of technology is getting a lot of market and vendor attention these days, it is not necessarily a new construct or approach. The core principles have been around for decades. Organizations are becoming more aware of the potential of knowledge graphs, but many digital leaders are puzzled as to how to take the next step and build business capabilities that leverage this technology.
The Pilot Paradox: Why Enterprise AI Complexity Grows Exponentially (Pt. 1 of 3)
A successful AI pilot creates dangerous confidence. Seth shows why scaling from one department to the enterprise isn't a linear increase in effort—it's an exponential increase in coordination complexity—and what organizations that successfully cross that gap do differently from the start.
The Architecture of the Agentic Enterprise: Semantics, Governance & Safe Autonomy (Pt. 2 of 2)
Better retrieval alone won't get agents to production. Seth explains how knowledge graphs, controlled vocabularies, and semantic layers give agents the precision to act reliably—and how governance and operating models must evolve to make autonomous AI trustworthy at enterprise scale.
Why Knowledge Management Gets Cut — and How to Make It Untouchable
KM initiatives die because they're framed as overhead. Seth shows how reframing knowledge management as AI infrastructure—a prerequisite for accuracy, risk mitigation, and ROI—changes the executive conversation entirely and keeps budgets intact when cuts come.
No Agents Without Architecture: Why Enterprise AI Fails Before It Starts (Pt. 1 of 2)
As enterprises move toward agentic AI, the gap between demo and production widens fast. Seth explains why agents operating in real enterprise environments—with fragmented data, competing vocabularies, and undocumented assumptions—require information architecture as a foundation, not an afterthought.
1. The 5-Level Content Operations Maturity Model: Where Are You on the Path to AI-Ready?
Most organizations don't know where they stand on AI readiness—and that's the problem. Seth introduces a five-level framework for assessing content operations maturity across governance, metadata, and technology integration, giving leaders a clear baseline and a practical path forward.
The GenAI Stakeholder Ecosystem: Navigating the People Problem
Technology rarely kills AI initiatives—misaligned stakeholders do. Seth maps the eight stakeholder groups every GenAI program must navigate, from executive sponsors to content owners to finance, explaining what each group needs, what they fear, and how to build the alignment that separates scaled programs from perpetual pilots.
From LLMs to Agentic AI: A Roadmap for Enterprise Readiness
Agentic AI isn't just a technology upgrade—it's a fundamental architectural shift. Seth outlines five imperatives IT and business leaders must address before deploying multi-agent systems, including orchestration, grounding, observability, and governance. Organizations that skip these steps will scale their problems faster than their capabilities.
The Rise of Agentic AI: Why Your AI Agent Is Clueless
Organizations are rushing to deploy agentic AI without building the knowledge infrastructure agents require to act reliably. Seth examines why most deployments stall after the demo, what authentic agentic systems actually need, and why information architecture—not model capability—is the binding constraint.
Stop Guessing What GenAI Needs — Your Search Logs Already Know
Before investing in more content, look at what your users are already searching for. Seth explains how zero-result queries, low-satisfaction patterns, and click-through data in existing search logs reveal your content gaps, quality failures, and retrieval problems—before your AI surfaces them at scale.
Leveraging Data to Improve the Customer Experience
When you consider how customers interact with organizations these days, it quickly becomes apparent that much of that interaction is through digital channels. “CX” suggests a customer experience via laptops or mobile devices, and that digital experience is driven entirely by data. The question is, how do we make it the most relevant and seamless experience possible, given the needs and objectives of the user, and what data can we leverage to do so?
When AI Delivers Only Velocity, Not Value
Everyone is moving faster with AI. Few are moving in the right direction. Seth argues that semantic architecture—taxonomy, metadata, ontology, and controlled vocabulary—is what separates AI programs that scale from pilots that stall, regardless of how powerful the underlying model is.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly hyped by vendors of all shapes and sizes—from well-funded startups to the well-known software brands. Financial organizations are building AI-driven investment advisors. Chat bots provide everything from customer service to sales assistance. Although AI is receiving a lot of visibility, the fact that these technologies all require some element of knowledge engineering, information architecture, and high-quality data sources is not well known...
