The Future is Faster Than You Think: Brian Solis of ServiceNow On How Leaders Are Preparing for The Innovations, Disruptions, and Strategies That Will Define Tomorrow

The pace of change is accelerating, with innovations and disruptions reshaping industries faster than ever. Leaders must not only anticipate these changes but also develop strategies to thrive in this evolving landscape. How are forward-thinking leaders preparing for the technologies and challenges of tomorrow? What strategies are they putting in place today to ensure success in the future? As part of this series, we are interviewing Brian Solis.

Brian Solis serves as the Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow where he drives vision, strategy, and insights for the company’s Office of Innovation with Dave Wright, Chief Innovation Officer. Brian partners with customer executives and ServiceNow leaders to advise on disruptive trends and next-generation innovation and business transformation strategies.

Brian is a world-renowned futurist, 9x best-selling author, and international keynote speaker. He is the author of over 60 widely read research reports that explore the future of business and industries, disruptive technologies, and important consumer shifts. He has consistently been recognized as one of the world’s leading thinkers in innovation, business transformation, and leadership for over two decades. Brian continues to publish business and technology thought leadership in industry publications such as HBR, Fast Company, CIO, Forbes, and Worth.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

Thank you for the opportunity! How much space do we have to answer this question!?

I’ve dedicated my career to empowering others to embrace change as an opportunity rather than a threat, knowing that the future is shaped by those willing to rewrite the rules.

My journey began as a curious kid living in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. I was fascinated by tech, and personal computing was becoming more accessible. I remember saving my allowance and neighborhood job money as a twelve-year-old to purchase the Timex Sinclair and eventually, a Commodore 64. I learned to code basic and then Fortran in high school.

Early on, I asked questions that drove teachers crazy, particularly around why things were done certain ways. My imagination ran wild. I constantly wondered about ways to reshape the world.

In 1996, I moved to Silicon Valley to pursue a career in technology, driven by a fascination with how it empowers and connects people and transforms lives. My first notable roles in Silicon Valley were in public relations for tech companies and then I jumped into the early iterations of what would become digital marketing. This not only gave me a front-row seat to the tech industry’s evolution, but it also put me in a position where I would eventually help shape the future of digital marketing and how technology companies innovate and go to market.

Technology was my calling, and core to my beliefs were people and the relationship between humans and tech. My fascination turned into an incessant passion for understanding technology’s impact on people. Eventually, I learned how to channel this passion and guide technology companies in their product development and go to market strategies. Technology’s impact on behavior, markets, and society still motivates me today.

I shifted my focus from marketing products to studying people and trends — exploring the intersection of technology, human behavior, and innovation.

My work shifted to research, publishing reports, articles, books, and keynote speeches that made sense of how people think, feel, and interact in a world increasingly influenced by technology. This led me to become a “digital anthropologist” and ultimately a futurist. My goal today is to help leaders navigate the chaos of disruption by humanizing trends, forecasting impact, and turning insights into strategies and opportunities.

Over 60 research papers, hundreds of articles, and nine books later, here we are. I now proudly serve as the Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow, where our Innovation team helps customers reimagine the future of work in an AI-first world and advise executives on business transformation initiatives.

My new book Mindshift: Transform Leadership, Drive Innovation, and Reshape the Future is a culmination of this journey. Mindshift is a guide for leaders navigating an increasingly disruptive world providing methods and frameworks I’ve developed over the years to navigate and anticipate change. And it features an incredibly motivating foreword by our Chairman and CEO Bill McDermott.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

Absolutely! As you can imagine, working with over 1,000 startups and on countless enterprise digital transformations, the stories I have could make up their own book! But I’ll share two that stand out.

#1 The Mobile Revolution

In 2007, Apple had just launched the iPhone, and while the buzz was through the roof, most people — including industry leaders — saw it as a shiny toy for tech enthusiasts. I remember sitting in a boardroom meeting with executives from a global retail brand. When I brought up the iPhone’s potential, they scoffed. “It’s just an overpriced phone,” one said dismissively. “Who’s going to browse the web or shop from their phone?”

I remember saying something along the lines that this wasn’t just a phone. It was the beginning of a new way of communicating, shopping, working, and connecting.

