Digital Strategy Articles by Futurist Mark van Rijmenam

The Friction We Keep Removing Is What Makes Us Human

A wage comparison, a legal definition, a procurement framework and a clinical clearance closed four open questions, and none was decided by an invention. Each one removed a friction. There is a Dutch saying, wrijving geeft glans. Friction gives shine, and it is the one input no balance sheet prices.

The Future of Keynotes: What Will Still Matter in 2030

We've entered an era where intelligence is abundant and judgment is scarce, and that single fact is rewriting every assumption the speaking industry has operated on for decades. We now live in a world where anything can be generated by anyone at any given moment. What will command attention in 2030?

The AI Readiness Test You Can Actually Talk To

Walk into any Fortune 500 boardroom and you'll hear the same: "We are well positioned for AI." Walk 2 floors down and you'll hear something else entirely. The Intelligence Age Scorecard exists to surface that gap, and it is the only assessment you can actually discuss with the futurist who built it.

When Intelligence Is Everywhere and Judgment Is Scarce

AI removes interpretation. Automation removes labour. Robotics removes physical limits. Together, they move at machine speed. But intelligence was never really the scarce resource — judgment was. We are automating the roles where people learn it. Design versus drift. That choice cannot be automated.

I Built an Interactive Voice-Narrated Masterclass From My Book in One Weekend

Book → 8 interactive HTML episodes → 13,000+ words of narration → voice cloning via ElevenLabs + Claude Code (MCP) → deployed with Ghost. No team. No studio. One weekend. AI didn’t write the ideas, it erased the bottleneck.

The Future of Finance Is Autonomous and Always-On

Markets have crossed into the second half of the chessboard: tokenised rails, always-on settlement, AI-led decisions, and quantum-era security risk. The old governance cadence is dead. The new mandate is design over drift—accountability engineered into the system.

Ten Technology Trends for 2026

2026 marks the dawn of Augmented Intelligence, a year where AI becomes embedded everywhere, from geopolitics to healthcare, robotics, and the brain itself. These ten trends expose the shifts redefining power, work, privacy, and what it means to be human.

Surfing Chaos: Why Curiosity, Not Control, Defines Tomorrow’s Leaders

In an age of exponential change, the real challenge isn’t predicting the future, it’s becoming future-capable. Mastering complexity won’t save us, because this isn’t complexity, it’s chaos. The real question isn’t “what’s next?” but “Now what?” And most leaders don’t have an answer.

Riding the Tsunami of Change: From Awareness to Action in the Intelligence Age

Exponential forces aren’t gentle waves; they crash like tsunamis. Will we merely brace for impact, or will we learn to master the currents? Complexity is not a barrier; it is our new normal.

When Knowledge Outruns Wisdom: How I’m Trying to Help Us Catch Up

We’re drowning in content but starved for insight. This article shares my framework for closing the gap: Keynotes to spark awareness, Now What? to operationalize change, and Futurwise to sustain daily intelligence. Read less, know more, and turn signals into strategy with ethics baked in.