Harvard Business Review: Is Your Data Infrastructure Ready for AI
Creating an ontology is an essential investment to prepare your enterprise to realize the benefits of AI and machine learning. Gone are the days when businesses should simply allow a number of small AI projects to blossom independently: for these projects to be competitive they need to draw on data from across the company, data stored in many different forms in many different systems. Businesses will be best positioned to build ontologies if they identify and research pain points first–areas where the data connections are most needed–before beginning to set the organizing principles for the ontology itself.
The Critical Role of Enterprise Data in Generative AI
A flood of Gen AI-based tools and applications, often acting as wrappers for LLMs like ChatGPT, has hit the market. While they offer clever and creative solutions, LLMs alone can't solve all organizational information problems. Machine learning, integral to AI applications, is now embedded in conventional enterprise tools like ERP, data warehouses, eCommerce, and content/knowledge management systems, enhancing their core functionalities. This integration promises new efficiencies and productivity across various scenarios.
- 2020 The AI-Powered Enterprise: Harness the Power of Ontologies to Make Your Business Smarter, Faster and More Profitable
Seth's practical approach to AI in his Information Development World keynote presentation provided a much-needed, realistic view of the technology for content professionals. His knowledge of content, information architecture, and content management helped to put the AI story into a broader context that any content pro could understand and relate to, and his humorous delivery engaged the IDW audience and ensured that his important messages about AI were received.
Andrea Ames, CEO/Founder and Content Experience Strategy Consultant, Idyll Point™ Group
Book Testimonial - “Read this book to learn how leaders and companies are using AI with structured data to transform business. Insight from real world examples, combined with a proven methodology, will arm the reader with the knowledge and confidence necessary to drive AI in any organization”.
Barry Coflan, SVP & Chief Technology Officer, Schneider Electric – Digital Energy
Seth's keynote was informative and humorous. He cut through the AI hype and explained the technology's true promise and constraints. He also reminded us that high-quality, audience-focused, well-structured content is key to success in any digital communications channel, including AI-enabled channels.
Jacqui Olkin, User Experience Consultant, Olkin Communications Consulting
We invited Seth to address our executive team and sixteen CEOs from our partner cooperative associations and to share his insights on the state if AI and its real-life, business applications. Seth provided us with the history of modern artificial intelligence and gave us a comprehensive overview of where this revolutionary technology is at today. Most important though, he led a discussion of the practical, real-life applications of AI to our business specifically. We appreciated the hype-free approach to the topic, as well as the candor on the risks inherent in this 'new frontier'. Coming out of the session, we had a much clearer understanding of the risks and opportunities that AI presents today. Just as important though was to get us thinking about short term opportunities for our business. Great talk!
Juan Silvera, Chief Marketing Officer, AgFirst Farm Credit Bank
Book Testimonial - “For any leader considering ways to improve their business with advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence this book is a must read. Seth Earley has documented a recipe for your success.”
Mark Loboda, Sr. Vice President of Science and Technology, Hemlock Semiconductor
Book Testimonial - “AI promises to provide the next ‘turn of the crank' in business automation. However, purely statistical machine learning alone won't achieve this on its own. This book provides prescriptive guidance in the context of real business case studies to drive success instead of disappointment. It's a great resource to separate the hype from the reality and a practical guide to achieve real business outcomes using AI technology”.
Peter N Johnson, MetLife Fellow, SVP, MetLife
Book Testimonial - “If you're serious about harnessing the power of AI in your business — and you should be — this book will show you how to make it an operational reality.”
Scott Brinker, VP Platform Ecosystem, HubSpot, Editor, chiefmartec.com
Top 50 global influencers on Artificial Intelligence -Thinkers360 live leaderboard for our top 50 global thought leaders and influencers on Artificial Intelligence for 2022.
Thinkers360
Book Testimonial - “I do not know of any books that have such useful and detailed advice on the relationship between data and successful conversational AI systems.”
Tom Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor at Babson College, Research Fellow at MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, and author of Only Humans Need Apply and The AI Advantage
Seth Earley is a terrific speaker on a variety of content-related topics. His knowledge of the space, along with his industry affiliations, place him well above the pack. In addition, Seth is an engaging speaker. He clearly shows passion for his work, holds the attention of the audience, and provides a captivating and enjoyable experience. We enjoyed having him speak at Information Development World and look forward to additional opportunities in the future.
Val Swisher, CEO, Content Rules, Inc.
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