My point was that the iPhone was effectively putting internet in everyone’s pocket, giving consumers unprecedented access to information, products, and services. I believe I positioned it as a platform and behavioral revolution.

I’m pretty sure they thought I was crazy. But it was a mindshift moment. New apps, sites, experiences, and opportunities would emerge for a mobile-first web.

I imagined a future where businesses would need to optimize for a mobile-first world — a world where consumers could research products in-store, share experiences on social media in real time, and transact seamlessly from anywhere. I eventually published a report titled, “The Inevitability of a Mobile-Only Customer Experience” and a book on the opportunities inherent in digital experience innovation, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design.

It’s amazing to me just how many executives make decisions without empathy, without understanding customer behaviors, mindsets, and aspirations, and without digital, mobile, or AI literacy.

For me, it was a validation of that early belief that the iPhone wasn’t just a gadget — it was the key to a new era of human empowerment. And today, I remind leaders: the most disruptive ideas often look like novelties at first glance. You have to see the world differently. You have to become the people you’re trying to reach.

#2 My First Encounter with Generative AI

Around 2015–2016, my research focused on self-driving vehicles. That was an exciting time as I found myself in some of the most innovative labs around the world ranging from car companies such as Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Tesla to startups like Cruise, Uber, and Waymo.

I remember touring the Mercedez Benz innovation lab in Silicon Valley with friends and fellow geeks Robert Scoble and Jeremiah Owyang.

Our host mentioned that the technology we were going to see that day was instrumental in powering autonomous vehicles. The point was to open the hood behind the complexities that made something look so simple and seamless.

We walked up to a black podium with an old school manual typewriter prominently placed on top. It honestly looked more like a display you’d find in a museum. Our host said, “go ahead and speak the first part of a story out loud and then artificial intelligence will continue the story for you.”

I remember starting the beginning of a story in the style of Edgar Allen Poe. I spoke about two paragraphs worth of introduction, and to my astonishment, the typewriter began typing, key by key, click by click, with letters becoming words, and words becoming complete sentences. After a few minutes, AI completed the introduction and set the stage for the rest of the story. It was creative, gripping, and done in the style of Edgar Allen Poe. I wanted to keep reading.

In that moment, no one was thinking about self-driving cars. We were thinking about the potential of AI.

What if machines could go beyond completing thoughts and answering questions?

What if they could anticipate needs, understand emotions, and help us make better decisions?

How could AI revolutionize customer service and R&D? How could it reimagine marketing by tailoring experiences to individual preferences? Could it help leaders make decisions by sifting through mountains of data to find patterns we’d never see on our own?

I’ll never forget that experience. That moment became a spark for what would become years of exploration. Fast forward to today, and we’re living in that future. ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms have moved AI from the lab to the mainstream. They’re reshaping everything — from how we create content to how we innovate. And now here I am, the Head of Global Innovation for the world’s leading AI platform for business transformation!

What’s exciting is that we’ve been able to help businesses harness these capabilities, not just for efficiency, but for deeper personalization and connection. The key, I always say, isn’t just to adopt the technology. It’s to ask, “How can this change lives and make people’s lives better?”

AI isn’t just about machines learning — it’s about humans reimagining. And that journey started with a simple chatbot and a big “What if?

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

What truly sets ServiceNow apart is our relentless focus on outcomes — making work, life, and the world better for people. We‘re not just solving problems; we’re transforming the way work gets done and enabling people and organizations to achieve their greatest potential with AI at the center of everything.

I spend a lot of time in our Innovation and Executive Briefing Centers hosting customers from all over the world. One of my greatest joys in these workshops is the “a ha” moment when executives realize that ServiceNow offers more than just workflow automation solutions for any one business function, but instead see the ServiceNow platform as a catalyst for reimagining AI-powered work across the enterprise. You can see the real-time shift in thinking, and this is where the conversations get interesting. Suddenly, we’re not just talking about technology. We’re talking about business transformation, leadership, and innovation.

It’s pretty incredible when you witness the mindshift from digital to business transformation. The conversation shifts from how technology can improve work to how work itself should change and how business and organizational models should follow.

I remember sitting with the CDO and CIO of a global travel company. Their charter was to take out five-to-ten percent of the company’s operating costs through tech investments. But they realized that they may be missing opportunities to also drive growth that innovation can unlock.

