Artificial intelligence for everyone
Jacob Bergdahl is one of Sweden's foremost speakers. He performs inspiring and energetic lectures across Northern Europe that make AI entertaining and easy to understand. Jacob has been speaking in front of both small and large audiences in both English and Swedish since 2019. He has talked at everything from relaxed after work events and energetic kickoffs to leadership workshops and conferences.
"Jacob makes AI understandable in an entertaining and inspiring way! His presentation contains concrete actions for companies to start with when they begin their AI journey, which was really appreciated! Several participants thought Jacob's lecture was the best AI presentation they've ever heard." - Elin Nordmark, Sveriges Allmännytta (translated from Swedish)
Jacob has spoken at
Jacob's lectures
The New Industrial Revolution: a versatile, fast-paced 45 to 60 minute presentation on AI that aims to inspire and energize the audience. An excellent pick for conferences, kick-off’s or after work events.
The lecture begins with a brief, visually spectacular demonstration of the exponential development of AI through video and music generation to get the audience energetic. Jacob then showcases how companies across industries are leveraging all forms of AI, followed by a detour into responsible and ethical AI, mixing comedy with serious issues.
Jacob then introduces ChatGPT and the paradigm shift brought about by large language models: the type of AI on which ChatGPT is based. He provides deep insights into large language models and explains the transition from assistants into AI agents, as he digs into the latest developments of AI. Throughout the lecture, Jacob also highlights important trends, as he explains how both companies and societies are changing.
Striking a balance between inspiration and concrete insights, the lecture sparks creative thinking and emphasizes the importance of taking action now.
On the lookout for something practical? Jacob’s currently most popular lectures are on the topic of AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude Cowork, Gemini, and Microsoft 365 Copilot in practice. In these lectures, Jacob gives a deep dive into the AI platform of your choice.
Most organizations have now acquired enterprise licenses to one or more powerful AI tools, yet most employees have barely gotten started using these AI systems. Most don’t even know about their essential capabilities.
In these lectures, Jacob helps everyone in the organization get on board as he showcases the many capabilities of your AI platform and shows how he himself utilizes AI in complex workflows as he automates boring and repetitive tasks and augments himself in complex work.
Naturally, these lectures are kept up-to-date with the very latest capabilities and recommendations. Depending on the tool of your choice, Jacob may walk you through skills/agents/GPT’s/gems, connectors/apps/plugins, and projects. As Jacob explains a capability in the tool, he does so by walking you through a workflow.
He also covers data privacy, security, and cost of AI. These lectures always end with practical “try this” tips with different suggestions based on the participant’s skill level.
Jacob constantly stays up to date on the latest in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot. He has enterprise subscriptions to all of them.
Looking for something for programmers? Jacob’s lecture on AI for software engineering teams gives practical advice on using AI programming agents, explains how to go all the way from idea to implementation, what spec-driven development is and how it works, and how software teams will change in the AI-era.
Rather than focusing on specific tools, Jacob puts emphasis on workflows. He explains the latest capabilities of AI tooling and gives practical tips on how to create memory banks and utilize skills. He explains how the role of developers, designers, and product owners change as AI allows us to go all the way from idea into implementation. He also gives examples of how one can connect tools such as Jira or Figma to an AI programming agent.
Naturally, Jacob covers secure and compliant AI use, as well as trends.
Jacob has been building websites and apps since he was a child. After receiving a master's degree in information systems, he would go on to work as a software developer for some of Sweden's largest companies. By combining his experiences in software development with his sharp pedagogical speaking skills, he has crafted the perfect lectures to elevate programmers to the next level.
Looking for a deep dive into the technology behind the modern era of AI? Large language models, the type of AI used by ChatGPT and Copilot, represented a paradigm shift in AI. Previous AI solutions were built to solve a specific goal. The AI that is best in the world at playing chess cannot drive a car, and vice versa. But large language models have very broad capabilities: they can be used for everything from video analysis to creating Excel files.
