Dr Laura Gilbert CBE

📍 Thursday 6th November, 10.30am – London Bridge Location

Join us for a thought-provoking session – simply register below

We’re delighted to welcome Dr Laura Gilbert CBE to our next With The Team event.

From her role at the heart of Downing Street, Laura has seen first-hand why organisations and experts so often struggle to predict the future and the risks of basing big decisions on fragile assumptions. Today, as a leading voice in AI and digital transformation, she’s helping governments and businesses rethink how they prepare for change, harness new technologies, and bring people with them.

Laura will share insights and examples from government, business, and international initiatives, including:

• The challenge of predicting the future
  Why forecasting technological change is so difficult, and lessons from Downing Street on building resilience and adaptability.
• Purpose-led AI for public good
  How leaders can create compelling visions for AI-driven change, from digital public goods programmes to global hackathons, and what the shift from “safety” to “security” means for business and society.
• Being outcome-focused
  The risks of adopting AI without clear goals, why “rubbish in, rubbish out” still matters, and how to define the right problems before turning to technology.
• Upskilling and organisational change
  Building high-performance teams, engaging both senior leaders and grassroots talent, and overcoming resistance in middle management; with lessons from the Evidence House initiative.
• Making AI work for your business
  Practical ways AI can support brainstorming, decision-making, and strategy, while ensuring human expertise remains at the core.

Dr Laura Gilbert is a leading expert in artificial intelligence, data science, and digital transformation in government and business. Amongst other roles she has served as the Head of the AI for Government Program at the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), as an Expert Advisor in AI to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), and works in partnership with the Tony Blair Institute as Senior Director of AI.

She has held senior roles at the centre of UK government, where she was the founding Director of 10DS, the Downing Street Data Science and Analytics team, Director of the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI), and joint Chief Analyst for the Cabinet Office. Her teams delivered cutting-edge data-driven modelling, AI solutions, and analytical support for policymaking, while spearheading a radical digital transformation agenda across Whitehall.

Laura also founded the Evidence House programme, a government-wide initiative providing technical skills and AI powered solutions to public services, delivering thousands of hours of free training and driving innovation. She led national programs on AI for Public Good, critical service automation, and infrastructure modernisation.

Prior to joining government, Laura spent a decade as CTO of a medical technologies company, leading innovations in wearable tech, data integration, and AI, and holds four patents—two as lead inventor. Earlier in her career she worked in financial services and asset management and construction.

Laura holds a doctorate in Particle Physics and Computing from the University of Oxford and undergraduate degrees from the University of Cambridge. She is a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, and a Fellow of both the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Analytics, throughout which she has honed her skills as an accomplished communicator of complex ideas and cutting-edge research.