Hans de Graaf helps entrepreneurs and knowledge workers stay pilot-in-command when AI does more of the flying. He is the creator of Brainfulness and the Brainfulness Cockpit, and the speaker behind the keynote The Copilot Never Lands the Plane.
I founded Drogisterij Academy, which became the market leader in training for Dutch drugstores, with A.S. Watson (Kruidvat, Trekpleister), Etos, DA and UED among its clients. I built corporate universities for retail chains such as Scapino, Intratuin and Hans Anders.
All that work had one thing in common. The people I built for were standing on a shop floor with a customer in front of them. They had no time for theory. If it did not work on a Tuesday morning, it did not work. That is still my test.
Why AI, and why this angle
I have worked with generative AI daily since 2022, and I started where everyone started: with prompts and productivity. I moved on when I noticed something in myself. The tool agreed with me more often than anyone who actually knows me, and I liked it. Then the research started to confirm that this was not just me.
So my subject is not how to get more out of AI. It is how people keep their judgment, and work that means something to them, while AI does more of the job. I have had to rethink my own purpose more than once, and I say so on stage.
What I am, and what I am not
I am a generalist and a translator. I study about two hours a day, read newspapers in three languages, follow the research on AI, HR, learning and society, and turn what holds up into something you can use.
I am not a neuroscientist, not a psychologist and not an AI researcher. I hold a drs. in analytical chemistry, the Dutch master's degree from before the bachelor-master system. I have not worked in a lab since, but the degree left me with one lasting habit: when I see a number, I ask how it was measured. It turns out that this is a rare and useful habit in the AI debate.
Brainfulness is a practitioner framework. It is built on research I cite, and it is not science itself. I think that is the stronger position, and it is certainly the more honest one.
Speaking
I call myself a lecturer rather than a motivational speaker. You will learn something, you will do something, and you will laugh now and then, mostly about me. I speak in Dutch, English and German.
Selected stages:
I am listed with the AI Speakers Bureau (AISB Knowledge Networks), a bureau that represents AI speakers only.
How I grade sources
Every source I use gets a grade. A: peer-reviewed study or meta-analysis. B: institutional research with a published method. C: survey by a consultancy or vendor with a commercial interest. D: journalism, blogs, opinion. I use A and B as proof. C appears only with the sender named and the caveat spoken aloud. D never.
"drs." (doctorandus) is the Dutch master's degree from before the bachelor-master system. Hans earned his in analytical chemistry. He uses it for one thing: reading research properly.