The phrase “knowledge is the brand new oil” has echoed throughout boardrooms and technique decks for greater than a decade. However Tracey Follows, CEO of Futuremade, affords a extra visceral, and maybe extra correct, analogy: knowledge is the brand new blood. In my dialog along with her at FinovateEurope 2025, Follows challenged monetary companies leaders to rethink how knowledge flows, regenerates, and sustains our more and more digital and AI-driven economic system.
In a world the place digital id, embedded finance, and AI are converging at unprecedented velocity, Follows argues that understanding the lifeblood of those programs– knowledge– is crucial to constructing belief, making certain relevance, and getting ready for what comes subsequent. Her insights are a wake-up name for monetary establishments which are nonetheless working with a fragmented or overly transactional view of information.
“We hear that knowledge is the brand new oil. We’ve been listening to that for 20 years. No. No. Knowledge is the brand new blood. That’s the way in which I would like folks to consider it. That’s the metaphor that basically does justice to the very important, intimate, private nature of the sort of knowledge that’s now going to be flowing into AI, and notably agentic AI, to assist it make choices that encompasses our neurological capabilities, cognitive capabilities, physiological capabilities, alongside our monetary decision-making.”
Tracey Follows is a globally acknowledged futurist, speaker, and creator. She is the previous Chief Technique & Innovation Officer at The Future Laboratory and has suggested main manufacturers comparable to Google, Telefonica, and Diageo. Her e book The Way forward for You explores the intersection of digital id, privateness, and personalization. Follows is a daily commentator within the media and was named one of many high 50 feminine futurists on the earth by Forbes.
Follows can be the founder and CEO of Futuremade, a strategic foresight and futures consultancy that helps organizations anticipate long-term change and construct future-ready methods. With experience in state of affairs planning, horizon scanning, and development evaluation, Futuremade helps world purchasers in sectors starting from finance to media and know-how. The agency’s work emphasizes moral innovation, societal shifts, and the human implications of rising applied sciences.
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