About.Michael Chase
Michael Chase is an AI futurist, keynote speaker and capital strategist based in Toronto. He founded AI Imagine Labs, co-founded Atelier Superintelligence, and works wherever the AI decision is being made, on the main stage and in the boardroom.
Michael's career has one through-line: he is the one who takes a new technology from the deck to the budget. He has done it as a marketer, as a consultant, as a builder, and now as the person companies call when the AI question has moved from the lab to the board.
As a marketer he was named by Forbes one of the 100 most-followed CMOs. At St. Joseph he built Cup of Jo into a content franchise with millions of views, a lesson in manufacturing an audience that he still teaches. For Nike, a client, he worked alongside Wayne Gretzky and the Right To Play Foundation, developing advertising around programmes such as the NBA's.
He is also a founder who has exited. He built the AI travel startup TRAVAI and sold it to Kognitiv, then stayed on as Partner and Chief Strategy Officer, where he built the Kognitiv fungibility engine and loyalty engine, developed PC Travel, and helped raise $500M globally.
Google and Thomson Reuters were clients too. At Google he helped build out the cloud and digital signage business and keynoted the company's internal and customer events. For Thomson Reuters he worked with the C-suite and built the New York Times Square digital signage package and its content, along with the broadcast content studios.
At Deloitte he created the Novel and Exponential Technologies group, a practice built to give clients a working relationship with technologies that had not yet reached the budget cycle, and created the future roadmap and plan for LifeLabs and its CEO. That is where the futurist habit became a discipline: forecast, then build the thing you forecast, then measure it.
The building has not stopped. He led the Nvidia digital-twin work for the BMW and Mercedes-Benz EV factories, with Nvidia as both client and resource partner, the platform those twins were built on, and the cognition-driven call centres for Desjardins. Through Atelier Superintelligence, the studio he co-founded, he now designs and ships agentic systems for clients.
On stage he has spoken at CES and SXSW, three times at NRF Big Show in New York, five times at the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas, and headlined a cross-Canada speaking tour for Canada Post, eleven cities in each of two consecutive years, in front of some of the biggest companies in the country. His stages have run from New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Chicago, Austin, Orlando, Scottsdale and Cleveland to London, Singapore and Hong Kong, and coast to coast across Canada. Off stage he coaches executives through their first AI programme, and advises family offices, funds and boards on their AI exposure.
The chapters
- The marketer
Forbes' 100 most-followed CMOs
Named by Forbes one of the 100 most-followed CMOs. Built Cup of Jo for St. Joseph into a franchise with millions of views. Nike, with Wayne Gretzky and Right To Play. Google's cloud and digital signage business. Thomson Reuters in Times Square.
- The founder
TRAVAI, sold to Kognitiv
Founded the AI travel startup and sold it to Kognitiv. As Partner and Chief Strategy Officer he built the fungibility engine and the loyalty engine, developed PC Travel, and helped raise $500M globally.
- The futurist
Deloitte's Novel and Exponential Technologies group
Created the practice and turned foresight into a service line with a budget attached. Wrote the future roadmap and plan for LifeLabs and its CEO.
- The builder
Digital twins and cognition call centres
Led the Nvidia digital-twin work for the BMW and Mercedes-Benz EV factories and the cognition-driven service operations for Desjardins.
- Now
AI Imagine Labs and Atelier Superintelligence
Keynotes, advisory and agentic systems in production, with CES, SXSW, NRF Big Show, the Digital Signage Expo and a two-year cross-Canada tour for Canada Post among the stages.
- 100 most-followed CMOsForbes
- Google, Nvidia, Thomson Reuters, NikeClients
- TRAVAI, sold to KognitivFounder and exit
- Novel and Exponential Technologies groupDeloitte
- CES and SXSWStages
- Co-founderAtelier Superintelligence
Programmers: the speaker kit has bios at three lengths, an MC introduction and photos. This page was last updated in September 2026.
Questions
What people ask about Michael Chase.
Who is Michael Chase?
Michael Chase is an AI futurist, keynote speaker and capital strategist based in Toronto. He is the founder of AI Imagine Labs and co-founder of Atelier Superintelligence with Sean Evans. Before that he was named by Forbes one of the 100 most-followed CMOs, counted Google, Nvidia, Thomson Reuters and Nike as clients, founded and sold the AI travel startup TRAVAI to Kognitiv, created Deloitte's Novel and Exponential Technologies group, and led the Nvidia digital-twin work for the BMW and Mercedes-Benz EV factories.
What is AI Imagine Labs?
The company Michael founded to take a technology from the deck to the budget. The keynotes, the advisory work and the Wake Up Imagine dispatches come from here.
What is Atelier Superintelligence?
The studio Michael co-founded with Sean Evans. It designs and ships agentic systems that run in production for clients. AI Imagine Labs is the stage and the point of view; Atelier is the build.
What has Michael Chase built?
The AI travel startup TRAVAI, sold to Kognitiv, and then Kognitiv's fungibility engine, loyalty engine and PC Travel. Nvidia digital twins for the BMW and Mercedes-Benz EV factories, cognition-driven call centres for Desjardins, Thomson Reuters' Times Square digital signage package and broadcast content studios, Google's cloud and digital signage business, Cup of Jo for St. Joseph, the future roadmap and plan for LifeLabs and its CEO while at Deloitte, and Deloitte's Novel and Exponential Technologies group.
What advisory work does Michael Chase do?
Monthly C-suite coaching, growth advisory for AI startups and scaleups moving to enterprise grade, and capital strategy for family offices, funds and boards. The capital work is strategy and education; he is not a licensed investment adviser.
Who has Michael Chase worked with?
Clients have included Google (helped build out the cloud and digital signage business, keynoted internal and customer events), Nvidia (client and resource partner, the foundation of the BMW and Mercedes-Benz EV factory digital twins), Thomson Reuters (the New York Times Square digital signage package and broadcast content studios) and Nike (with Wayne Gretzky and the Right To Play Foundation). He built cognition-driven call centres for Desjardins and Cup of Jo for St. Joseph, and at Deloitte created the future roadmap for LifeLabs and its CEO.
What is Wake Up Imagine?
The dispatch series from AI Imagine Labs: short reads on what moved in AI and why it matters to the people who allocate money and attention, at the Dispatches page, with an RSS feed. The 2024 entries are the original LinkedIn dispatches, kept as written.
The name
Why a rooster.
The AI Imagine Labs mark is a rooster because that is the job: wake people up before the day starts without them. Every dispatch, every keynote and every build carries the same call. Wake up, imagine, and then build the thing.
