Keynote
The thesis talk. Why AI rollouts fail, what readiness actually looks like, and what an operator sees that a vendor won't say.
Speaking · Matthew Henry
Book an operator who's actually shipping the AI he's talking about.
Most AI talks are given by people who sell AI. Matthew builds and runs it inside real insurance agencies, accounting firms, and operations, which means the talk is what worked, what failed, and what your members should actually do next.
What your audience walks out with.
- Real screenshots from real deployments, not a hype reel. The audience sees what shipped, what broke, and what it cost.
- A prompt and skill library they keep. Working material, usable Monday morning.
- A build-vs-buy framework for AI in an agency or firm, grounded in the readiness thesis: AI amplifies what it can read.
- The honest version of where AI helps in operations today and where it dangerously doesn't.
Formats
Four ways to run it.
Breakout session
One workflow, end to end. How a real agency process goes from undocumented to automated, with the failure points shown.
Panel
The operator seat. Matthew brings deployment scars to conversations that otherwise run on vendor slides.
Hands-on workshop
Attendees leave with prompts, guardrails, and a starting SOP. The Big I Illinois format: build something real in the room.
Why him
The credibility is the work.
Association stages
Mississippi Insurance Agents (MIA) and the Big I Illinois hands-on AI workshop.
The work itself
EffiZoom deployed inside real agencies, the PMIA Merger Bridge, the Southern Housing Dealer OS, and the audits and builds this site documents.
The content engine
Forty-plus published, sourced articles on AI readiness across insurance, accounting, and advisory practices, all under Matthew's byline.
Matthew is co-founder and CEO of EffiWise, a Belmont, Mississippi technology firm that consults on AI readiness and holds a portfolio of vertical software. He spent over a decade in equipment sales before software, which is why the talks land with people who run operations instead of people who run slide decks.
Fee and logistics.
Fees are quoted on request and depend on format, travel, and whether your members keep the workshop material. Tell us the event, the audience, and the date, and you'll get a straight answer, including "we're not the right fit" when that's the truth.
Want to read him first? Start with the flagship article or browse everything he's published.