Our meetings shifted to then focus on new areas of opportunities including customer service and customer experience. Together, we worked on storytelling to make the case to the CEO and senior decision-makers about transformation, the costs that were eliminated, and the growth that could follow.

It was a powerful example of the business transformation conversations that could unfold when executives “see what they couldn’t see” before and a reminder of grounding all growth exercises in data and tangible use cases and strategies.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

I spent more than a fair amount of time self-reflecting during the years of researching and writing Lifescale: How to Live a More Creative, Productive, and Happy Life. To be honest, there aren’t just three character traits I would source, as my work shifts with each wave of technology and business disruption. I would point to Curiosity, Self-Awareness, Creativity, Empathy, and Resilience.

Curiosity: Curiosity has been my compass, guiding me to ask “What if?” and “Why not?” my entire life. It led me to explore emerging trends, to make sense of them before they caused disruption, and most importantly, has helped me find new solutions or create new opportunities rather than simply follow the rules or do the work because that’s the way it’s always been done.

Example: Asking questions has been foundational to my research and advisory in corporate and startup innovation. When I started FutureWorks, a digital-first marketing and go-to-market agency, in 1999, and then created FutureWorks Labs, a social- and mobile-first agency in 2007, we set out to challenge all conventional marketing and launch conventions. We started with digital and then mobile- and social media-first customers and worked backwards to screens, platforms, networks, influences, and behaviors to effectively reach them.

Self-Awareness: This is the foundation of growth, both personally and professionally. Early in my career, I realized that understanding myself — my motivations, blind spots, biases, and aspirations — was central to realizing the need to break-free of comfort zones and navigate the reality of change and disruption.

Example: One pivotal moment of self-awareness came when I realized that my early career approach — focusing solely on technology — was limiting my impact. It’s easy to geek-out on the latest tech. It’s easy to put myself at the center of stories and applications around the tech. But I learned that the key to recognizing different patterns, finding new opportunities, and driving meaningful change isn’t about me. And it’s more than showcasing the potential of emerging tools. It’s about connecting that potential to human aspirations and behaviors.

Creativity: Creativity is something I practice every day. Creativity isn’t about being artistic; it’s about seeing patterns and opportunities where others can’t see beyond their perspectives and biases. It’s about finding solutions when others only see excuses or problems. And it’s about creating something that others can see within themselves.

Example: When I was writing What’s the Future of Business (WTF): Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences and X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, I set out to reimagine what a print book should be in an era of mobile-first screens. I set out to design a printed book that emulated a mobile app experience. We wireframed the book, applied UX principles to the table of contents and chapter structures, and explored ways to transform text into infographics and compelling visuals. This changed the foundation of what a book is and how they’re designed and laid out.

Empathy: Understanding people — their motivations, fears, and aspirations — has been a cornerstone of my work. Empathy is at the heart of every great leader. It’s about understanding, not just what people say, but what they feel and need.

Example: In my research and work around customer experience, empathy helped me identify and map new customer journeys forged by digital and mobile-first customers. This led to helping companies rethink customer engagement, service, and overall experiences beyond traditional funnels. It also helped me humanize customers beyond conventional personas to help marketers, service professionals, sales leaders, and executives see people for who they are, how they felt, what they valued, and how they made decisions and influenced the decisions of others. This revolutionized my work in customer experience innovation, starting with helping executives literally walk in the shoes of their customers. I called this work, the “Undercover Boss” moment.

Resilience: Change is as hard as it is continuous. Resilience has helped me turn fear into exploration, experiments into learnings, failures into refinements and pivots, and disruption into opportunities.

Example: I’ve reinvented myself ahead of every technology revolution to see change for what it represents vs. how I saw it in previous cycles. This has required me to rethink my approaches to uncover the challenges and potential in each wave. Doing so has helped me stay relevant throughout the years while also keeping my ideas and work purposeful and genuine at every step.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. What emerging technologies do you believe will have the most significant impact on your industry in the next five years, and how are you preparing for them?

The next five years will usher in transformative advancements in several emerging technologies. Each of these innovations represents not just an evolution of technology but a profound shift in how we live, work, and connect. The list is greater than what’s included here. But this is a good start to get us thinking.