Yet we are only at the beginning. When the internet was created, it took us decades before we realized the opportunities that the web entailed. E-commerce, taxi services like Uber, and music services like Spotify took decades before they were invented. Similarly, we have only just begun to realize the potential of large language models.
But how does a large language model actually work? How do we implement them? What do they cost? What is an AI agent? What comes after all the chatbots? And what will our future with large language models look like; are we heading toward a future with 'superapps'? This is a 45 to 60 minute lecture that goes deep into large language models. It does not focus on any particular tool, but instead aims to give participants a deep understanding of the technology and its applications. The lecture is at a level suitable for all participants.
Are you looking for a shorter lecture, perhaps as a unique and exciting inclusion in a larger conference? Or maybe as a treat to spark conversations at an after-work event? The below talks are all exciting gems at just 15 – 25 minutes.
- Stupid, sexist, racist, sycophantic, lying, overconfident AI: a thrilling lecture that blends the hilarious with the frightening as Jacob shows how over reliance in biased AI systems can cause severe issues, as self-fulfilling prophecies become a reality. You will be laughing out loud one second and find yourself frightened the next.
- All about AI agents: a talk that walks the audience through the transition from assistants into agents and details what that means for products and workflows moving forward. Learn how companies like Amazon are building agentic shoppers, how agents are taking over your web browser, and how you can use agents to work faster than ever before.
- Project X: a lecture wherein Jacob walks you through a simple yet very interesting project that he built with LLMs. In this talk, Jacob shows you an AI system that extracts valuable insights from unstructured data autonomously on a schedule, and explains the cost of using AI.
- The exponential development of AI: an exciting talk that shows you just how fast AI has been improving. Through hilarious AI-generated videos and stunning AI test results, Jacob quickly brings a sense of urgency to the audience.
More of Jacob's topics
Jacob's lectures can be combined, adapted, and remixed. Whether you are looking for something shorter or something tailored to you, Jacob can create an agenda that fits perfectly into your event. Below are some additional topics that Jacob speaks on.
- Real-world AI. A trademark topic of Jacob's and the subject of his book. Jacob's approach to AI is to make it concrete, simple, and understandable, ensuring that his lectures are not just inspirational but also informative. With a collection of hundreds of real-world AI use cases, ranging from common recommendation algorithms to AI-powered satellites, Jacob walks you through a number of real implementations of AI. He explains the business and societal impact, the ethical dilemmas, and more, keeping the lectures varied and surprising.
- Generative AI. The most popular form of AI since the launch of ChatGPT, generative AI is a transformative technology that is rapidly evolving. With its ability to perform a wide range of tasks, tools such as ChatGPT mark a new era in AI. Text, image, video, and audio generation are improving at a rapid pace. Jacob explains how these tools work, what alternatives are available, what the latest developments are, what will happen in the coming five years, and practical advice for using generative AI.
- Creating value with AI. For many years, Jacob has been using a powerful and simple framework for creating value with artificial intelligence. He's shared this framework in his book and through viral articles, and even the US Army reached out to Jacob to thank him for sharing, as they used it to explain to their superiors how they use AI within the army. Jacob walks you through this framework to create value with AI and can also host creative workshops where you can apply it to your business.
- Ethical AI. One of the biggest challenges in artificial intelligence is that AI systems have been trained on humankind's long history of discrimination. As a consequence, police and court systems around the world are used to discriminate against minorities. But even everyday tools exhibit biased AI. Ask an image generation AI to produce an image of a lawyer, and it will likely create a picture of a white man. Jacob combines serious conversations with comedic relief to show how biased AI systems create self-fulfilling prophecies – and presents guidelines to prevent it.
- Superintelligence. As we transition from AI assistants to autonomous AI agents, we are inching closer to superintelligent AI, a form of AI that far surpasses human intelligence. Superintelligent AI may allow us to cure all diseases, to make work optional, and to take humanity to the next phase. Yet: it could also spell humanity's doom. This philosophical topic is a great conversation starter and encourages the audience to think about the bigger, long-term picture. Jacob describes the true dangers of AI, and both the utopia and dystopia that superintelligent AI could bring.
