Keynote Speakers Like Adam Grant: 5 Alternatives Focusing on Trust and AI
I know exactly why you are on this page.
Your CEO wants "someone like Adam Grant." Your budget is not Adam Grant. And honestly, the problem your organization is facing right now might need something different than what Adam Grant delivers.
Adam Grant is brilliant. His work on organizational psychology has shaped how millions of people think about work. But here is what I hear from event planners every week: "We do not just need someone to rethink how we work. We need someone who can help our leaders build trust while AI is reshaping everything underneath them."
That is a different problem. And it requires a different kind of speaker.
If you are looking for a keynote speaker who combines the intellectual depth of Adam Grant with a specific focus on trust, human connection, and leading through AI disruption, here are five names worth knowing.
1. Amy Edmondson
Amy coined the term "psychological safety." If your organization is rolling out AI and your teams are too afraid to admit they do not understand the new tools, Amy's research explains exactly why. Psychological safety is the raw material of adoption. Without it, every AI rollout stalls.
Best for: Organizations where fear of failure is silently killing innovation.
2. Patrick Lencioni
Patrick wrote the book on team dysfunction. Literally. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team has been a leadership staple for two decades. His number one dysfunction? The absence of trust. If your teams are stuck in silos and your leadership retreats keep producing alignment that evaporates by Monday, Patrick's framework is the classic starting point.
Best for: Leadership retreats and team-building events focused on fundamentals.
3. Julissa S. Germosén
If Patrick Lencioni provides the classic framework for team trust, I provide the one built specifically for the AI era.
I spent 20 years at Microsoft and Salesforce watching organizations scale technology while bankrupting relationships. 95% of GenAI pilots fail. Not because of the algorithms. Because nobody built the trust infrastructure first.
My Currency of Connection™ framework maps the journey from relational bankruptcy — where most organizations are right now — to relational capital, the trust you build strategically, to relational currency, the flywheel where trust compounds and directly accelerates deal velocity, team retention, and leadership influence.
I am not the academic studying this from the outside. I am the practitioner who has lived it. I have closed multimillion-dollar deals at Google, Meta, and LinkedIn. I have watched trust recover a $20 million client relationship that everyone else had written off. And I have built the frameworks that help leaders stop losing people to the technology they are supposed to be embracing.
Best for: Enterprise leadership summits, association conferences, AI and innovation events, sales kickoffs, and any organization navigating AI adoption and wondering why it is not working.
4. Erica Dhawan
Erica is an expert on digital body language. In a world where most communication happens through screens, she provides highly tactical advice on how teams can build trust across hybrid and remote environments. If your organization went remote or hybrid and connection has suffered, Erica's work fills an important gap.
Best for: Organizations navigating hybrid and remote communication challenges.
5. Marcus Buckingham
Marcus has spent decades studying what drives human performance. His strengths-based leadership approach helps organizations understand what actually motivates people when AI begins automating tasks. If your team is anxious about their relevance in an AI-powered workplace, Marcus helps them find their irreplaceable value.
Best for: HR conferences and talent development events focused on engagement and retention.
How to Choose
Here is the honest breakdown. If you need the academic theory of how workplaces function, Amy and Marcus are your best fit. If you need the classic team trust playbook, Patrick is the gold standard. If you need tactical hybrid communication strategies, Erica delivers.
If you need the leader who has lived inside the boardrooms where trust was built and lost, who has the proprietary framework for the exact moment your organization is in right now — AI moving fast, trust eroding faster — and who will customize every word for your specific audience, that is where I come in.
The truth is, you do not need a massive celebrity budget to transform your culture. You need a speaker who can walk into the room, name the problem nobody else is naming, and give your leaders a system they can use on Monday.
AI is commoditizing. Trust is the new moat.
Julissa S. Germosén is the founder of Trust Capital AI and a keynote speaker on trust, human connection, and the human side of AI. She speaks for enterprise leaders, executive teams, and industry associations at leadership summits, AI and innovation conferences, association conferences, sales kickoffs, and Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations. Book Julissa for your next event →