Generative AI and the Path to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

Generative AI is already reshaping industries even though most have yet to realize its true potential. It enables hyper-personalization, streamlines operations, and fosters creativity at a scale we’ve never seen before. More so, it allows us to do things what we couldn’t do or imagine before. As Dave Wright, our Chief Innovation Officer says, “AI will change the things that will change the things.” And the waves of generative AI, agentic AI, reasoning, will eventually give way to AGI — machines capable of understanding, learning, and performing any intellectual task humans can do.

This evolution will blur the lines between what’s created by humans and machines, pushing us to rethink intellectual property, ethics, and the role of creativity.

AI will fundamentally alter roles across sectors. In healthcare, AGI could accelerate drug discovery. In education, it could provide individualized learning paths. And in business, it will redefine decision-making, R&D and Innovation, strategy development, and organizational design.

In Mindshift, I emphasize the importance of developing a growth mindset to adapt to such disruptions. For instance, I work with leaders to identify tasks AI can automate, allowing teams to focus on creativity, strategy, and empathy-driven roles that machines can’t replicate. I also emphasize foresight as a critical leadership skill. I’m actively helping businesses adopt generative AI, beyond automation and toward augmentation, while preparing them for the cultural and operational shifts AGI will demand.

Neural Computing

Neural computing, the next frontier in processing power, mimics the human brain’s architecture to enable real-time learning and decision-making. This technology will revolutionize fields requiring high-speed data processing and adaptability, such as autonomous vehicles, robotics, and personalized medicine. Neural chips embedded in devices could deliver instant language translation, predictive healthcare monitoring, and even brain-computer interfaces, transforming accessibility and human potential.

I’m actively studying how neural computing aligns with market trends and human behaviors. When we explore how AI can augment work differently tomorrow rather than simply limiting it to automating yesterday’s work, we identify new applications and new potential for human/machine collaboration and the new skills and roles for humans to play in driving transformation and innovation. By fostering collaborations between technologists and behavioral scientists, we can ensure the development of solutions that enhance, rather than replace, human capabilities.

Spatial Computing

Spatial computing will redefine how we interact with digital and physical environments. It’s not just about augmented or virtual reality — it’s about seamlessly blending the physical and digital worlds, which will usher in a new era of spatial design.

Spatial computing will revolutionize industries like retail, where immersive shopping experiences become the norm, and healthcare, where surgeons can perform procedures with augmented reality overlays. It will also transform how we work, enabling virtual offices that feel as collaborative as physical ones.

In Mindshift, I highlight the importance of adopting a beginner’s mindset to explore emerging possibilities. I’m experimenting with spatial computing to reimagine the future of work and collaboration, including how leaders can design hybrid environments that enhance creativity and connection.

Biotech

I can’t wait for AI to reshape healthcare, personalize medicine, and eradicate devastating diseases. Biotech, supercharged by AI, is poised to revolutionize healthcare in ways that are not just incremental but exponential. Over the next five years, we’ll witness breakthroughs that will fundamentally change how we understand, diagnose, and treat illnesses.

We’ll see, I hope, precision medicine becoming the norm, faster and more accurate drug discovery, earlier detection of diseases, the rise of digital therapeutics, and the ability to address global health inequalities.

This could lead to significant advances in cancer treatments, where therapies are optimized for each person’s specific tumor profile, dramatically improving survival rates and dramatically reducing healthcare rates. We could finally see cures for diseases that were previously considered untreatable.

Quantum Computing

Quantum computing’s ability to process vast amounts of data exponentially faster than traditional computing will disrupt industries reliant on complex problem-solving, such as logistics, cybersecurity, and climate modeling. I’m not sure how much of this will be available in the next five years, but I’m paying attention.

For businesses, quantum computing could optimize supply chains in ways previously unimaginable. In finance, it could revolutionize risk analysis, while in healthcare, it may solve previously insurmountable challenges in genomics and precision medicine. I’m also optimistic that quantum computing will help mankind reverse and solve many issues fueling the climate crisis.

To prepare, I’m partnering with organizations exploring quantum computing to better understand its applications and limitations. As I share in Mindshift, leaders must not wait for the technology to mature but should instead start experimenting with small-scale quantum initiatives, and all emergent trends/threats, today.

