Fiona Passantino

Accolades

• UK business Book Award winner 2023
• Top-rated speaker 2024 HR Core Academy
• HR.com Top Trainer (online)

Publications

The Books: Fiona’s latest book, ‘AI-Powered Professional: Awareness and Integration Guide for Non-technicals’, is hot off the press for 2025. It’s a practical, fun guide written for ordinary, working people for using AI: to improve productivity and joy at work. This witty, fun, and down-to-earth book is a richly illustrated roadmap that navigates you through the transformative world of Artificial Intelligence.

The Handbook for Post-Covid Engagement is the 2023 UK Business Book Award winner, and a very different kind of business book. Part graphic novel telling the story of how the pandemic changed the world, and part research-driven roadmap to improve our global workplace culture. A fast and easy read packed with essential information to help leaders and HR professionals prepare for our new ways of working, supporting a shift in mindset and providing tools to inspire, inform and engage a working community.

The Handbook for Post-Covid Communication is an engaging, visual roadmap for the re-imagination of our corporate communications in the post-pandemic era. It shows us how we will inform, inspire, connect and engage with a new kind of disparate, global workforce, retooled and likely reassigned, emotionally bruised but not beaten. It offers a series of simple steps for communicators as they build high-impact, Human2Human Brand Stories in our new era, interwoven with the story of real-time events told as a graphic novel for grownups.

I am a professional keynote speaker specializing in making AI business integration fun, accessible and inspiring for today’s working professionals. I’m currently seeking to expand my speaking engagements and am available for engagements on short notice. My approach is fully original, highly visual, and aimed at building more unified, supportive working communities; the story of AI for “non-technicals”, told with a distinctly female voice. The sessions are flexible (30-90 minutes), and blend humor, practical insights, and forward-thinking strategies. They are largely designed for non-technical audiences, particularly in HR, communications, and leadership. I also offer on-site intensive training and 1:1 coaching.

As the author of three business books – “Comic Books for Executives” (Communication, Engagement), my latest release, AI-Powered Professional is just out now in 2025. My prices are anywhere from “free” for high-profile and good cause events to € 15.000 for high-stakes, high-prep, travel, for keynote speaking, training, moderation and services as a Master of Ceremonies. I even do AI and business-related standup comedy for business events 🙂 – it seems to be a “secret weapon” that very few other speakers have. I divide my time between the US (Atlanta, GA) and The Netherlands.

Will travel; particularly to the Eastern Seaboard and Atlanta in particular, so I can combine this with a visit to my mother in Acworth GA. I’d love to discuss how we can collaborate to bring more inspiration and joy to organizations navigating AI integration, leadership, communication and employee engagement.

AI-Powered Professional

AI is transforming how professionals think, create, and deliver results. Learn how to use AI tools to save time, boost creativity, and sharpen decisions. Work smarter, not harder and laugh in the process with this energetic keynote.

• What’s AI? How does it work?
• Understand the essentials: prompts, automation, data and ethical use
• See real cases of AI integration across industries
• Build confidence to stay relevant in the AI-powered workplace

AI-Powered Leadership

Lead the change. AI isn’t just a tech shift, it’s a leadership shift. Together we take a high-impact look at Fiona’s own “AI Integration Roadmap”, a 5-step plan for leaders across the verticals of People, Process, Tech, Tools and outside forces. Learn how to energise your full working community, and discover the group of workers that will deliver the single largest ROI for your training budgets.

• Explore how to integrate and scale AI across teams and departments
• Learn to create a culture of innovation, not fear
• Balance data, people, and purpose in every AI decision
• Become a high-visibility leader

The Robots are Coming: Embodied AI and the Future of Work

AI is stepping out of the screen and into the world. Tomorrow’s robots are AI-driven and will walk, drive, and work beside us. Understand the tech behind World Models, humanoid robots powered by self-learning AI brains. Discover how Embodied AI tackles labor shortages and transforms industries and get ready for what’s to come.

• Explore the ethical and emotional impact of working alongside machines
• Learn what leaders must do to guide, protect, and empower the Human workforce

Engaging and Empowering GenZ

Who is GenZ? Simple: they are our sons and daughters, our future workers and consumers. Why are they so annoying? Because we know they’re right! Understand what fuels this generation, seen from the eyes of their older colleagues: their challenges and strengths. Learn how to speak their language, get their values, provide them with the working environment to bring out their best.

• Their background, the world that shaped them
• GenZ communication style, smartphone native, social media, anxiety, fragility, triggered.
• ‘Drifting’ in and out of two worlds.
• GenZ Values: work-life balance, authenticity, agency, flexibility, purpose, loyalty as a two-way street, a strong aversion to authoritarianism, being seen and heard.
• Vegetarian, conscious, aware, suspicious of chemicals, sustainability.

The AI-Powered Comeback

Things didn’t go as planned: you got caught in a re-org, a merger. Whether due to AI efficiencies or not, you suddenly find yourself out of work and primed for a re-boot. You will need to re-enter a very different job market since you last visited, now dominated by AI. With 40% of working hours affected due to the rise of this technology, you will likely need to adapt and re-train for an AI-Powered comeback. Five steps for recovery and reinvention.

• Audit your skills, then upgrade
• The market now rewards adaptability and Human-AI fluency more than tenure
• Rebuild your digital identity to show you’re future-ready, not past-proud
• Design your comeback as a reinvention, not a return

The AI Live Generation Show

Part stand-up, part live AI generation demo, this interactive keynote turns tech learning into a live spectacle. Fiona puts today’s smartest multimodal models – ChatGPT, Midjourney, Suno, ElevenLabs and Sora – into a unique, interactive and very fun learning event. Perfect for evening gala events that want to offer the learning seriousness of an AI keynote with the entertainment of a comedy event.

• Learn how AI works, get inside the brain of the top models
• Experience voice-activated AI in practice
• Create a full-stack social media campaign in 10 minutes (with laughs)

Who is it for?

This workshop is perfect for business leaders who want to enhance their presentation skills. Company instructors, managers, corporate trainers and facilitators seeking to engage audiences better, as well as sales and marketing professionals looking to connect more authentically with clients. Anyone who presents regularly and wants to level up their game can benefit from these easy and practical methods.

What are the top takeaways?

Lean battle-tested techniques from the world of stand-up comedy: How to use “crowd work” to create instant connection with any audience. Understand the power of silence and timing in presentations.
Learn to read the room and adjust your story on the fly. Ways to use physical presence and body language for maximum impact. The art of “callbacks” to create memorable moments that stick in the minds of your audience. How to use vulnerability and relatability to build trust, forming a Human connection with your audience.
Techniques for memorization and flawless delivery, even if you’re terrible with memorization.