- Building Autonomous AI Agents. Jacob built his own architecture for running autonomous AI agents with JavaScript. His agents can be given any mission, such as writing a book, creating a podcast episode, or making a website, and independently figure out and execute the tasks to complete the mission. Jacob explains how he built it, why agents are the natural evolution after assistants, and what technologies one can use to implement AI agents.
- AI for you. Naturally, Jacob tailors AI lectures to your needs, your industry, your topics. Do you seek to AI-enable your organization? Are you looking for guidance on how to start your journey, what AI tooling to use, how to think in regards to AI strategies, or anything else? Please reach out to Jacob with your specific needs, and he will get back to you with a concrete agenda.
Jacob Bergdahl’s lectures are not only adapted to our current times in terms of content but also in how they are delivered. Millennials and Generation Z want information at a fast pace so they don’t lose interest. Jacob delivers insights at a smart, rapid tempo, where new surprises are constantly introduced, while the material remains clear and easy to follow. The audience stays hooked from the first second until the last.
While some speakers tend to always reuse the same content, Jacob’s lectures are continuously updated. As Head of AI, Jacob dedicates the first hour of every day to keeping track of the latest developments and news in AI, and he participates in discussions within AI communities. His lectures are always up to date with the very latest findings, so don’t be surprised if Jacob describes a breakthrough that occurred just two days before your lecture.
Workshops & trainings
Jacob has conducted AI workshops all over the Nordics. He is experienced with setting up all manners of workshops, ranging from simple discussions to utilizing frameworks for identifying value creation. Jacob’s workshops are usually 2 – 6 hours long.
His most common workshops are all about being hands-on with AI tooling. Today, his most popular workshop is Build Your Own Agent. Jacob helps you create your own agent using AI applications such as Claude Cowork.
Jacob has done workshops with small groups of just two or three people (such as a leadership team or a specific company team) and upwards to large groups of fifty people. The ideal size is usually around 8 – 20 people.
About Jacob Bergdahl
Jacob is the real deal. He doesn’t just talk AI; he lives it. Having written his first AI application in 2013, Jacob would go on to write his master’s thesis on the topic of AI. In 2019, he wrote an Amazon-best selling book on AI. In 2023, he pioneered his own brand-new architecture for running fully autonomous AI agents, and open-sourced everything. After two years as Head of AI at byBrick, Jacob would go on to become an AI Specialist at Monterro.
His background is in software development. Jacob has studied IT at universities in three countries, created solutions for some of the largest organizations in Sweden, written an Amazon best-selling book on AI, worked on Minecraft at Mojang, composed viral articles with 100k+ readers, built JS Is Weird, and created the open-source AI interface Limopola complete with an architecture for running autonomous AI agents.
When he is not lecturing, Jacob works as a consultant who supports or leads companies’ LLM initiatives. LLM stands for large language model and is the kind of AI that powers tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot. LLMs can be used internally, for instance through the aforementioned platforms, but can also be embedded into products. Jacob assists organisations both as a technical LLM developer and as a product owner or project manager. He also provides strategic advice on AI.
Jacob has written software for
AI is everywhere
Artificial intelligence is already everywhere. It’s creating music, videos, perfume recipes, software code, food products, and financial analyses. It’s used to tutor children, match job candidates, scan pizzas, explore Mars, track and identify suspects, and much more.
The technological progress of our times is genuinely astounding. Did you know that if our planet had been created a year ago, humanity would have existed on the planet for ten minutes, and the industrial era would have started only two seconds ago? Technologies that we take for granted today, such as the Internet and social media, barely became mainstream only two decades ago. Meanwhile, the development of machine learning has been exponential, where what was considered science fiction only five years ago is today's reality.
World leaders such as Ulf Kristersson, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping have all commented that AI is the most important innovation of our time, noting that the leader in AI will also become the leader of the world.
Just a few years ago, OECD warned its member states that we may be on the brink of a new industrial revolution. Now, that revolution has started.