Sustainability Technologies

Speaking of taking care of Earth, climate-focused innovations, from carbon capture to renewable energy breakthroughs, will drive the next wave of industrial and economic transformation.

Sustainability tech will redefine industries, from transportation (think EVs powered by next-gen batteries) to manufacturing (where materials science will minimize waste and maximize efficiency). These advancements will also create entirely new markets centered around circular economies.

My colleagues are already working with companies to integrate sustainability into their innovation roadmaps using our platform.

The future belongs to leaders who prioritize purpose alongside profit. This includes building technologies that not only drive business outcomes but also make a meaningful impact on the planet.

How do you balance the need for rapid innovation with the risk of potential disruptions in your organization?

ServiceNow is innovative and forward-looking, and our charter goes beyond our own company. We exist to help our customers answer this very question. Once executives realize the potential of our platform, the conversation always shifts toward leadership, culture, and change management.

In today’s world, where the pace of change is exponential, the balance lies in fostering a culture that encourages agility and experimentation while ensuring that innovation aligns with the organization’s long-term goals and values.

Balance requires creating a culture where experimentation is safe and expected. Leaders must set a vision that inspires creativity while maintaining a framework for mitigating risks.

I encourage teams to work in “dual operating systems”: one focused on core operations and another dedicated to exploring the future.

One system focuses on maintaining and optimizing core operations — the processes and products that sustain your business today. The other operates like a startup within the organization, focusing on experimentation, risk-taking, and the development of future-focused ideas.

This model prevents disruption from derailing your existing operations while giving your organization the freedom to innovate.

Can you share an example of a strategy you’ve implemented to future-proof your business against upcoming technological changes?

Future-proofing is part of ServiceNow’s day-to-day approach. We’ve been acquiring, investing in, and building AI and work automation solutions for more than a decade. But what makes our work meaningful is that we partner with customers to help future-proof their businesses.

A primary motivation for publishing Mindshift was to help scale my work in helping to future-proof companies against potentially disruptive shifts. The methods I share include 1) Trendsight, 2) Trendsighting, 3) Trendscape Canvas, 4) Trendfluence, and 5) Trendspark. Each are designed to help leaders identify, understand, and act on emerging trends with precision and foresight.

Trendsight is seeing patterns, weak signals, and shifts in the market or customer behavior before they fully materialize. It involves a proactive approach to observing the world with a sense of curiosity and openness. Trendsights can reveal opportunities or threats that might otherwise go unnoticed. It’s about sharpening your “receiver’s state” to tune into subtle changes that could evolve into major trends.

Trendsighting involves systematically collecting, organizing, and analyzing information about emerging trends. It’s not about predicting the future but understanding how trends might unfold and impact the organization and its ecosystem.

Trendsighting involves three steps, Observing, Analyzing, and Categorizing.

1. Track signals in consumer behavior, technology, and societal shifts.
2. Evaluate trends for their potential to disrupt or create new opportunities.
3. Identify patterns and group trends into actionable themes​​.

The Trendscape Canvas builds on Trendsighting as a visualization tool to map out trends, their trajectories, and their potential impact. It helps organizations centralize their understanding of trends and align them with their strategic goals.

Trends are plotted on a 2x2 grid, measuring behavioral impact (y-axis) and business impact (x-axis). Leaders can categorize trends into short-term, long-term, and parking lot priorities. This canvas provides a roadmap for action, showing which trends to monitor, act on, or set aside​​.

Even the best insights are useless without buy-in. Trendfluence refers to the process of communicating the significance of trends to decision-makers and aligning stakeholders around a shared vision for change. Trendfluence ensures that key trends are framed in ways that resonate with diverse audiences, particularly within the C-suite​​.

Trendspark is about igniting action. It involves designing small experiments or pilot projects to test the viability of trends and uncover scalable solutions.

A Trendspark starts with identifying trends with high potential using the Trendscape Canvas. Then, through planning and strategy, launch experiments to validate ideas before committing significant resources. Lastly feedback from these initiatives is used to refine strategies​​.

