Karl A L Smith is an eclectic, multidisciplinary practitioner whose career spans human‑centered design, organisational systems, ecosystem architecture, and advanced technology innovation. His educational background includes Social Sciences (Psychology and Social Anthropology), Industrial and Craft Design, Education, and Enterprise Computer Science. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS), recognised for eminence in Human‑Centered Design and Business Leadership.
Karl’s work is driven by a core principle: solving real human problems. Although deeply experienced in emerging technologies, he does not describe himself as a technologist. His focus is on how systems, data, and design can augment human capability rather than replace it.
He has invented several research methodologies now in common use, including Ethnographics, a short‑form contextual research method derived from Ethnography. He also created Artificial Intelligence and Twin Blockchain technologies for the UbiNET Platform, a ubiquitous zero‑trust ecosystem designed to deliver Smart Living at human scale.
Strategic Frameworks and Ecosystem Architecture
Karl is the originator of several influential frameworks:
- AI Organisational Design – an AI‑native organisational design approach that integrates LLMs, probabilistic governance, and real‑time definition of work.
- Decision Point AI® – a system for identifying when decisions are required and delivering the right data at the right time.
- Customer Agility Framework™ – a model for aligning organisations to real‑time customer behaviour and value creation explainer site is here.
- Innova8™ – combines design thinking, service design and user experience within an 8 hour process, that takes business issues and delivers customer validated solutions and prototypes.
These frameworks underpin Karl’s consulting practice and have shaped the emergence of AI Organisational Design as a discipline.
Consulting and Ecosystem Leadership
Since 1989, Karl has worked as a consultant through Agile World Inc, supporting global enterprises and early‑stage startups in achieving maturity, resilience, and ethical technology adoption. He is one of the four founders of Wipro Digital, where he helped establish its global design and transformation capability.
He is also a technology Key Opinion Leader (KOL) with a focus on infrastructure ecosystems. Karl has contributed to UK Government support structures since 2003, including several Associate Parliamentary Groups and the World 5G Forum (from 2016).
Karl played central leadership roles in two of the largest banking transformations in Europe. At RBS/NatWest, he served as Transformation Lead for Target Operating Model (TOM), Adaptive Strategy, Group Risk Liaison, and PanBank Centres of Excellence Product Owner. He was part of the core Ways of Working (WoW) Transformation Central Team, responsible for designing and implementing the customer‑journey‑based operating model, restructuring work and people flows, and eliminating legacy change‑function impediments. His remit included defining work taxonomies, value slicing, Dev Ready structures, and leading Centres of Excellence pre‑planning events that removed significant waste such as eliminating £1.5m of unnecessary spend in a single session and saving 18 years of delivery time across one bank. At HSBC, Karl held senior transformation roles focused on enterprise agility, operating model redesign, and cross‑functional alignment across global business units, continuing his work in large‑scale organisational change and customer‑centric transformation.
Platforms and Foundations
Karl is the Founder & CTO of All me, a privacy‑first, zero‑trust social media platform designed to give people control over their identity, data, and digital interactions. He also leads Me Social, a service company set up to manage the development of All me (development blog).
He is a founding contributor to the Omega Foundation, a global initiative focused on digital rights, ethical technology, and human‑centric innovation.
Community Leadership
Karl served as volunteer CTO for the Agile20Reflect Festival, taking responsibility for technology, upskilling volunteers, and leading the migration from the legacy web presence to a modern platform.
He continues to support the global agile community through Access Agile Innovation Forum and the establishment of the Access Agile Foundation.
Publications and Writing
Karl’s main blog, karlsmith.info, began in 2001 with eight views in its first month. Over time it became a widely referenced source, including by MIT for Interaction Design coursework. After 15 years it reached 6–8 million views per year, and by 2024 it grew to approximately 8–12 million annual views.
He has published several books, including:
- Designing for Human Experience
- A Short Guide to Agile Transformation
- Agile: An Unexpected Journey (as one of ten authors)
He is currently working on:
- A Short Guide to Customer Experience
- A Short Guide to Human Stagnation: 1920–2020
- A Short Guide to Agile World: The Untold Story
Philosophy
Karl has always been fascinated by how technology can augment human life:
My desire was not to build things that humans already do but to find out how technology could evolve our human experience.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlsmith2/
Recent Interviews and Conferences
AI Effectiveness and Human Eminence by Karl A L Smith
Jan 22, 2026
Interview with the founder of All me
Feb 11, 2025 All me
A new perspective with Karl A L Smith
Aug 16, 2024 XTech Podcast
Future of the Agile Movement
December 2022. LeadersHum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVlX4IEKebI no longer available
Customer Experience in the 21st Century and Beyond
August 2022. InfoBeans: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/customer-experience-in-the-21st-century-and-beyond/id1610970882?i=1000575636298
Agile ERP Transformation & Enabling New Ways of Working
May 2022 Nestell & Associates: https://nestellassociates.com/podcast/episode-59-agile-erp-transformation/
On YouTube
HCI Webinar: HCM Software and “Agile” versus “Ways of Working”, with Karl Smith Apr 16, 2021.
