Speaking

Talks for rooms that don't want a tech-vendor pitch.

Forty-five to sixty minutes, audience-specific, no slide soup. Below: a reel (when one exists), the topics I'm currently talking about, past stages, and a way to start a conversation about your event.

Length 45–60 min keynote · 90 min with Q&A Format In-person preferred · remote on request Fees On request, scaled to org size Travel Billed at cost for in-person events

Speaker topics

Five talks I'm giving in 2026.

Each is shaped for an operations or programs audience: directors, managers, and their EDs/CEOs. None require an AI background; all assume the audience has tried AI and been underwhelmed.

T 01 Signature talk · 2026

Most of the work is workflow design and adoption — not the model.

The thesis talk. Seven in ten nonprofit leaders and staff think their organizations are missing real AI opportunities, and only eight percent have a plan for the next two years (Bridgespan and NTEN, 2026). Most of that gap is workflow design and adoption, not the model. This talk covers what an operations leader can do about it on Monday morning. Three case studies, one walk-through.

For Ops & programs leaders, mixed audiences

Length 45 / 60 / 90 min

T 02 New · 2026

The AI-fit map: what to automate, what to augment, what to leave alone.

A three-axis framework for triaging which workflows are worth the AI investment and which aren't. Includes the audit worksheet I use with clients on day one. Pragmatic, opinionated, anti-hype.

For Directors, COOs, board strategy committees

Length 45 / 60 min

T 03 Standing

Boards and AI: the questions you should be asking, and the ones you shouldn't.

For board retreats and governance committees. Frames AI as a governance risk and a strategic question, not a tooling question. Includes a read-aloud sample policy and a one-page board briefing.

For Boards, EDs, governance committees

Length 45 min · workshop format available

T 04 Standing

Forty AI projects later: what worked, what didn't, what I'd never do again.

The retrospective talk. The projects that shipped and earned their keep, the ones that quietly died, and the handful I should have killed sooner. Honest about cost, honest about the work that didn't earn its staff time. Best as a closer.

For Practitioner audiences, conference closers

Length 60 / 90 min

T 05 New · 2026

When leadership is excited about AI and staff aren't.

Executives are about twice as likely as their staff to strongly agree there's untapped AI value in their organization (Bridgespan and NTEN, 2026). Staff bring the worries leaders tend to skip: their jobs, their data and the environmental cost. How to have that conversation before the rollout starts, and what to change when staff push back.

For EDs, HR and operations leaders, all-staff retreats

Length 45 / 60 min

Past stages 3

ActionKit ClientCon 2026 MiddleSeat lunch-and-learn 2026 Digital Strategy Summit 2026

Speaker bio

Jordan Krueger has spent fifteen years inside mission-driven operations, with AI work added more recently for the same kinds of organizations.

He runs Grounded AI, a workshop-and-advisory practice for 50–500-staff associations and service nonprofits. His talks are pragmatic, opinionated, and free of generative-AI sales pitch; the audience leaves with a workflow plan, not a tooling reading list.

Before Grounded AI, Jordan was Director of Operations at CREDO Action, where he led an 8-year operations practice for one of the largest progressive advocacy programs in the country. Since 2021 he has run CampaignHelp, a sister consulting practice serving progressive nonprofits, where the AI work first started. He lives in Mt Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Speaker one-sheet (PDF) ↓

Inquire

Tell me about the event.

Fifteen-minute call. I'll ask about the audience, the room, what else is on the agenda, and why now. If it's a fit, we go from there. If not, I'll point you at someone who is.

PDF

Speaker one-sheet

Bio, headshot, four topic abstracts, AV requirements, and past stages — one printable page. Updated quarterly.

Download PDF