Biography
Don Kilburg, Ph.D. is the Founder and CEO of Mind Leap Institute, helping individuals and organizations get AI adoption right — not just deploying tools, but building the mindsets and leadership capacity that make those tools actually perform. He is the author of AI Use Cases for Diplomats (Routledge, 2025) and Mind Leap: How to Think, Feel, and Flourish in the Age of AI (Routledge, forthcoming 2026). During his 21 years as a U.S. diplomat, he pioneered enterprise technology adoption across the diplomatic corps, developing AI use frameworks now embedded in government training programs and building tools that measurably expanded operational capacity. His work earned multiple State Department innovation awards. A U.S. Army veteran and experimental psychologist, Kilburg has briefed presidents, secretaries of state, and ambassadors. He directed strategic communications at embassies across Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Kilburg is based in Madrid and works with clients internationally.
Sessions
- AI For GoodSpeaker
Keynote 36 - How to Build Human Capability as AI Gets Smarter
Wednesday 23 September, 10:40 – 10:55Auditorium StageAI is making us faster, more productive, and more capable. But there is a question hiding behind those gains: Are we becoming more capable—or simply more capable with AI? As organizations race to deploy copilots, agents, and increasingly autonomous systems, Don Kilburg argues that leaders need to pay attention to another critical asset: Cognitive Capital—the human capacity for judgment, critical thinking, learning, creativity, adaptability, and wisdom. In this keynote, Kilburg explores the Capacity Shadow: the potentially hidden gap between what people can accomplish with AI and what they remain capable of doing without it. Emerging research suggests that AI-assisted performance and independent human capability can diverge—and, importantly, that how we design human-AI interaction can change the outcome. Kilburg introduces Cognitive System Design, a practical approach to building AI-enabled organizations that don’t just maximize today’s performance, but deliberately develop the human capabilities they will need tomorrow. The goal isn’t less AI. It’s better human-AI systems. You have an AI strategy. Do you have a cognitive strategy?
- AI For GoodPanelist
Panel 15 - Who's Really Deciding? Human Agency in the Age of AI
Wednesday 23 September, 13:00 – 13:40Panel StageAn algorithm nudges what your kid reads before bed. A hiring filter decides who a recruiter never sees. A health app flags what's wrong before your doctor does. None of this is speculative — it's this year's default UX. As AI mediates more of daily life — work, health, relationships, money, parenting — how much control do people actually keep, and how much do they just assume they still have? Voices from product, psychology, and policy separate where human agency genuinely holds from where it's already quietly gone. 40 minutes.
With Laura Sibony, Ana Peleteiro Ramallo, Caroline De Cock, Leon Tsvasman