- OECD notes that 27% of all jobs may be automated by AI. (Source)
- IMF reports that 60% of jobs in advanced economies will be impacted by AI. (Source)
- The United Nations predicts that up to 40% of global jobs will be impacted by AI, as they argue that investments in skills is crucial. (Source)
- Dario Amodei (CEO of Anthropic) believes that AI could wipe out 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the US over the next one to five years. (Source)
- JPMorgan Chase & Co’s CEO argues that AI can augment virtually every job, comparing the technology to the steam engine and noting that their bank found 400 use cases for AI. (Source)
- All US federal agencies must now have a chief AI officer as the United States blazes ahead with plans to embrace AI across the entire economy. (Source)
- A British report shows that 8 million UK jobs may be lost to AI. (Source)
- Klarna’s AI assistant does the work of 700 full-time agents, resolves errands more than five times faster, is 25% more accurate, and is estimated to drive USD 40 million in profits in 2024. (Source)
- 40% of Swedes overall, and 67% of young Swedes, have used an AI tool. One in four people use AI at work. Among white-collar workers, the figure is twice as high, with half using AI. The number increases year over year. (Source)
- AI initiatives already make up 20% of the average company’s IT budget. (Source)
- A Slack study found that 80% of those using AI say that the technology is already improving their productivity. (Source)
- A Pluralsight study found that 75% of organizations already have or formally plan to implement AI solutions. (Source)
- A BCG study found that 89% of executives rank AI as a top tech priority. (Source)
AI is here and now. Industry after industry will be revolutionized with entirely new processes and methods.
A lecture by Jacob makes the topic tangible and inspiring, as he sparks awareness and creativity. Are you ready to take the next step on your AI journey? Reach out to Jacob.
Creating value with AI
There are many tools that help one understand how to apply AI to one's business. From the trusted DVF-framework to simple impact-vs-effort measures, you can apply many different techniques for ideation and implementation depending on where you are in your AI efforts. For companies at the very start of their AI journey, a good idea is to simply experiment and gain familiarity with AI tools.
The framework in the image above is one that Jacob has been using many years. This powerful and simple framework explains the four possible AI strategies which can be applied to business processes. Jacob has shared this framework in his book and through viral articles, and even the US Army reached out to Jacob to thank him for sharing, as they ended up using it to explain to their superiors how they use AI within the army.
Executive summary
It’s important to understand that AI can empower any activity through either automation or augmentation.
- Automation is the removal of humans from an activity.
- Augmentation is the empowering of humans in an activity.
Automation and augmentation are opposite extremes, and few AI solutions are fully automated or fully augmented. Automation and augmentation form a scale that encompasses four strategies.
- The efficiency strategy, in which activities are optimized through automation.
- The effectiveness strategy, in which activities are made seamless, enabling communication.
- The expert strategy, in which AI empowers decision-making.
- The innovation strategy, in which AI enables creativity.
By analyzing the complexity of an activity, we can roughly determine the appropriate AI strategy.
- Low data and work complexity: The efficiency strategy.
- High data but low work complexity: The effectiveness strategy.
- Low data but high work complexity: The expert strategy.
- High data and work complexity: The innovation strategy.
AI software development
Jacob built his first software when he was just ten years old. After getting a master's degree in information systems, Jacob would go on to work for companies such as Microsoft and AddSecure to build advanced systems software.
In 2013, Jacob programmed his first AI application, and in 2023, he became one of the first people in Sweden to create his own architecture for running fully autonomous AI agents, which he made available open-source.
While this website exists to highlight Jacob's services as a speaker, he is also an expert software developer and product owner who can help you build AI features together with his team of senior software engineers.
Have fun with AI
Jacob uses AI to automate and augment his and his clients' work, but he also uses it for fun. In his spare time, Jacob often experiments with the latest AI tools for generating voices, music, video, sound effects, and images. Jacob has even been approached by companies to create AI-generated video advertisements for companies. Have a look at a few videos made by Jacob, and feel free to reach out to learn how they were made. Watch the clips in full screen and with high volume for the best experience. All video, voices, sound effects, and music are AI-generated. They were created in the summer of 2024.