Client: Medtronic
Format: AI keynote with live demonstrations
Audience: Engineers, project and programme managers, technical professionals and people leaders
Date: September 2026
The challenge
Medtronic wanted its people to build real confidence with AI. Not a tool demo they would forget by Friday, but habits they could use in their daily work.
Three things made this harder than a typical AI session:
- A regulated industry. Every use of AI had to respect clear boundaries on data, approved tools and human review.
- Mixed licences. Not everyone had the same Copilot licence, so every example had to work on the basic tier.
- A technical audience. Engineers want substance and proof, not hype.
The approach
Mark worked with Medtronic’s Technical Training and Professional Development team to shape the session around the audience’s real work.
- Start with the stakes. The keynote tied AI to the team’s own mission and its purpose, not to generic technology trends.
- Teach habits, not features. Three habits that work in any tool: put your context in, check what the tool assumed, and keep your own voice.
- Show, don’t tell. Pre-recorded demos in Microsoft Copilot, narrated live, showed a cold prompt against a briefed prompt using a realistic engineering persona.
- Boundaries first. The session was clear on what never goes into AI, and why a human must own every output.
- Something to keep. The session introduced the Context Brief, a one-page template people can reuse every day.
- Skills for what’s next. The close focused on three lasting skills: curiosity, agency and systems thinking.
The result
“Your keynote resonated strongly with our attendees because it connected the future of AI to the real challenges and opportunities they face every day. Participants especially appreciated the practical examples of how AI can be used beyond simple prompts, from enhancing learning and decision-making to helping individuals think differently, work more effectively, and continue growing in their careers. The message that AI should augment human judgment rather than replace it, combined with your focus on curiosity, continuous learning, and responsible adoption, left our team feeling both inspired and empowered to explore new ways of working.”
Ellie Stoskopf, IT Project Lead, Medtronic
Medtronic reported overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees.
What made it work
- Built for the room. Examples came from the audience’s own kind of work.
- Tool-agnostic. The habits work in Copilot, ChatGPT and whatever comes next.
- Responsible by design. Human judgement stayed at the centre of every example.
Book a session like this
Mark delivers practical AI keynotes and workshops for technical, regulated and global teams. Check availability or read the blog recap of this keynote.
