Event: AI in the Room Tuesday 14th July 2026 14:00 to 15:30 BST (London time)

AI is moving beyond being a tool we consult to becoming a participant in our conversations. It can now listen, respond, ask questions, and contribute ideas in real time. How might this change the way we think together, make decisions, learn, collaborate, and relate to one another? What opportunities and challenges might emerge?

Knowledge Café
AI in the Room

Date: Tuesday, 14th July 2026

Time: 14:00 to 15:30 BST (London time)

The timing of this event is primarily set to accommodate participants from EMEA and the Americas. However, you’re welcome to join from anywhere in the world. Check the event time in your time zone—it might still work for you if you’re open to an early start or a late night.

note

Host/Speaker: David Gurteen and John Hovell

Location: Online Zoom Event

Price: Free

Introduction

This event is part of a series of online Knowledge Cafés on Conversational Leadership, held on Zoom.

Each Café explores a theme drawn from my online blook on Conversational Leadership.

Ahead of each Café, I may invite you to read one or more related posts from the blook to help prepare for the conversation.

If you’re new to the Knowledge Café concept, please note that this is a participatory event, not a webinar.

Theme: AI in the Room

For many years, AI has been something we use as a tool, a search engine, a writing assistant, or a source of information. But a new possibility is emerging. AI can now join our conversations as an active participant, listening, responding, asking questions, and contributing ideas in real time.

This raises some intriguing questions. How might the presence of AI change the way we think together? What opportunities might it create? What risks or challenges might arise? How might it affect learning, decision making, leadership, relationships, and the nature of conversation itself?

In this Knowledge Café, we will explore what it means to have AI in the room and what might happen when it becomes another voice in the conversation.

The question for our conversation will be:

What happens when AI becomes another voice in the conversation?

John and I will discuss the Café’s theme and pose a question to initiate the conversation. Then, in Café style, we will divide into small groups for three rounds of discussion, followed by a whole-group conversation.

Reading Material

If you have time, please read this post on the theme in my blook. It provides a helpful background for our conversation.

When AI Joins the Conversation

Exploring how artificial intelligence could take part in real time human discussions

AI is beginning to move from the edge of conversation into the conversation itself. It can listen, summarise, retrieve information, reflect patterns, and sometimes speak into the flow. This creates new possibilities for collective sense-making, but only if its role is clear and the human conversation remains central. Continue reading

Upcoming Events

Event: What Is the Impact of Anthropomorphising AI? Tuesday 22nd September 2026 14:00 to 15:30 GMT+1 (London time) - AI increasingly speaks to us in ways that feel remarkably human. Treating it as a person may change how we…  

Event: Gurteen Knowledge Café Workshop Tuesday 20 October 2026, 14:00 to 18:00 BST (UK time) - Organizations rely on meetings and workshops to think together, explore issues, and make sense of complex situations. Many sessions drift…