By identifying key trends, leaders are equipped to discern between fads and transformative shifts, focusing resources on trends with long-term potential. Mindshifters can then focus on creating strategic alignment using the Trendscape Canvas to ensure that trends are tied to organizational priorities and timelines, preventing random acts of innovation. This exercise is designed to create stakeholder buy-In. Trendfluence bridges the gap between insights and action, ensuring that the organization is aligned around a shared vision.

Creating a culture of innovation is rooted in developing agility through experimentation. A Trendspark helps to foster a culture of experimentation, allowing organizations to adapt quickly to change without unnecessary risk.

What skills or mindsets do you believe are essential for leaders to thrive in an era of rapid technological advancement?

The personal characteristics that I lean on for learning, unlearning, and growth are important for everyone, including this question. They still apply: 1) Curiosity, 2) Self-Awareness, 3) Creativity, 4) Empathy, and 5) Resilience.

Learning and unlearning are keys to growth. But you need to believe you have something new to learn and something old to unlearn. This is the gift of a mindshift, and it’s one that’s worth receiving and giving.

Additionally, I would highlight the importance of the following skills and mindsets:

Adaptability: Leaders must pivot quickly in response to new information.

Foresight: Nurture the ability to anticipate change and prepare for it.

Lifelong Learning: We are, or should be, forever students. Continuously unlearning old paradigms and embracing new ones.

Courage: Fortune favors the bold. So does innovation. Disruption often requires bold decisions that challenge the status quo. It’s important to note that courage is not a trait embodied in the absence of fear. You can be courageous and still feel fear. It’s part of being human. Just don’t let fear hold you back.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Things You Need to Prepare For The Disruptive Future”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

1. Adopt a Beginner’s Mindset: The first step in preparing for disruption is letting go of what you think you know. A beginner’s mindset allows you to approach challenges with curiosity, humility, and openness to new possibilities. Leaders must constantly unlearn outdated paradigms and embrace new ways of thinking. As I write in Mindshift, the most dangerous phrase in times of disruption is, “This is how we’ve always done it.”

During the early days of social media, I worked with a financial services company that dismissed platforms as irrelevant to their industry. I challenged them to approach social media with fresh eyes — not as a marketing tool, but as a way to build trust and engage customers where they already were. By experimenting with personalized interactions on Twitter, they turned skeptics into advocates and built a loyal online community that became a key driver of growth.

2. Build Resilience Through Learning and Unlearning: Disruption tests not just your strategies but your mindset. Resilience comes from a commitment to continuous learning — turning failures into steppingstones and uncertainty into opportunities. Resilience isn’t about bouncing back; it’s about bouncing forward. The organizations that thrive are those willing to learn, pivot, and adapt. More so, they’re willing to forecast and anticipate potential disruption.

As Tesla was gaining notoriety for its digital-first approach to car ownership, I worked with a legacy luxury car maker that needed help inspiring its global network of franchise owners to think differently. I spent then spent time with company executives and dealership owners to see things through the eyes of their digital customers.

I crafted a narrative “day in the life of” their future car buyer, complete with personas, scenarios, and a visualized journey. The initiative showcased how our consumers’ digital behaviors and influences were different than traditional car buyers and humanized how they reacted to current events. We explored modern expectations for personalization and transparency and how they would reshape the industry. This wasn’t just a strategy — it was a story that sparked action. That narrative ultimately inspired them to redesign their customer experience, shifting their trajectory, one step at a time.

This strategy led to a deep dive customer experience initiative aimed at helping dealers find their own “Tesla” moment to better connect with and service people their local communities.

3. Center Insights, Experimentation and Innovation Around People: Technology is only as impactful as the human problems it solves and aspirations it unlocks.

Preparing for the future means ensuring that every innovation aligns with real human needs and values. Leaders must balance the “can we?” with the “should we?” Ethics, empathy, and human values should guide every decision.

A healthcare company I worked with was exploring digital-first processes. While the technology was impressive, their initial approach lacked empathy — it prioritized efficiency over patient experiences. Think about a digital version of clipboard. The real beneficiary was the healthcare company because it saved steps on the backend vs. helping the patient. By refocusing on the patient experience, we co-designed solutions that not only improved diagnostic accuracy but also made patients feel cared for. More so, the approach gave back precious time to caregivers, helping to relieve burnout.

