The AI Revolutionary and Global Thought Leader since 2012.
ABOUT ME
Dean Furman
Welcome to the revolutionary world of Artificial Intelligence with Dean Furman. An acclaimed author, keynote speaker, and AI innovator, Dean’s passion for AI is infectious.
Educating thousands of leaders and aspiring leaders in AI innovation, Dean’s insight is highly sought after. As a keynote speaker, he often delivers multiple talks in a day, captivating audiences with his unique perspective.
Dean’s successful career is a testament to his innovative thinking. As a qualified actuary at Discovery, he twice won the annual first prize for innovation, outpacing hundreds of top actuarial minds. His innovative streak continued at Alex Forbes, where he headed up Innovation. This earned him recognition as one of South Africa’s top young business minds by Mail & Guardian.
In 2017, Dean embarked on a new venture as the CEO and Founder of 1064 Degrees, an AI innovation consultancy. His unique AI teaching methodology has been licensed worldwide, and he’s created Dawn of Disruption, a game-based AI learning experience which has been experienced by hundreds of teams.
Author of the acclaimed book “Exponential Potential”, and a regular guest of many of South Africa’s leading news and radio shows, Dean knows how to share a message in a relatable, practical and inspiring way.
SERVICES
Dean's Offerings
Keynote Talks
Dean brings a symphony of thought provoking ideas and mind-blowing stories about the world of AI. There is a good reason that he is one of Africa’s most popular keynote speakers.
Dawn of Disruption
Bridging the Gap between AI and Education.
Dean’s premier creation, ‘Dawn of Disruption,’ is much more than a game. It’s an interactive, AI-centric educational experience meticulously designed to foster curiosity, encourage logical thinking, and make the complex world of AI accessible to everyone. From South Africa to Australia, Israel to the United Kingdom, and the United States – ‘Dawn of Disruption’ is breaking geographical barriers and establishing a new standard in AI education.
ChatGPT Masterclasses
Dean’s knowledge of AI enables him to offer a ChatGPT Masterclass that goes beyond novice content that is being bandied about. He gives practical yet powerful tips to take the work of attendees to a whole new level using generative AI.
SERVICES
Dean's Offerings
Keynote Talks
Dean brings a symphony of thought provoking ideas and mind-blowing stories about the world of AI. There is a good reason that he is one of Africa’s most popular keynote speakers.
Dawn of Disruption
Bridging the Gap between AI and Education.
Dean’s premier creation, ‘Dawn of Disruption,’ is much more than a game. It’s an interactive, AI-centric educational experience meticulously designed to foster curiosity, encourage logical thinking, and make the complex world of AI accessible to everyone. From South Africa to Australia, Israel to the United Kingdom, and the United States – ‘Dawn of Disruption’ is breaking geographical barriers and establishing a new standard in AI education.
ChatGPT Masterclasses
Dean’s knowledge of AI enables him to offer a ChatGPT Masterclass that goes beyond novice content that is being bandied about. He gives practical yet powerful tips to take the work of attendees to a whole new level using generative AI.
MULTIMEDIA
2023 NEWS INTERVIEWS
Most futurist presentations are so far into the future that they are excitingly non-relevant. Dean has a warm and exponential way of connecting you to the future by allowing you to leverage tangible free technology while you listen to him. He is engaging and his thinking is divergent. He demonstrates innovation and anyone attending his session will leave with a new mind set. If you are looking to improve your business exponentially and AI is not yet in your immediate grasp
Dean Furman is my innovation go-to guru. His straight-talking, creative engagement evidences why he is one of the leading innovation experts in South Africa. Dean worked with me to create excellent, relevant content. With Dean’s help, our teams now more easily identify the possibilities around them and turn their ideas into practical action. He freely shares some of his ‘growth hacks’ so potential disruptors can benefit from his insight long after he has left the conference room. He ‘gets’ the corporate machine, helping teams think differently about their clients’ needs and cut through red tape.
I hired Dean to present the Dawn of Disruption event at a YPO function as part of our Education Year, where we had around 50 YPO members and their spouses in attendance. All our events are rated and Dean received a 9.8 rating! The event was extremely educational and stimulating and at the same time a great connection exercise. One of the members called me the next day and informed me that every single YPO Chapter should be exposed to this amazing opportunity.
Dean Furman is authentic and engaging. His ideas and material on innovation resonates with all and he provides expert advice. As a keynote speaker at our town hall event, our audience of in-house lawyers found his presentation “Excellent!”. As a facilitator, Dean gives clear tips and actionable suggestions on how to implement innovation strategies. His suggestions were all well received and have resulted in positive outcomes.
While we all know that digital technologies will play an increasingly important role and that the speed of change is only going to accelerate, many people are scared at all levels of organizations. Dean’s Dawn of Disruption is gamifying the whole topic of digital technologies. In doing so he demystifies these new technologies and opens everyone’s eyes to the possibilities that they bring. This focus on the positives and not the scary names of the technology solutions is very welcome. Having played the game myself in a YPO event, I invited Dean to play the game with my whole Senior Leadership Team of Nestlé for the East and Southern Africa Region and it was again a real eye-opener for all.
The Dawn of Disruption Game was amazing. To date our managers are talking about the ideas that came from it. The game was very insightful and helped the thinking of how to apply any technology into our own workspace. It shaped the minds of our people to apply the futuristic skills to our workforce and make it relevant.
