Why businesses keep chasing hype while missing real cyber risks

Williams is the Editor-in-Chief at WIRED and editor of the annual trend report Wired World, where he tracks the ideas, technologies and shifts influencing business, culture and public life. He has also interviewed senior figures across politics, business and technology, giving him a front-row view of how leaders are responding to disruption.

A cyber security speaker, Williams is known for cutting through hype and focusing on what actually matters to organisations, from emerging digital threats to the practical impact of artificial intelligence on business strategy and workplace culture. His work combines technological insight with a clear understanding of how change plays out in the real world.

In this exclusive interview with the Cyber Security Speakers Agency, Greg Williams discusses the cyber threats businesses need to watch, how to tell the difference between useful innovation and short-lived hype, how organisations can future-proof themselves, and why he believes technology should still be approached with optimism.

Question 1. Which emerging cyber threats do businesses need to be aware of?

Greg Williams: “What we're seeing is cyber is becoming increasingly sophisticated. We're seeing the use of new forms of artificial intelligence and other tools that really are way beyond what we've seen in the past, and that's very, very, very hard for organizations to keep an eye on because it's moving so quickly.

“Fundamentally, though, it always comes back to your people. It always comes back to: will someone click on a link? Will someone give someone access to a building? So fundamentally, like all technology, this comes back to human beings. It's not about the actual technology itself.”

Question 2. You share what businesses do and don’t need to know about “what’s coming next”. What are the defining traits of short-lived trends?

Greg Williams: “So, look, I think the defining traits of a short-lived trend are pretty straightforward in that you cannot find a use case.

“So, I remember a while ago we were all told that we'd be living in the metaverse and we'd be trading tokens and we'd have property in the metaverse. This hasn't happened unless you were under the age of 12 years old.

“What has happened instead is we're seeing the use of augmented reality goggles in areas like industry, but the way that we were told by various people in marketing teams that we all had to move our brands into the metaverse just didn't happen.

“So, I think my advice to organizations would be: is there a use case for this? Is there demand? Can we see how to use this, or is this something that's in the dim and distant future that maybe we'll revisit if it does look like it might become real?”

Question 3. How can businesses future-proof their organisations?

Greg Williams: “Look, I think it's fair to say that we are in a period of acceleration. Acceleration culturally, acceleration in terms of the way the technology is impacting our lives, the way that our society is being reshaped.

“So, I think staying informed on areas like artificial intelligence and the way that's going to impact the world has never been more important for business leaders.

“And I think the way to do that is to really fully engage, to embrace it, to understand that change is not something just to think about on the annual offside, but something that is ingrained in your business processes, has to be engaged with on absolutely every day that you're coming into work and thinking about the future of your organization.”

Question 4. What are the biggest shifts in work culture you expect to see over the next few years?

Greg Williams: “I think the biggest shift in work culture we're going to see over the next few years is going to be the impact of artificial intelligence. Not just in terms of the way that we work and create efficiencies, but in the way that we create new businesses, new products, new services, the way that we build on top of some of the enormous data sets that we now can understand in new ways.

“So, it's a really interesting time, particularly in areas like health care or in scientific breakthrough areas, where we can really think about how do we ensure that we build a better world using this technology really responsibly so that benefits everyone.”

Question 5. What do you hope audiences take away from your public speeches?

Greg Williams: “First of all, I hope that people feel inspired, and they feel excited about the future. I think it's very, very easy to kind of give a doom and gloom technology presentation because there are many challenges. There are many ways in which technology is something that is challenging and very, very difficult for organizations to implement.

“What I hope is that we can look to the future with real optimism because tech can solve many of the problems. Whether we're talking about health care, whether we're talking about our organizational efficiency, or whether we're talking about ways that we can secure ourselves better, technology does have solutions if we think about it in the right way and we implement it in the right way.”

This exclusive interview with Greg Williams was conducted by Tabish Ali of the Motivational Speakers Agency.