Has your organization embraced agile? How does that connect with your Human Capital Management systems and software? Check out this 30-minute conversation with Karl Smith about the current crop of HCM software and whether they enable or disable new ways of working and agile. On YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEarGmgn23o on Podcast https://www.innovativehumancapital.com/podcast/episode/1e5cb520/s16e20-hcm-software-and-agile-versus-ways-of-working-with-karl-smith
The Agile Confessional – Episode 14, Karl Smith Feb, 2021
Agile transformation: Faster, smarter and responsive marketing 02 Dec, 2020
Karl Smith, Polymath, Influencer, Authority UX UI, AI, IoT & Founder Human-Centered Design Society Nov 28, 2020
Imagine If The Way We Now Live Became Redundant Aug 26, 2020
Events
June 5, 2019
Enterprise Agility the Customer Revolution, AgileFest, 12 Feb 2019
DIGIT Leader 2018, Scotland’s Annual IT & Digital Summit
21 June 2018 Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh
The role of DevOps in business transformation
– Why DevOps: core principles and where they can help
– Next generation of DevOps; customer, business, finance, change, IT
– Vertical slicing; an enterprise enabler
– Transformation; hearts and minds with skills and delivery
Blockchain Friend or Foe
October 2018 – MIPIM . Is Blockchain the new Doomsday Book, will it make every property unique and will that fundamentally change the property business? Will Blockchain aid the secondary data economy around property or create brand new new opportunities?
Speaker – The Treachery of the News (Fake News)
Nov 2017 at The House of Lords, London, United Kingdom
Fake news is in the news!
Roger Ailes, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Fox News, is quoted as saying, “Truth is whatever people will believe“. Back in 1968, Arthur C Clarke recognised the hunger people have for a certain type of news when he scripted, “The newspapers of Utopia, he had long ago decided, would be terribly dull” and went on, “The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry, or depressing its contents seemed to be” which might possibly reflect today’s situation.
Our expert Panel
Karl Smith, CEO Agile World
Karl is a partner-level enterprise consultant working globally as holistic transformation consultant more involved with how humans have to use technology than the technology itself. He has a focus on work that involves complex non-digital and digital cultural change (agile DevOps), high volume transaction processes, self-service systems and automation including CX, FinTech and IoT3. Karl is a digital and social media key opinion leader and author of articles on enterprise transformation and change. He is also an inventor of open network ecosystem protocol UbiNET, for SmartLiving which he has patented.
James Carson, Head of SEO and Social Media, The Telegraph
James has worked in publishing and media organisations throughout his career, including Bauer Media, Factory Media and now The Telegraph. He is a regular industry speaker and white paper writer on digital publishing strategy. This experience has given him a unique insight into distribution on digital platforms and how content and news spreads within them.
Adi Gaskell, Director of Innovation, Inogesis
Adi is an experienced innovation writer and consultant who has worked with organisations such as Deloitte, GSK, Salesforce, the NHS and the Ministry of Defence. In addition to consulting, he writes on innovation for wide variety of publications, including Forbes, the BBC, the Huffington Post and the LSE Business Review.
Customer Experience in IoT and Blockchain interview with Karl Smith
Digital Transformation 2017, 23rd Feb at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh
Digital Transformation is about People
Digital is about People, not technology. Digital is a response to the desire of people to focus their lives towards quick and easy tasks, simplify processes and utilise their time in micro experiences. The challenge for Digital Transformation is to not get trapped in limiting technology solutions but to really meet the desire of people to have less stress, highly engaging and focused experiences with shorter duration’s while maintaining quality and accountability.
Prioritise creating highly engaging, positive experiences
Focus on the simplification of process
Avoid getting trapped in limiting technology solutions
Ensure transformation strategy is evidence-led
Understand the relationship between culture, people & process
IoT in Retail 28 Oct 2016
Takeaways from IoT in Retail Pioneers & Early Adopters – Panel Session
UCD2016 Conference, Being Human 15 Oct 2016
IoT Design Principals – Panel Session
SXSW Interactive 2016
Cognition Clash in The Internet of Things
The Internet of Things is the next great opportunity for commerce to engage with business enterprises. However there is no unified approach to the mental load between physical interaction, mental interaction and digital interaction. This cognitive landscape is inhabited by associated experiences that gel human behaviour and machine interfaces through, touch, mouse and keyboard. The usage of sight, voice and thought create new complexities and risks which have until recently been the subject of defence technologies, where clear outcomes and prescribed mental models exist. The diversification of these touch points and multi-point human logic models clash and derail human thinking patterns.
St Andrews University
Enabling Client Communications
There is a huge and complex social psychology to managing client engagements effectively. Merely presenting actionable solutions that have valid data to back them up is not enough for clients. They become lost with the simplest of justifications and proof often focusing factors of little importance to the end users. In this talk I will offer some meeting navigation concepts that will enable people to facilitate client meetings, establish and reach defined outcomes and establish clear dialog and interaction methods.
UCD2015 Conference
Humanity in Digital Landscapes: Mind, Cognition & Psychology
Committee Member
October 23rd to 24th of October 2015
UCD2015 Program
Workshop on Cognition Clash in The Internet of Things – Designing for Chaos and Crash
UCD2014 Conference
Committee Chairman
October 24th to 25th of October 2014
UCD2014 Program
Speaking on Exploring the challenges and opportunities of globalisation and commoditisation in Enterprise User Experience EUX
UCD2013 Conference
Program Chair
Website Developer
London 8th to 9th of November 2013
Technology: Why there’s no longer an off switch
April 11th 2013
http://lanyrd.com/2013/harvey-nash-technology-survey/
Why User Experience on Vimeo
NextGen SCADA Europe
21st of March 2013
http://www.nextgenscada-europe.com/
HMI & Mobile Workforce: Optimising the human machine interface for a range of devices as data volumes increase and operations staff become increasingly mobile.
Accenture Connected World – NextGen SCADA Smart Grid on Vimeo
UCD2012 Conference
Technical Chair
Saturday 10th November 2012
User centred design within investment banking and wealth management: The world of finance and wealth provides unique problems for the UCD practitioner, this short session will describe some of them, how to circumvent them and how UCD can make a critical difference to the projects success.