In order to solicit ideas from employees, relating to identified business challenges and opportunities, Dean facilitated workshops enabling employees to delve into their own perspectives & experiences, to come up with ideas. Dean’s novel approach, that is based on a board game, ensured a substantial improvement in both quality and quantity of ideas generated. Once we shortlist ideas with scalable potential, idea teams are taken through a 12 week idea-to[1]concept development process. Dean facilitated the experimentation component of this process. Dean taught & demonstrated to the teams why and how to compile experiments to test the underlying assumptions of their concepts. Demonstrating how to identify and execute experiments fast and cheaply, enabled the teams to present concepts to Motus executive leadership, that obtained approval.
Thank you for a great session with our Academy 2018 delegates last night. They were enthralled with the information you shared with them and certainly opened some eyes and minds to the numerous tools and great host of information available out there.
SUE HAYNES, HEAD STAFF BIDVEST ACADEMYI thought it was very informative and actually quite mind boggling. Dean is exceptionally brilliant and well informed and great sense of humour. Can’t wait to read his book.
ESTELLE DE BEER, HEAD IT STRATEGY AND TRANSFORMATION SASFIN BANK LTDDean’s energy during his Innovation Masterclass was infectious! He is very knowledge on the subject and I learned so much, especially which tools to use during various stages of the innovation process. I would recommend the course to everyone interested in Innovation!
ZACHDA PRINSLOO, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR INNOVATION (AFRICA) ABINBEVMost futurist presentations are so far into the future that they are excitingly non-relevant. Dean has a warm and exponential way of connecting you to the future by allowing you to leverage tangible free technology while you listen to him. He is engaging and his thinking is divergent. He demonstrates innovation and anyone attending his session will leave with a new mind set. If you are looking to improve your business exponentially and AI is not yet in your immediate grasp
MERLE VAN RIJSSEN, SENIOR LEARNING SPECIALIST NEDBANKDean Furman is my innovation go-to guru. His straight-talking, creative engagement evidences why he is one of the leading innovation experts in South Africa. Dean worked with me to create excellent, relevant content. With Dean’s help, our teams now more easily identify the possibilities around them and turn their ideas into practical action. He freely shares some of his ‘growth hacks’ so potential disruptors can benefit from his insight long after he has left the conference room. He ‘gets’ the corporate machine, helping teams think differently about their clients’ needs and cut through red tape.
MICHAEL S, HEAD OF PROPOSITION & MARKETING LARGE INVESTMENT PLATFORMBrilliant class – I would recommend Dean as a keynote speaker any time for companies who really want to be super successful in the marketplace. Disruption is the game plan of the future.
HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY AND TRANSFORMATION, SASFINI hired Dean to present the Dawn of Disruption event at a YPO function as part of our Education Year, where we had around 50 YPO members and their spouses in attendance. All our events are rated and Dean received a 9.8 rating! The event was extremely educational and stimulating and at the same time a great connection exercise. One of the members called me the next day and informed me that every single YPO Chapter should be exposed to this amazing opportunity.
JANET GOLDBLATT, CFF AND YPO SPOUSE YPO JOHANNESBURG GOLD CHAPTERDean Furman is authentic and engaging. His ideas and material on innovation resonates with all and he provides expert advice. As a keynote speaker at our town hall event, our audience of in-house lawyers found his presentation “Excellent!”. As a facilitator, Dean gives clear tips and actionable suggestions on how to implement innovation strategies. His suggestions were all well received and have resulted in positive outcomes.
NKULULEKO KHUMALO, COO ABSA GROUP LEGALWhile we all know that digital technologies will play an increasingly important role and that the speed of change is only going to accelerate, many people are scared at all levels of organizations. Dean’s Dawn of Disruption is gamifying the whole topic of digital technologies. In doing so he demystifies these new technologies and opens everyone’s eyes to the possibilities that they bring. This focus on the positives and not the scary names of the technology solutions is very welcome. Having played the game myself in a YPO event, I invited Dean to play the game with my whole Senior Leadership Team of Nestlé for the East and Southern Africa Region and it was again a real eye-opener for all.
BRUNO OLIERHOEK, CHAIRMAN AND MD NESTLE EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA REGIONSI would highly recommend the session to any company needing to communicate how technology is already disrupting our work and home lives in so many ways; and why we need to embrace and harness it for the future of our organisations.
TASHLEY TRUSCOTT HEAD OF MARKETING | BDOThe Dawn of Disruption Game was amazing. To date our managers are talking about the ideas that came from it. The game was very insightful and helped the thinking of how to apply any technology into our own workspace. It shaped the minds of our people to apply the futuristic skills to our workforce and make it relevant.
TASKEEN KHAN, INNOVATION LEADER FNBIn order to solicit ideas from employees, relating to identified business challenges and opportunities, Dean facilitated workshops enabling employees to delve into their own perspectives & experiences, to come up with ideas. Dean’s novel approach, that is based on a board game, ensured a substantial improvement in both quality and quantity of ideas generated. Once we shortlist ideas with scalable potential, idea teams are taken through a 12 week idea-to[1]concept development process. Dean facilitated the experimentation component of this process. Dean taught & demonstrated to the teams why and how to compile experiments to test the underlying assumptions of their concepts. Demonstrating how to identify and execute experiments fast and cheaply, enabled the teams to present concepts to Motus executive leadership, that obtained approval.
ESTE DIGUE, INTRAPRENEURSHIP LEAD MOTUS GROUP