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The Future Is Elsewhere is a long-form newsletter for leaders who sense that the old maps no longer apply. It explores how artificial intelligence, digital labor, and emerging technologies are not just changing tools or workflows, but rewriting the fundamentals of strategy, leadership, and value creation. Each edition connects technological shifts to deeper questions about power, work, culture, and decision-making, with a focus on what leaders must unlearn, redesign, and take responsibility for in an age of machine intelligence.
Written by Mike Walsh, a globally recognized futurist and leadership thinker, the newsletter sits at the intersection of AI, economics, and organizational design. Mike is a regular columnist for Harvard Business Review, a strategic advisor to Fortune 50 companies, and a sought-after keynote speaker known for translating complex technological change into clear, provocative insights for senior executives. His writing blends rigorous analysis with cultural awareness and a sharp sense of wit, drawing on examples from boardrooms, startups, geopolitics, and everyday life.
A central theme of The Future Is Elsewhere is that AI is no longer just a productivity tool or a clever assistant. It is becoming a new form of labor. Mike frequently writes about AI agents, autonomous systems, and the rise of digital workforces that can scale decision-making at near-zero marginal cost. Rather than focusing on hype cycles or product reviews, the newsletter examines second-order effects: how cheap cognition changes organizational structures, how leadership accountability shifts when machines act independently, and why many strategies fail when they treat AI as an add-on instead of a redesign challenge.
These ideas are closely tied to Mike’s forthcoming book for Harvard Business Review Press, scheduled for 2026, which argues that leaders are entering an era defined by digital labor. Co-authored with Nitin Mittal, Deloitte’s Global Head of AI, the book draws on dozens of conversations with CTOs, CIOs, and senior executives across banking, energy, automotive, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and insurance. Their experiences inform many of the arguments explored first in the newsletter: that leadership in the next decade will be about orchestrating hybrid organizations of humans and machines, not simply managing people or deploying software.
The newsletter also reflects Mike’s broader worldview on leadership. Unlike futurists who focus primarily on predicting technologies or social trends, his work centers on how leaders must rethink judgment, authority, and responsibility when machines become capable of complex reasoning. He argues that traditional leadership models, shaped by stable hierarchies and predictable business cycles, are no longer fit for a world of continuous disruption and algorithmic decision-making. What matters now is how leaders design systems of intelligence, decide where humans remain accountable, and cultivate new mental models for action.
Mike’s perspective is deeply global. Born in Australia to parents of mixed Asian and European heritage, he has lived and worked across multiple regions, and his writing often draws on insights from cities such as Tokyo, Seoul, Istanbul, and Mexico City. This global lens helps the newsletter move beyond Silicon Valley assumptions to examine how technology reshapes societies and institutions differently around the world.
The Future Is Elsewhere builds on ideas Mike has developed across his previous books, including The Algorithmic Leader, The Dictionary of Dangerous Ideas, and Futuretainment, all of which anticipated major shifts in technology, media, and work well before they entered the mainstream.
