Per Lagerstrom

About Per Lagerstrom

Per Lagerstrom is a Swedish-born, Cape Town-based venture builder, AI strategy adviser and former McKinsey partner with more than 30 years of experience across financial services, technology, FMCG and business transformation. He spent 15 years at McKinsey & Company, where he became a Partner and led the Financial Services practice in Africa. Today he is founder of GAIN, an AI-first senior advisory model for established organisations, and co-founder of sens, an AI and behavioural-science consumer intelligence platform, and YellowSpot, a BehaviorTech venture studio. Per has served at board level in major South African financial-services investment groups and advises boards, CEOs and executive teams internationally. His work explores how AI, behavioural science, technology and senior human judgement can combine to redesign businesses, improve decisions and accelerate new growth.

Key message

AI advantage comes from redesigning operating and business models, not adding tools to yesterday’s architecture. Human judgement, pattern recognition and empathy remain critical while AI provides enormous leverage. Incumbents must protect their core while building new AI-enabled growth. Behaviour and emotion can become measurable strategic inputs rather than “soft” variables. AI is fundamentally changing the economics of consulting, marketing and consumer insight.

Speaking topics and expertise

• AI-First Strategy for Incumbents
• Re-Architecting Business Models for the AI Age
• Human + Agent Advisory and the New Economics of Consulting
• BehaviorTech: Where Human Science
• AI and Technology Meet
• The Reinvention of Marketing: From Attention to Intention
• Consumer Intelligence Beyond Traditional Research
• Leadership and Decision-Making in Complexity

Achievements

Former McKinsey Partner; spent 15 years with McKinsey and led Financial Services in Africa. Independent non-executive director of RMI and RMH from 2014, with the relevant RMI/OUTsurance role ending in 2022 and RMH role ending in June 2026. Founder of GAIN. Co-founder of sens and YellowSpot. sens received backing from Launch Africa Ventures. Headline speaker at Insurance Meets Tech 4.0 in Lagos in 2025. Regular Innovation City speaker on AI, marketing and transformation. Multi-year senior advisory roles with CEO/Exco/Board at several listed retailers, banks and insurers.

Education

MSc (Economics), London School of Economics and Political Science. BSc (Accounting), institution to confirm before publication.

Talks and speeches

1. AI-First, Not AI-Overwhelmed: A Playbook for Incumbents. How established organisations protect what works while redesigning for AI-enabled growth. Covers strategic urgency, the core business, new growth, organisational capacity and focused execution. 2. The Reinvention of Marketing. How AI changes the economics of creativity, relevance, production and measurement, and why intention rather than attention becomes a more important commercial signal. 3. BehaviorTech: Where Human Science Meets AI. How behavioural science, AI and technology can make previously “soft” variables such as emotion, trust and intention measurable and actionable. 4. Re-Architecting to Win in an AI-First World. How organisations need to reconsider business models, value chains, decision systems and capabilities rather than bolt AI onto yesterday’s architecture. 5. Consulting for the AI Age. ASB development candidate based on Per’s current work: how senior pattern recognition, AI agents and fractional specialists can compress cost and cycle time while retaining experienced human judgement.

Delivery style

Incisive, intellectually rigorous and highly boardroom-calibrated. Per works from complexity toward clarity, combining strategic structure with energetic provocation rather than theatrical motivation. He draws heavily on real business situations, venture-building experience and emerging technology, and is particularly effective when senior audiences need to make decisions rather than merely be inspired.

Why audiences listen

Per has spent three decades on both sides of strategy: advising senior executives and boards, and building ventures where ideas have to survive contact with customers, technology and capital. His 15 years at McKinsey provide the analytical discipline; his work with GAIN, sens and BehaviorTech provides current operating evidence. He therefore speaks about AI transformation from the position of someone actively redesigning businesses and advisory models rather than commenting on the technology from the sidelines.

What the talks address

Why adding AI tools to legacy operating models often fails; how incumbents can protect their core while accessing AI-enabled growth; how AI changes the economics of consulting, marketing and consumer research; where senior human judgement remains indispensable; how behavioural science and AI can reveal intention and emotion; how organisations can move from analysis to rapid execution through focused sprints; and how boards should think about disruption when the future cannot be modelled with certainty.

What participants will learn

How to distinguish AI-first redesign from superficial AI adoption; how to identify where AI changes the economics of a business rather than merely productivity; how to separate tasks that can be automated from judgement that still requires experienced humans; how to think simultaneously about protecting the core and creating new growth; how behaviour and emotion can improve customer and strategic insight; and how to turn complex transformation questions into focused decisions and short execution cycles.

What audiences take home

A clearer lens for deciding where AI matters, where it does not, and where action is urgent. Participants leave with practical questions they can apply to their own operating model, a stronger understanding of human-plus-AI design, and a disciplined way to move from technology enthusiasm to business outcomes.

Benefits for individuals

Sharper strategic judgement around AI; greater confidence navigating uncertainty; a stronger ability to simplify complex problems; improved understanding of where human judgement creates differentiated value; and practical tools for translating technological disruption into decisions rather than anxiety or hype.

Benefits for organisations

Faster strategic cycles; clearer prioritisation of AI investment; lower dependence on conventional high-cost consulting models; improved executive alignment; new growth opportunities alongside core-business protection; better use of customer and behavioural insight; and a more deliberate architecture for combining senior expertise with AI agents and specialist fractional talent.