Katie Harbath Speaking Topics

• AI 101 — What It Is, What It Isn't, and What You Need to Know Now

  Understanding AI Without the Hype or the Fear

  Every organization is being asked to make decisions about AI — what to adopt, what to allow, what to avoid — often before anyone on the team has a shared baseline for what AI actually is. This talk closes that gap. Drawing on the hands-on work building AI policies and tools for organizations navigating high-stakes environments, Katie Harbath breaks down how today's AI systems are actually developed, what the major companies are focused on and why, and what it means practically for the people in the room. The goal isn't to make everyone an AI expert. It's to make sure no one is making important decisions based just on something they read in the news. This is the talk that makes the rest of the AI conversation possible.

  Attendee Outcomes:

  • Understand the core concepts behind how modern AI is built and where it's headed — explained for non-engineers, without oversimplifying.
  • Know the difference between what AI companies are saying, what they're building, and what that means for your organization.
  • Leave with a shared vocabulary that makes internal AI conversations faster and more productive.
  • Identify the specific questions your organization should be asking before adopting any AI tool.
  • Walk away with a practical frame for evaluating AI claims — and the confidence to push back on the ones that don't hold up.

• AI in Practice — How to Actually Use It

  A Hands-On Session for People Who Are Tired of Talking About AI and Ready to Start Using It

  Knowing AI exists isn't the same as knowing how to use it well. This session moves past the explainer and into the room where it actually matters: the day-to-day decisions about which tools to use, how to prompt them effectively, and how to build working habits that hold up over time. Katie Harbath has spent years integrating AI into her own workflows — research, writing, analysis, client work — and she brings that lived experience directly into this session. It's structured for people who've tried AI tools and gotten frustrated, people who haven't started yet and don't know where to, and people who are using AI but aren't sure they're using it well. There's no pitch for a particular platform. Just practical, tested approaches that work.

  Attendee Outcomes:

  • Get hands-on time with AI tools in a structured, low-stakes environment — with real guidance, not a self-paced tutorial.
  • Learn how to write effective prompts that actually get you what you need, and understand why bad prompts produce bad results.
  • Build an approach to AI tool evaluation that fits your workflow rather than someone else's.
  • Understand the limitations of current tools — what AI genuinely can't do well — so you stop wasting time asking it to.
  • Leave with at least three concrete changes you can make to your current workflow by the end of the week.

• Navigating the Fragmented Media Environment

  How to Communicate When Everyone Is Getting Their News from a Different Universe

  Ten years ago, reaching your audience meant a press strategy and a handful of platforms. Today's media landscape has fractured into thousands of channels, each with different norms, different audiences, and different standards for what counts as credible. Whether you're a communicator, a leader, or an organization trying to stay relevant — the rules have changed and they keep changing. Katie Harbath has spent 25 years at the intersection of media, technology, and politics, watching these shifts happen from inside Facebook, inside campaigns, and now from the outside advising organizations that are trying to keep up. This talk cuts through the noise about "the media" as a monolith and gives audiences a clear-eyed view of what's actually happening, why it's happened, and what it means for how they communicate, consume, and respond to information.

  Attendee Outcomes:

  • Get a clear, grounded map of today's media landscape — who's creating it, who's consuming it, and how the incentive structures work.
  • Understand why trust in media has eroded and what that means practically for your communications strategy.
  • Learn how to reach audiences that have moved off traditional platforms without losing credibility in the process.
  • Develop a framework for evaluating information quickly in an environment where speed and accuracy are constantly in conflict.
  • Leave with practical tools for communicating across fragmented audiences — and a clearer sense of where to focus your limited attention.

• Technology and Democracy — A 25-Year Inside View

  What the Collision of Tech and Politics Has Cost Us, What It's Built, and What Comes Next

  This talk is the one Katie Harbath has spent her entire career preparing to give. She was building the RNC's first digital operation in 2004 before social media was a political tool. She was inside Facebook during 2016, during Cambridge Analytica, during the first congressional hearings — making decisions in real time that she's still thinking through today. She watched platforms become one of the most consequential forces in democratic life without anyone, including the people building them, fully understanding what that meant. Her book, "Disrupting Politics: A Front Row Seat at the Collision of Technology and Democracy," tells that story. This talk draws on it directly — giving audiences the insider account that shapes everything happening now with AI, elections, and the future of political life. This is not a doom narrative. Katie's framework is ""panic responsibly"" — understand the real risks, don't catastrophize, don't look away, keep moving. That's what this talk delivers.

  Attendee Outcomes:

  • Get a clear, historically grounded account of how technology reshaped democracy over the past 25 years — from someone who was inside the machine.
  • Understand the decisions that were made, the tradeoffs that were real, and what we now know that we didn't know then.
  • See the through-line from 2004 to 2016 to the AI moment we're in now — and why the patterns matter for what's coming next.
  • Leave with a framework for evaluating the technology-democracy relationship that goes beyond "platforms bad" or "AI will save us."
  • Understand what "panic responsibly" means as a practical philosophy — and why it's the right response to where we are.

• Writing Your AI Policy — Before You Need One

  A Practical Framework for Internal and External AI Governance

  Most organizations are already using AI. Very few have a clear policy about it. That gap is manageable right now — and expensive later. This session walks through what an AI policy actually needs to cover, both for how your team uses AI internally and how you communicate your approach externally. Katie Harbath has helped organizations across sectors develop AI policies from scratch, and she's seen what happens when they try to build governance structures after something goes wrong instead of before. This isn't about compliance theater. It's about building a policy that's actually usable — one people will follow because it makes sense, not because they were told to. The session draws on real examples, including the policy she built for her own work and the common mistakes she's seen organizations make along the way.

  Attendee Outcomes:

  • Understand what an effective AI policy actually needs to include — and what most early policies get wrong.
  • Get a working framework for internal AI governance that you can adapt to your organization's specific context.
  • Learn how to communicate your AI approach externally in ways that build trust rather than invite scrutiny.
  • Know what questions to ask vendors, partners, and platforms about their AI use before you sign anything.
  • Leave with a draft outline for your own policy and a clear sense of where to start.

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