4. Cultivate a Culture of Experimentation: In a world where disruption is the new normal, the only way to stay ahead is to constantly explore, imagine, test, iterate, and innovate.

Creating a culture that encourages experimentation empowers teams to take calculated risks without fear of failure.

A culture of experimentation isn’t just about trying new things — it’s about building the muscle to adapt to change. The future belongs to those who are willing to test its boundaries.

I have had the privilege of working with and learning from Gapingvoid, a culture design and innovation studio. When the Edwards Air Force Base needed to shift from a culture of complacency to one of innovation, it first looked at leadership, people, the flow of information, and the barriers of bureaucracy that threatened productivity.

Leadership started by defining what we meant by innovation. To help the entire base become an innovation laboratory, they proposed a culture of safety and listening. Any member of the team with an idea needed to know that someone in leadership would listen to it, consider it, and act appropriately. Even if they didn’t get to yes, they learned that the simple but important acts of listening, considering and acting would spark engagement, “snapping the workforce out of autopilot,” and unleashing ideation across the team.

5. Align Purpose with Innovation: In times of disruption, purpose is your North Star. It provides clarity, inspires action, and ensures that innovation serves a greater good. Purpose isn’t just a mission statement on your website; it’s the foundation of your organization’s identity and it is what customers, employees, and stakeholders align with.

In your organization, align innovation initiatives with your “why” to create meaningful impact. Ask yourself: What change do we want to create in the world? Why do we exist beyond making a profit? What value do we deliver in an AI-first world?

Use a “purpose filter” in your decision-making processes. To make purpose actionable, it must be integrated into daily decisions. When evaluating new initiatives, products, or partnerships, ask: Does this align with our purpose? Does it help us create the change we’re committed to?

When leaders anchor their innovation in purpose, they create meaningful value for business and society.

Patagonia is a great example of a company with purpose. They don’t just sell outdoor gear; their purpose is to fight climate change. This clarity shapes everything they do, from sustainable materials to activism campaigns.

Lastly, align purpose with purpose-driven metrics. Traditional KPIs measure success in terms of profit or efficiency. But to align with purpose, you need metrics that track how well you’re delivering on your mission. This could include measuring environmental impact, social equity, or customer well-being.

How do you foster a culture within your team that is both adaptable and resilient in the face of fast-paced innovation?

To create a team culture that thrives in the face of fast-paced innovation, you need more than processes or technology — you need a shared sense of purpose and vision. And there’s no better way to build that than through the power of storytelling. Stories aren’t just about communication; they’re about connection. They help people understand the “why” behind change, embrace the possibilities of the future, and navigate the uncertainty of transformation with resilience.

Storytelling is a competitive advantage. But for stories to realize their full potential, they must be believable and relatable.

When people see the bigger picture — the “why” behind change — they’re more willing to embrace it. I also celebrate small wins to build momentum and encourage teams to learn from failure rather than fear it.

A pivotal moment in my journey came when I studied the art of storytelling from masters like Disney and Pixar. Their stories aren’t just entertaining — they’re emotionally resonant, universally relatable, and deeply memorable.

I had the privilege of learning from former Pixar, now Netflix storyboard artist Nicholas Sung, who worked on films like Inside Out and Up. Sung also worked with Airbnb during the company’s famous “Snow White” transformation to become an experience company.

In our work together, Sung shared a simple but profound insight: every great story has a “spark” — a moment of truth that ignites the audience’s connection with the characters and their journey.

When Sung explained the iterative nature of Pixar’s creative process — how every storyboard undergoes countless revisions — I saw a direct parallel to fostering adaptability.

Teams thrive when they know it’s okay to experiment, fail, and try again. By embedding this philosophy into your culture, you create an environment where resilience becomes second nature. At its core, storytelling is about helping your team see themselves as part of something meaningful. When people feel connected to a story, they’re not just more adaptable — they’re more invested, resilient, and innovative.

This lesson transformed how I approach leadership and culture-building. In times of rapid innovation, teams often face fear, resistance, or fatigue. By crafting a narrative that shows them where they’re headed (also referred to as a future motivational state), why it matters, and how they’re part of something bigger, you create alignment, inspiration, and resilience.

As I often say, “In times of disruption, the best leaders aren’t just strategists — they’re storytellers.” So, ask yourself: what’s the story you’re telling your team today?

How do you ensure that ethical considerations and social impact remain a priority as you navigate rapid advancements in technology?

Ethics isn’t an afterthought; it’s foundational. I advocate for “responsible innovation,” ensuring that every technology we adopt is transparent, equitable, and aligned with societal values.

For example, when developing AI, we must embed accountability, human oversight, feedback, and transparency into the process, keeping a human in the loop to ensure AI outputs are impactful, accurate, and free from bias.

Start with a clear ethical framework. Technology evolves faster than regulation, which means organizations must proactively define their own ethical standards. This includes principles for transparency, accountability, inclusivity, and fairness.

Build bias mitigation into the process. Bias in AI and other advanced technologies isn’t just a technical issue — it’s a human one. From data collection to algorithm design, every step must be scrutinized to minimize bias and ensure fairness.

Engage with stakeholders. Not everyone has the answers, awareness, or literacy. Ethics and social impact don’t exist in a vacuum. Engaging with external stakeholders — community leaders, NGOs, regulators, and customers — ensures that your organization’s innovations address real-world needs and challenges.

Prioritize transparency and explainability. Ethical innovation requires trust, and trust begins with transparency. End-users and stakeholders need to understand how your technology works, how decisions are made, and what data is being collected.

Foster a culture of ethical accountability. Ethics isn’t just the responsibility of leadership or a dedicated team — it’s a company-wide commitment. Every employee must feel empowered to raise ethical concerns and contribute to solutions. That starts with leadership.

Innovate as if it was the new norm, with a long-term perspective. Rapid innovation often focuses on short-term wins, but ethical considerations require thinking about long-term consequences. Use future-scenario planning to evaluate the long-term impact of your technologies on society, privacy, and the environment.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Honestly, I would love to start many movements, one starting with digital and AI literacy, and another inspired by spreading kindness and empowerment.

But if I could start a movement right now, knowing where we are on the horizon of AI and emergent technology disruption, I would focus on cultivating a Mindshift culture worldwide. It would empower individuals to proactively look forward, see challenges as opportunities, and take actionable steps to create a better future.

A mindshift is about exploring how our perceptions, assumptions, and mental frameworks often hold us back.

The truth is, most of us operate with industrial-era mindsets in what is becoming a post-industrial, AI-first world. We cling to outdated paradigms, resist change, and fear failure just because it is what we know. It is because of center of reference tell us this is our safe, trusted, and tried-and-true place of decision-making. But in a world where disruption is constant — whether it’s technological, societal, or environmental — staying the same isn’t an option.

Mindshifting is about breaking free from these constraints and unlocking our potential to create better futures for ourselves and others.

This movement would challenge the status quo and equip people with the tools and mindsets to:

Adapt to uncertainty with confidence.

Innovate with purpose and empathy.

Lead transformative change in their communities and organizations.

By sharing tools and frameworks for navigating uncertainty, we can inspire millions to lead with purpose.

We’re living in a moment of profound disruption — technological, societal, and environmental. But with disruption comes opportunity. A mindshift is about seizing this moment to create a better future.

The future isn’t something that happens to us — it’s something that happens because of us.”

Together, we can make the future brighter, more inclusive, and more impactful.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Thank you for asking.

My online home is briansolis.com and our company site is servicenow.com

My email address is brian.solis@servicenow.com

The book website is www.mindshift.ing

And it would mean a lot if you follow me here:

LinkedIn

Bluesky

X

Instagram

Threads

Facebook

Tiktok

Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

Honestly, thank you for this opportunity. If we can inspire new leadership and new leaders to find the courage and inspiration they need to understand the future to reimagine our way forward, together, then it was time well spent. Let’s go!

About the Interviewer: Cynthia Corsetti is an esteemed executive coach with over two decades in corporate leadership and 11 years in executive coaching. Author of the upcoming book, “Dark Drivers,” she guides high-performing professionals and Fortune 500 firms to recognize and manage underlying influences affecting their leadership. Beyond individual coaching, Cynthia offers a 6-month executive transition program and partners with organizations to nurture the next wave of leadership excellence.