Amanda Johnstone

AI technologist, entrepreneur and mental health innovator helping organisations navigate AI, ethics and the future of work

Overview

Amanda Johnstone is one of Australia's most globally recognised AI technologists — named a TIME Next Generation Leader, a LinkedIn Top Voice in Artificial Intelligence (one of just 1,500 selected globally from nearly a billion users), and one of Salesforce's Top 16 AI Influencers. As CEO and founder of Transhuman Inc. (2014), she was pioneering conversations around neuroscience, AI ethics and human behaviour years before they became mainstream.

Her most distinctive credential: she built the technology she speaks about. After losing friends to suicide, Amanda invented Be A Looper and EmotionAI, mental health technologies now deployed across 80+ countries, helping more than 20,000 vulnerable people access real-time peer support. That work earned her The CEO Magazine's Start-up Executive of the Year. Today she advises organisations including Commonwealth Bank, Google Cloud, Zoom, Allianz, Stanford and Sovereign Australia AI on responsible AI adoption, ethics and the AI-transformed workforce.

Career Highlights

• Named a TIME Next Generation Leader

• LinkedIn Top Voice in Artificial Intelligence (2023) — one of 1,500 selected globally

• Named among Salesforce's Top 16 AI Influencers

• The CEO Magazine's Start-up Executive of the Year

• Founder & CEO, Transhuman Inc. (2014) — creator of EmotionAI and Be A Looper

• Mental health technology deployed across 80+ countries, supporting 20,000+ people

• Holds patents in human-machine symbiosis and psychology

• Advisor to Commonwealth Bank, Google Cloud, Zoom, Allianz, Stanford, Sovereign Australia AI and others

Key Speaking Themes

• Artificial intelligence, ethics and responsible innovation

• EmotionAI and the convergence of AI with human biology

• The AI-transformed workforce and future of work

• Women in leadership and inclusive innovation

• Mental health, technology and human-centred design

Signature Talks

• How to See Around Corners (her most requested keynote) — a decade-tested methodology helping senior leaders read early signals and act before disruption hits

• EmotionAI: How AI and the Human Body Will Converge — the Internet of Bodies, and how emotion/facial recognition and brain-computer interfaces are already being deployed in schools and events globally

• Ethics in the Age of Data — balancing innovation with privacy, fairness, transparency and bias management in AI

• Navigating the AI-Transformed Workforce — how roles are evolving in the age of AI, and practical reskilling strategies

What Your Audience Will Gain

Amanda's keynotes are built for boards, executives and technology leaders who are tired of abstract futurism and want something they can act on by Monday morning. She's direct, warm and free of jargon — treating senior audiences as the capable adults they are, while grounding every insight in technology she's actually built and deployed at scale.

Ideal For

• AI and technology conferences

• Executive and boardroom briefings

• Women in leadership and STEM events

• Healthcare, insurance and digital health conferences

• Future-of-work and workforce transformation summits