PROFESSIONAL RULE BREAKING VS ROBOTS
In Rule Breakers & Robots, Sam Conniff offers a fresh, grounded perspective on what’s really going on beneath the noise. Rather than another talk about tools, trends, or tactics, this session explores why compliance has quietly become the default response to automation, and why that loss of confidence, curiosity, and judgement is the bigger risk. It reframes rule-breaking not as rebellion, but as a responsible, necessary mindset for navigating change.
Sam has worked alongside behavioural scientists and leading AI engineers to design a series of cognitive prompts that help audiences experience this shift in real time. These prompts are engineered to increase cognitive flexibility, disrupt habitual thinking, and reframe participants’ confidence in their own judgement. The result is not instruction, but empowerment: a renewed sense of agency in what it means to be part of the first AI generation.
This keynote (or expanded workshop) is highly interactive.
Key features:
A reframing of AI from a compliance challenge to a judgement challenge
A practical, psychologically grounded take on rule-breaking as responsibility
Interactive prompts that help audiences think differently, not just harder
A confidence-building lens on curiosity, discernment, and decision-making
An energising alternative to hype, fear, and AI fatigue
Outcomes:
Greater confidence and curiosity around AI and automation
A clearer understanding of when rules serve progress and when they block it
Practical mental tools that transfer beyond technology into leadership and work
A renewed sense of agency, optimism, and momentum in the face of change
Sam is re-writing the rules of modern business, he lives by his bold principles, and is therefore highly credible. My team have seen and done it all given their job working with C-Suite global businesses, day in, day out, and yet he energized and inspired them to a much bolder vision as a team. The very intelligent framework of Professional Rule-Breaking was wonderfully provocative and inspired a different type of dialogue over the ensuing days of the offsite.
Leigh Thomas, Global Director of Client Partnerships, Facebook
Sam owns the room, his gravitas, credibility and leadership style has a huge impact. His energy is infectious, he walks the talk, and leaders listen to him and he shifts mindsets.
Tammy Potter, Global Head of Talent, Dyson
I’m still in awe at how Sam managed to energise and enthuse a large crowd of four hundred GMs and senior marketers from across the globe to feel liberated enough to emphatically stand up and talk about the ‘be more pirate’ difference they wanted to see. The bold decisions we made in favour of sustainability and equanimity in that very moment are significant in their own right, but feel like just the start. Thank you, Sam for being such a force for change.
Catherine Tan-Gillespie, Global CMO, KFC