In this talk, Stafford Masie challenges audiences to rethink the way cities operate by embracing “ambient awareness” a vision where everyday objects are embedded with intelligence, capable of communicating and feeding real-time data into open networks. He argues that technology has finally caught up with human imagination, making it possible to transform static urban environments into dynamic, responsive ecosystems.

Masie explains that mobile devices are no longer “phones” but sensory rendering platforms with the ability to see, hear, measure, and interact with the world. He connects this evolution to larger shifts in behavior: moving from ownership to access, from static web pages to real-time streaming, and from isolated data to socially connected intelligence.

Using vivid examples like fridges that prevent food waste, or bus systems that update passengers in real time he demonstrates how sensory blanketing of cities can drive innovation, improve efficiency, and empower citizens. Crucially, he emphasizes that governments should not try to build all applications themselves. Instead, they should expose their data sets and APIs, creating an open platform where innovators, developers, and entrepreneurs can build solutions.

Masie highlights Africa’s unique opportunity: with fewer entrenched legacy systems, emerging cities can leapfrog developed nations by adopting open ecosystems, shared taxonomies, and hackable infrastructures. His closing call is bold and urgent: let’s turn cities from “beautiful mutes” into platforms that speak, learn, and evolve with us in real time.

In this keynote, Stafford Masie challenges the conventional definition of artificial intelligence, rejecting the idea that AI is simply about machines, GPUs, or massive data crunching. Instead, he frames AI as a human story—one that is reshaping society, organizations, and individual expression.

He begins by highlighting a turning point in 2000 when three shifts occurred simultaneously: more humans began living in cities than anywhere else, Apple introduced the iPhone, and millennials became the majority of the workforce. This generation, Masie explains, interacts with technology differently. Their expectations are shaped by AI-enabled tools that unlock creativity, expression, and purpose.

He points to the reality that over 86% of internet traffic is “giving, not taking,” as people use their devices to generate content, share experiences, and express themselves. Social media, he argues, is not about platforms like Facebook or Twitter—it is about human needs: to belong, to be recognized, and not to be forgotten. These same impulses are as old as cave paintings, only now expressed on digital walls.

For organizations, sustainability no longer lies in owning innovation but in harnessing combinatorial innovation, where people augmented by AI and digital tools contribute collectively. Businesses must rethink their strategies, shifting from technology-first approaches to human-first ones, enabling latent human potential to cascade into their systems.

Masie closes with a call for leaders to look beyond technology itself and understand its deeper impact: it is not just about machines, but about humanity—what makes us who we are and how we express ourselves in an AI-augmented world.

In this in-depth interview, Stafford Masie reflects on the pivotal “goosebump moments” of his career in technology and why cryptocurrency now represents the most transformative of them all.

He begins by recalling his early exposure to the internet while working at Telkom in the 1990s, when engineers first experimented with open protocols like HTTP and SMTP. The realization that global communication was possible without centralized control was revolutionary. His second defining moment came while working in the United States with Novell, where he encountered open source software communities. Despite skepticism at the time, he foresaw its massive impact today, open source underpins nearly all digital infrastructure.

The third and most profound moment, he says, came when he first used a crypto wallet. With a background in building secure banking systems and devices like the “payment pebble,” Masie was stunned to discover that cryptocurrency enabled direct, secure value exchange between individuals without banks, governments, or intermediaries. This, he argues, is more secure and flexible than the arcane financial infrastructure he had spent years working in.

Masie addresses skepticism around volatility, comparing it to broader instability in global markets and highlighting how excessive money printing has undermined trust in traditional currencies. He explains cryptocurrency’s scarcity (21 million bitcoin cap), programmability, and potential for decentralized finance as reasons it represents a better store of value than gold. For skeptics, he frames crypto as a programmable, verifiable, and incorruptible form of money.

He concludes that crypto is not just an investment class but the foundation of a new global monetary framework one that leaders must understand or risk being left behind.