Edi Pyrek: biography

Edi Pyrek is a futurist, strategist and author. For nearly 35 years he has worked with leaders and organisations at the moments when their existing maps, skills and ways of working stop being enough.

One question sits at the centre of his work: how do you prepare people and organisations for a world that changes faster than they can adapt?

From rites of passage to organisational change

For over a decade he studied rituals of transformation in traditional cultures: the Sun Dance among the Blackfoot in Canada, the ceremonies of African sangoma, Siberian shamans and Sufi dervishes, the practices of Buddhist monasteries. In them he recognised a recurring structure of transition: the old order collapses, disorientation follows, then experiment, then a new identity. This became the S.E.T. model (See, Experiment, Transform), which he now uses with leaders and organisations.

Decisions under pressure

For nearly a decade he worked in politics as one of the pioneers of political marketing in Poland. He advised prime ministers, ministers and election candidates. By his own account, a few months after 9/11 he worked in Afghanistan with negotiators and tribal leaders.

Mentor to leaders

For more than 30 years he has worked with founders, investors and boards. He doesn’t teach people to operate better inside the old system. He helps them recognise the moment it stops working, question outdated assumptions and set a new direction.

AI and a new model of the human

For a decade he has focused on preparing people and organisations for a world where technology develops faster than the way we think. He is a co-founder of GAIA Institute and GAIA (Global Artificial Intelligence Alliance), created with David Hanson, the maker of the android Sophia. GAIA develops the idea of artificial intelligence based on compassion and responsibility. In Davos it received the Responsible Innovation Award from Ahura AI.

Flow, both individual and in teams, has a special place in his work. He created the FlowX method. In this model AI doesn’t replace people. It strengthens their attention, creativity and agency.

Original methods

• Cultural Code Forecast™: reading coming change from signals in culture, language and behaviour.
• Brand Religion: brands as systems of meaning, ritual and community.
• Collective Creativity: neuroscience, AI and flow in the creative work of teams.
• Future-Ready OS: a system preparing leaders and organisations for the world of AI.

Writer, media maker, lecturer

He is the author of books on travel and rites of passage, some written with his wife Asia and son Mateusz. He writes for Rzeczpospolita, among others. He has given four TEDx talks, from TEDxWarsaw in 2012 to TEDxKamionek Salon in 2025, and speaks at conferences including AI Impact, Warsaw Glitch and BCC events.