Conference Panelist

"AI and Society: Opportunities and Risks We Must Balance"

---

Artificial intelligence is not just transforming how work gets done. It is reshaping culture, norms, power, and expectations across society. From how decisions are made and who holds influence, to how we learn, create, parent, govern, and connect, AI is quietly rewriting the rules of engagement.

​

In this panel, leaders from technology, culture, and governance explore AI as a force that extends far beyond productivity gains and business outcomes. Drawing parallels to earlier technological shifts such as the internet and the smartphone, the conversation examines how well intentioned innovations can produce unintended cultural consequences when adoption outpaces reflection.

​

Panelists will discuss AI as both a mechanism of opportunity and a source of risk. It can accelerate innovation while also amplifying bias, misinformation, surveillance, and power imbalances. They will explore why AI literacy and cultural awareness are now essential leadership capabilities, and why organizations cannot afford to focus solely on how to use AI without also considering how AI is using us.

Rather than offering simplistic answers, this session invites attendees to grapple with the real tensions leaders face today, including speed versus stewardship, automation versus agency, and innovation versus responsibility.

​​

Participants will leave ready to:​​

1. Understand AI’s cultural and societal ripple effects. Recognize how AI is influencing norms, behavior, trust, creativity, and human relationships, often in ways that are invisible until they become unavoidable.

2. Evaluate AI decisions through a responsible leadership lens. Apply practical tools for assessing AI initiatives through both cultural and governance perspectives, helping balance innovation with equity, transparency, and accountability.

3. Ask better questions about AI adoption. Use shared language and concrete prompts to guide conversations with teams, boards, and communities about not just what AI enables, but what it changes and whether those changes are intentional.

Speaker Bio:

Katie Grillaert has spent her career as a translator — between humans and animals, between technologists and the communities their systems affect, and between innovation and accountability. Trained as an animal behaviorist, she built her foundation in applied, interdisciplinary research where ethics was a core design principle — learning to ask not just what animals can do, but what it is fair to ask of them, and how. Today, as Chief Strategy Officer at Assessed Intelligence, she brings that same ethical rigor to AI. She specializes in secure and responsible implementation of AI-driven technology for high-risk algorithms in critical sectors including healthcare, finance, education, and critical infrastructure — work that requires her to ask the same fundamental question: not just what AI can do, but where and how it should be deployed, and who is affected by those choices.

​

A ForHumanity Fellow in AI governance and ethics, Katie has led policy accelerators advancing ethical frameworks, regulatory alignment, and oversight of high-risk technologies. Her work focuses on sociotechnical risk, responsible model deployment, and ensuring AI systems meet evolving legal, ethical, and organizational standards. Outside her formal roles, Katie is a passionate educator on how AI can advance or undermine equity — bringing those conversations to classrooms, organizations, and communities who are rarely at the table when AI decisions are made.

Katie is a developer of ARISE, an open-source framework that unifies cybersecurity and AI governance, embedding ethics and validation into AI implementation while aligning with industry standards and best practices. Through a UNDP-supported initiative, she is working with NGO and government partners to develop AI-driven financial inclusion systems designed to meet local needs and expand access for underserved communities.

​

She also serves as a strategy advisor through Synapse, a not-for-profit AI advisory and adoption program of the Milwaukee Tech Hub Coalition, helping manufacturing organizations navigate AI with clarity and confidence. Above all, Katie is driven by a simple belief: that technology should serve humanity.