Mitch Mitchem is a keynote speaker, author, and technology founder who helps organizations adopt AI without losing what makes their people valuable. As CEO of HIVE, an AI company built around the human element, he and his team have trained more than 120,000 people to use AI for real, measurable results, with a 97% implementation rate. That practical track record, paired with three decades on stage, has made him one of the most requested and highest-rated speakers on the subject. VISIT Denver named him its highest-rated speaker in ten years, and his keynotes have anchored events for Disney, the Orlando Magic, the Colorado Rockies, Visit Indy, MPI, and Informa’s Pharma Forum.
Mitch’s path to the AI stage is an unusual one. He spent his early career in live entertainment as a Second City improv alum who studied Meisner technique in Los Angeles, headlining shows for years in Chicago before performing at Universal Studios Orlando. He then spent nearly fifteen years in leadership development and experiential learning, where he became the first sales leader in his company’s history to close a single six million dollar innovation-training contract. Turning to technology, he founded High There, one of the first social networks in the cannabis space, which grew past 300,000 users in under eleven months. That experience produced the insight that now anchors his work and his TED Talk: technology means nothing without the human element.
Today Mitch leads HIVE across consumer AI, custom enterprise technology, and AI-enablement training. He is the author of F*ck Your Friction, a book about the systems quietly stealing our time and money. He has reached more than 10 million people across 12 countries and over 4,000 stages, with one throughline in everything he does: amplify the human, don’t automate them away.
Quick take on Mitch:
• Mitch brings the whole room to life. Instead of an audience sitting back and checking phones, you get a space that’s awake, engaged, and moving with him from start to finish.
• Runs an AI company (HIVE) and has personally trained more than 120,000 people to use AI in their actual jobs, with a 97% implementation rate. This is a builder, not a commentator.
• Sends anxious and skeptical audiences out feeling more capable instead of more worried, while other speakers are still selling either the machine or the panic about it.
• Second City trained, with over 4,000 stages and 10 million people reached across 12 countries. He turns a passive audience into the most alive room in the building.
• Does live, unscripted AI demos on stage, solving the audience’s real problems in real time. Even non-technical rooms leave knowing exactly what to do first.
• One clear message every executive needs right now: Amplify, Not Automate. Become irreplaceable standing next to the machine instead of afraid of it.
• Trusted by Disney, the Orlando Magic, the Colorado Rockies, VISIT Denver, Visit Indy, MPI, and Informa’s Pharma Forum. Named the highest-rated speaker VISIT Denver has had in ten years.
• Audiences don’t want to leave. People routinely stay well after the session just to keep talking to him.
• A safe yes for planners. Every talk is customized on a personal prep call, he’s easy to work with, and he has never had a tech failure derail a keynote.
Why book Mitch:
Most AI speakers do one of two things. They show off what the technology can do, or they scare the room about what it’s going to take away. Mitch does neither, and that’s exactly why planners keep rebooking him. He walks in, takes the fear out of the room, and hands people something they can put to work right away.
He’s earned the right to. Mitch runs a real AI company called HIVE, and he has personally put more than 120,000 people through hands-on, practical AI training, with a 97% implementation rate. This isn’t a futurist reading headlines off a slide. He’s built the tools, trained the teams, and he knows what actually sticks once the conference is over. Then there’s the stage itself. Second City trained, over 4,000 stages, more than 10 million people across 12 countries. He turns a passive audience into the most alive room in the building, with live AI demos, real exercises, and real laughter, and he sends everyone home with moves they’ll run the next morning.
His whole philosophy is three words: Amplify, Not Automate. He doesn’t teach people to compete with the machine. He teaches them to become irreplaceable standing next to it. Technology talk, motivational talk, leadership talk. Attendees can’t tell where one ends and the next begins, and they don’t care, because it lands as educational and energizing at the same time.
Keynote and Workshop:
PULL BACK THE CURTAIN ON AI (Keynote)
The humans behind AI automation
AMPLIFY, NOT AUTOMATE (Keynote)
The operating system for human-AI teams.
THE HUMAN ELEMENT (Keynote)
A straight AI briefing, built only for the people who sign off on it.
THE WISDOM ECONOMY (Keynote)
AI made knowledge free. Human wisdom just became your most valuable asset.
F*CK YOUR FRICTION (Keynote, from the book)
Fight back against the systems stealing your time and money.
THE PASSION PRINCIPLE (Keynote)
The fire that makes people irreplaceable.
THE START (Keynote)
For teams just getting going, confused, or afraid of AI.
THE AI REBOOT (Keynote)
For when your company’s AI effort stalled.
BECOME THE TALENT (Workshop)
Turn your quietest employees into the people who own the room.
THE MASTER PRESENTER (Workshop)
Everyone presents. Almost no one was ever taught how.
FRICTION MAPPING (Workshop)
Find the friction costing you the most, and a 30-day plan to kill it.
IMPROMPTING (Signature Experience, In-Person Only)
Where the funny meets the future.
MY HIVE AI (Technology Platform)
The keynote that keeps working long after Mitch leaves the stage.
You’re not taking a risk on Mitch. He customizes every talk on a personal prep call and delivers exactly what the client has requested, he’s easy to work with, he has never had a tech failure derail a keynote, and he brings rooms to life with his keynotes, workshops, and Imprompting audience-engagement show. If your audience is anxious, overwhelmed, or skeptical about AI, he’s the speaker who turns that worry into momentum. That’s the room everyone wants, and it’s the one he delivers every time. He has had 131 bookings in just 2025.
Video: