Futurist, Author, and Digital Strategist Ben Pring to Deliver Keynote at Tech Council’s Annual Meeting on June 18th
June 8, 2026 (Cape Cod, MA) – AI innovation has been at the forefront of global discourse over much of the past four years. And it will be the topic of author, futurist, digital strategist, and professional thought leader Ben Pring’s keynote speech to the Cape Cod Technology Council at its Annual Meeting on Wednesday, June 18th, 5-8 pm, at Alberto’s Ristorante in Hyannis.
His talk, “The Future of AI, More or Less,” will focus on ways the technology will improve the work we are currently doing. “Some people are going to use AI to do more, some people are going to use it to do less,” he explained. “When you use AI as a tool, something that used to take me four hours before, I can do it in four minutes or even four seconds. It is an incredible experience.”
Tickets to the Annual Meeting, which are $80 for Tech Council members and $95 for non-members, include dinner and are available at https://cctechcouncil.org/. Along with Pring’s keynote, the Tech Council will be welcoming a new slate of officers and board members for the year.
“Our Annual Meeting is a great opportunity to celebrate the work we’ve done over the past year while looking forward to the future, and how technology will shape our lives and our community for the better,” said Executive Director Michael White. “Perhaps no technology will have ramifications on how we work, live, and play more than AI which is why we are so excited to welcome Ben Pring to offer insights into the hope it offers and the potential dangers it poses.”
Pring, who lives in Falmouth, first spoke to the Tech Council at its First Friday in November 2023. Three years later, he said, “so much has changed with the technology. At the time, I think maybe half the room had played around with AI. Today, I’d be amazed if there isn’t anyone at the Annual Meeting who hasn’t used it. There has been so much more awareness about AI and the understanding that this is kind of real.”
Over the past decade, Pring has been leading discourse on AI which he initially admitted, “felt like science fiction to some people. Everybody realizes now that this isn’t science fiction, and we are seeing examples of where it is having a significant effect already. It’s hard to find segments of society, business, organizations, and jobs where it hasn’t been impacted in a meaningful way.”
While adoption and implementation of AI may play out faster in larger cities, Pring said, it will definitely have an impact locally here on Cape Cod, playing a role in tourism, retail, marketing, and banking.
He was optimistic that despite some doomsday scenarios, it will not reduce the need for humanity. “While we live increasingly in a machine age, this is still Barbara Streisand’s world —people still need people,” he said. “We want that friendly face at the checkout counter. You want to go to that bar, like Cheers, where everybody knows your name.”
He viewed AI as a tool that will offer a competitive edge for the workers, organizations, businesses, and communities that use it to their advantage. “This is sort of the crucial crossroads for people to use this to do more,” he said.
Pring is the co-author of several best-selling books on technology, including Monster: Taming the Machines that Rule Our Lives, Jobs and Future (2021); What to Do When Machines Do Everything (2017); and Code Halos: How the Digital Lives of People, Things, and Organizations are Changing the Rules of Business (2014).
He is the winner of Gartner’s prestigious annual Thought Leader award; a Bilderberg meeting Participant; and a member of the advisory board of the Labor and Work Life program at Harvard Law School. He was named one of the 30 leading management thinkers by Thinkers 50 and one of the 10 leading influencers on the future of work by Onalytica.
His work has been covered in major publications across the globe, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, London Times, PBS’s News Hour, BBC’s News Night, Drucker Report, and MIT Review.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from the University of Manchester in England.
The Tech Council’s Annual meeting is being supported by its Sustaining Sponsors — Cape Cod 5, Cape Light Compact, and OpenCape — as well as East West Associates, LLC.
About Cape Cod Technology Council
Founded in 1994 and incorporated in 1996, the Cape Cod Technology Council, Inc. is a membership-based, events-oriented nonprofit that promotes technology and its understandings on Cape Cod, the Islands, and in Southeastern Massachusetts. The Council supports the community by advocating and educating to advance technology-driven solutions to regional challenges. Its work includes supporting the direction of development of the technology infrastructure in the region to advance the growth, effectiveness, and competitiveness of member organizations; assist in the technology education for the advancement of its members as well as future generations through a variety of programs; and provide unique, meaningful, and topical presentations, discussions, forums, and events focused on technology. To learn more about the Technology Council, visit www.cctechcouncil.org.
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