Dr Taddy Blecher is CEO of the Maharishi Institute and has pioneered the free tertiary education movement in South Africa. After co-founding the Branson School of Entrepreneurship with Sir Richard Branson he raised over R500 million to support free access to post-secondary education so unemployed South Africans can have access to education and move out of poverty. Named by Tom Peters in his top 5 most influential entrepreneurs in the world, Taddy is passionate about Consciousness-Based Education, a system of education to develop a student's full potential. He leads the Maharishi Institute, winning first prize in a global competition to find the world’s most promising and innovative education initiative.

​After a high-profile career at L’Oréal, Minter Dial, a specialist in leadership, branding and new technologies, wrote the award-winning 'Heartificial Empathy', a book that explores how to encode empathy into business and Artificial Intelligence. Empathy, a core leadership skill, is one of the most untapped levers of productivity in business, and this fascinating discussion leads us to explore AI, bots and the question of whether we really will see bots with true emotion. This conversation is an update on the state of advancement in conversational and therapeutic AI and attempts to insert more empathy into business and AI applications, as well as the role of empathy in the modern workplace, and how to nurture and sustain it.