Chris Hay, AI Technologist & Futurist
When it comes to pitching, most people think about perfect slides, rehearsed lines, and the sweaty palms that come with trying to stick the landing. But as anyone who’s seen Chris Hay in action will tell you, great pitching rarely looks like a rigid script — and increasingly, it doesn’t happen without a little help from artificial intelligence.

Chris and I know each other well through our time at IBM, where I’ve watched him pitch complex ideas to huge audiences without ever appearing tied to a slide deck. He describes himself as a “technologist, futurist and disruptor” — and if you listen to this episode, you’ll quickly see why. While he humbly claims he doesn’t ‘do pitching’, what he actually does is convince people to think differently about technology, the future, and how to adapt — and that, in my book, is pitching in its purest form.

The Human vs. AI Paradox
I wanted Chris on the show not because we needed another AI hype session, but because he’s refreshingly candid about what AI can and can’t do — especially when it comes to human connection. As someone who lives at the sharp edge of emerging tech, Chris knows better than most how quickly AI is changing the landscape. But he’s also quick to remind us that pitching is, at its heart, a human conversation.

In the episode, we dig into what happens when you bring AI into your pitch process — not as a replacement for your voice, but as a tool to shape ideas faster, polish drafts, and even pressure-test your slides from the audience’s perspective. Chris jokes that AI can do a lot of what he does, except stand on a stage and read the room in real time — and that’s precisely where your irreplaceable edge lives.

Structured Unstructured: How Chris Pitches
One of my favourite parts of this conversation is hearing Chris describe his so-called “structured unstructured mess” approach to pitching. He spends hours drafting and organising a story, often building 60 to 100 slides — but when he’s in front of an audience, he might only use ten. He never hands his slides over beforehand and never locks himself into a rigid order. Instead, he pivots and responds based on audience signals: who’s leaning in, who’s drifting off, and where the energy is heading.

This is such an important lesson for anyone who feels chained to a script. The real magic of pitching, as Chris shows, is that you can only plan so much. The rest is reading the room and trusting your expertise.

AI as Your Pitch Assistant
We also talk about how to use AI as your behind-the-scenes pitch helper. Chris outlines practical ways to record your pitch, get an instant transcript, and ask AI to summarise or restructure it in seconds. He calls this an incredible time-saver — freeing you up to focus on the parts AI can’t replicate: your tone, your delivery, and the emotional arc of your story.

We get into real tools too: from ChatGPT for quick structure drafts, to ‘deep research’ prompts for gathering audience insights, to using AI as a virtual focus group to test whether your message lands. What struck me is that none of this replaces a good pitch — it just cuts the grunt work, so you can spend more time crafting moments that resonate.

What to Watch For
Of course, there’s a darker side too: we touch on what happens when AI-generated content starts feeding itself — the so-called ‘model collapse’ problem — and how to make sure your pitches don’t get lost in a sea of generic AI sludge. Chris’s advice? Be hyper-specific, both in your prompts and your message. AI can generate structure, but it can’t copy your lived experience, your stories, or the way you read an audience’s vibe in the room.

A Few Takeaways
Throughout our chat, Chris drops nuggets worth scribbling down:

Don’t skip the prep: The best ‘improvised’ pitches rest on solid planning.
Loosen up: Trust your knowledge enough to pivot live.
Use AI as a partner, not a replacement: It’s your fastest assistant, not your stand-in.
Keep it human: People show up for you, not your deck.

Wrapping Up
If you’re curious about how to future-proof your pitching skills in an AI world — or you just want permission to ditch your slide prison — this episode is for you. Chris reminds us that no matter how smart our tools get, pitching will always be an act of human connection, improvisation, and empathy.

If you enjoy the conversation, don’t forget to grab a copy of PITCH: How to Captivate and Convince Any Audience on the Planet. It expands on these ideas with real stories, actionable frameworks, and a fresh approach to making your next pitch feel more like a conversation than a performance.

Listen now — and let me know what you think. I promise it’s more fun than watching an AI pitch to another AI (although we cover that too!).

You can find Chris at his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chrishayuk

S2 E02 VIDEO VERSION:Chris Hay, AI Technologist & Futurist