The Two-Hour Test: Red Flags on a Speaker Call | Thomas Anglero

Thomas Anglero

Thomas Anglero Speaking With Energy During An Ai Keynote
Thomas Anglero on the questions that reveal a real AI speaker.

 

The two-hour litmus test: three red flags on a vetting call

 

On a fifteen-minute call with a potential AI speaker, the single most revealing question is: how have you used AI in the last two hours? A practitioner answers instantly, fast and specific, and could carry on for an hour. The three red flags that should end the call are a rehearsed speech, eyes that dart when you ask something off-script, and stories that are all positive.

Ask the question they did not prepare for

Speakers know how to play the call. They arrive with a polished mini-keynote aimed at you, jumping between stories, filling the time, ticking the box. So do not let them run it. Ask a curveball. Ask about themselves. Ask what they built in the last two hours and to walk you through it, almost screen by screen. Someone who has woven AI into their work will not even pause. Someone who has not will reach for a vague answer about ChatGPT.

Watch for the stumble

When you ask the off-script question, watch the eyes. A practitioner gets faster and more energetic, almost too fast to follow. The pretender slows down, looks around, and slides back into speech mode. Do not let them. Tell me how AI changed your work in the last day. If they are real, you will struggle to get them to stop.

The all-positive tell

Here is the one most people miss. If every story they tell you is a success, that is a warning sign. Anyone genuinely working with AI right now has fresh scars: the thing that broke this week, the approach that was right a month ago and is useless today, the hours lost. No scars means no real use. If the stories are all wins, write them off and end the call.

What this means for your shortlist

You do not need to understand AI to run this test. You need to ask the unscripted question and watch how they answer it. The full set of screening questions is worth having in front of you on the call, but the two-hour question alone tells you most of what you need. The decision is yours, and ten minutes of the right questions protects you from an hour of regret on the day.

You can see what a real one looks like in full flow. Watch a keynote.

Questions this article answers

  • What questions should you ask when vetting an AI keynote speaker?
  • What are the red flags on a speaker vetting call?
  • How do you tell if a speaker genuinely uses AI?

 

Thomas Anglero is a Strategic AI Advisor, keynote speaker and author of Intro to Artificial Intelligence. He has delivered over 450 keynotes across 30 countries for organisations including IBM, the WHO, the World Government Summit and the European Commission. He founded the IBM Watson AI Lab for Cancer at the Oslo Cancer Cluster and closed over $500 million in enterprise transformation deals as CTO and Chief Innovation Officer at Cognizant.