Ruben Horbach
Ruben Horbach is a technology researcher and keynote speaker. He helps leaders read the AI shift clearly, see the opportunities it opens, and act on them with confidence.
His work sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, geopolitics, organisational change, and trust. Rather than focusing on tools or trends in isolation, Ruben helps organisations understand how converging technologies reshape power, work, institutions, and society, and what responsible leadership looks like in that context.
AI is transforming business models, security, and decision-making at unprecedented speed. This raises fundamental questions for executives: What truly matters now? What comes next? And how do we use this moment to build something genuinely better, for our work, our organisations, and the people in them?
Ruben addresses these questions with clarity, context, and strategic depth.
Fifteen years at the intersection of technology and strategy
With over fifteen years of experience at the intersection of technology and strategy, Ruben bridges cutting-edge developments with real-world application. He has led international innovation labs in London and New York, contributed to large-scale transformation programmes across Europe, and worked with organisations operating in highly complex and regulated environments.
Researching AI and spatial computing, and how they converge
Today, his work is rooted in research into emerging and converging technologies, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and spatial computing, and critically, how these technologies converge to reshape everything from robotics training and crime scene investigation to how we experience physical and digital reality. Through his strategic advisory practice Back From the Future, he helps organisations translate technological insight into strategic direction, responsible
adoption, and measurable impact in practice.
Working with global law enforcement and security institutions
Alongside corporate and institutional advisory work, Ruben engages deeply with the security and societal implications of AI. He works closely with the Dutch Police and contributes internationally as a subject-matter expert for Europol EMPACT, supporting discussions at the intersection of AI, security, misinformation, and trust in the digital age.
Known for clarity, energy, and strategic substance
Ruben combines deep technical understanding with business relevance and societal perspective. His keynotes are known for being clear, energetic, and grounded, without hype or simplification. He offers frameworks that help leaders think more clearly, decide with more confidence, and move on opportunities that most organisations will only see in hindsight.
Audiences leave with more than inspiration. They gain shared language, sharper intuition for what is near-term versus speculative, and concrete ways to approach adoption, governance, and change across innovation, security, ethics, and organisational transformation.
Ruben delivered an inspiring and easy-to-follow presentation, particularly the section on prompting, which was truly a highlight. He is approachable, flexible, and highly knowledgeable, effortlessly engaging with audiences of all levels. It was a pleasure working with him, and I would definitely recommend him to others. Overall, a fantastic experience, earning him a well-deserved 9 out of 10!
–Sacha Wolzak, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
We had a very interesting and valuable presentation from Ruben on AI in relation to our real estate work. Very timely and full of practical tips on where to start with AI. We are already looking forward to his next presentation.
— Wim Bakker rm/rt, Chairman NVM-Noord-Holland-Noord, November 2024
Ruben speaks both nationally and internationally and has delivered keynotes and strategic sessions for organisations including KLM, Audi, Philips, ING, PostNL, the Dutch government, and international institutions across technology, finance, and public safety.
Accurate, practical, future-ready thinking. Grounded in today’s realities and tomorrow’s possibilities.
Ruben Horbach, Racing against exponential change – Navigating the next digital wave, AMS-IX 2025
Ruben Horbach at Zendesk, Juni 2024
Ruben Horbach at GoTech World: Augmenting Reality: Is AR Becoming The Next Big Tech Platform?
Ruben’s outstanding presentation skills are beyond question. With his incredibly positive charisma and eloquence, he quickly captivates any audience. It was a pleasure to see how he manages to convey very complex topics in a simple and understandable way, using vivid examples, carefully selected visuals, and his extraordinary intuition for his audience.
— Matthias Schmidt, Chief Digital Officer // HEO GmbH
Ruben as a speaker at our IT Innovation Day was inspiring; his energy and belief in progress and positive opportunities are contagious. Highly recommended if you want to break familiar frameworks and explore the future.
