James Poulter

Biography

James Poulter is the former Head of Emerging Platforms at Lego, and the current Head of AI and Innovation at House 337. He is also the founder and CEO of Vixen Labs, a voice technology company that was acquired by House 337 in 2023. James specialises in voice technology and innovation and has extensive experience in the ethical use of AI, corporate deployment of advanced AI systems such as ChatGPT and GPT-4, and the integration of conversational AI into marketing and business strategies.

James joined Lego as the Senior Manager for Global Social Media within Lego Life – the company’s social network for children, before being appointed Head of the Emerging Platforms & Partnerships team, where he was responsible for implementing new technologies to increase consumer interaction.

Prior to Lego, James worked for almost a decade in marketing and communications, holding senior roles at agencies including Ogilvy and Edelman. After Lego, James went on to found Voice2, a network which explores voice technology and how it “is changing not just how we speak to our machines, but how we speak to one another.” He founded Poulter Ventures, a strategic consulting firm providing start-up and scale-up advisory services, focusing on innovation, culture building, and the metaverse. He also started Vixen Labs, which applies similar ideas in a commercial context. His research specifically centres on conversational AI, which is the automation of speech-based assistants and chatbots often used for customer care.

In speeches, James looks at everything from ‘intrapreneurship’ and innovative disruption to cyber-ethics and privacy to customer experience in the digital realm. He considers the intersection between the future of the workplace, generational expectations, and the changing nature of human interaction with technology, whether that’s in family life or businesses. He explains why Alexa is hearing but not listening to you in your home; at what point we won’t be able to tell the difference between a human and a bot; and how conversational AI will transform our homes and workplace.

James is a co-founder and board member of the Digital Future Council, a pioneering think-tank that explores the relationship between creativity, media, and technology. He was also the Director of Programming at Modev’s VOICE summit and hosts MediaNet’s podcast Signal, which tackles the intersection between faith, media, and technology.