— Volkert Deen, Editor in Chief // IDG Nederland
It was a fantastic day, largely thanks to your contribution! Our expectations were high, and they were exceeded 😊 We received many positive and enthusiastic responses (and believe me: this group will let you know if they don’t like it!). A fun, accessible, and highly effective way to get acquainted with the possibilities of AI. It was especially pleasant to collaborate, and from the very first contact during the preparation for this day, we had a great vibe!
— Robert Landsman, Bouwcenter Businessclub – AI Workshop, May 2024
Ruben has a broad knowledge base and always thinks in terms of potential—always forward-looking, always innovative, and always with a creative twist. He is constantly seeking new opportunities and improvements to the status quo. His stories are inspiring, his energy contagious, and his presentation skills excellent.
— Ross Sleight, Chief Strategy Officer // CI&T
Ruben’s Keynotes:
Every keynote is tailored to the audience, sector, and strategic context. The themes below reflect recurring areas of focus, but sessions are always adapted to the questions that matter most.
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AI: Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
From foundational breakthroughs to current capabilities and the strategic road ahead.
AI is not a single breakthrough. It is the next digital shift, comparable to the PC, the web, and the smartphone, but unfolding faster and affecting every layer of society at once. In this keynote, Ruben provides leaders with a clear overview of what is really happening in AI today, where hype ends, and where genuine capability accelerates.
This shift is opening powerful new possibilities. AI is becoming a force multiplier for creativity, productivity, and problem-solving, enabling organisations to rethink how work gets done, how decisions are made, and how value is created.
Drawing on his work as a technology researcher, Ruben connects the major waves of AI, from Generative models to Agentic systems, World models, and physical AI, to the strategic decisions organisations face right now. He explores the accelerating AI race between the United States and China, Europe’s distinctive position, and why access to data, compute, energy, and spatial intelligence is rapidly becoming the next strategic moat.
Audiences leave with a shared language, sharper intuition for what is near-term versus speculative, and a pragmatic understanding of where AI creates tangible impact, how it reshapes workflows and
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AI Adoption: The Human Side
Why technology is not the barrier. People are.
AI adoption is rarely a technology problem. It is a human one. In this keynote, Ruben explores why organisations struggle to move from experimentation to meaningful impact, even when the tools are available.
When approached deliberately, AI can strengthen rather than weaken organisations. It can augment human expertise, improve decision quality, and free time for more meaningful work. Successful adoption depends on more than access to technology. It requires transparency, ethical awareness, and deliberate choices around data, governance, and sovereignty.
Using the same structure of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, Ruben connects AI’s evolution to the realities people face at work: shifting roles, decision-making under uncertainty, trust, accountability, and ownership. This perspective is shaped by his work at Back From the Future, where he supports organisations in turning insight into adoption in practice.
Audiences gain practical insight into what responsible adoption looks like, how to create confidence rather than resistance, and how to embed AI in ways that support people, processes, and organisational values. Building capability, alignment, and trust as AI becomes part of everyday work.
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The Dark Side of AI: Security, Trust & Truth
Navigating misinformation, deepfakes, and adversarial risk in a hyperconnected world.
AI capabilities are accelerating. They transform not only productivity and innovation, but also crime, manipulation, and the foundations of trust. We are entering a world shaped by converging exponential technologies, where intelligence moves from tools to agents to physical actors, and where spatial computing enables increasingly convincing synthetic realities. This shift dissolves interfaces, accelerates action, and expands both capability and risk.
Deepfakes, large-scale misinformation, identity abuse, spatial forgeries, system manipulation. These risks are no longer theoretical. They are operational.
Drawing on his work with law enforcement and security institutions, including the Dutch Police and as subject-matter expert for Europol EMPACT, Ruben offers a sober perspective on what is changing. He examines how geopolitical asymmetries, cross-border AI systems, and uneven governance complicate enforcement and accountability, and why detection alone is insufficient.
Audiences gain insight into how trust erodes, how institutions shift from reacting to incidents toward safeguarding legitimacy, and how responsibility and governance will determine whether AI becomes a force for resilience or destabilisation in an environment where reality itself is increasingly malleable.
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