About Chris Hood.

My Story.

Hi, I’m Chris Hood, an AI keynote speaker, strategist, podcast host, and author. I love storytelling through intelligent systems and have made it an essential part of my career for over 25 years. I’ve always been fascinated by using AI, data, and emerging technologies to craft compelling narratives and paint solutions for others to experience. It is the primary reason I became a veteran of both the digital entertainment and enterprise AI industries, having pioneered AI-driven customer experiences across television, streaming platforms, cloud computing, and interactive entertainment for more than three decades.

What once started as selling popcorn in a local movie theater as a film student, I found my love for cinema and an endless drive that propelled my career to incredible heights. This included receiving multiple industry awards for theatre marketing campaigns, including the National Association of Theater Owners’ coveted customer service award and Hollywood Reporter’s grand prize showmanship award three years in a row for Jurassic Park (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), and Apollo 13 (1995). This was also the point in my life where I began public speaking. At 19 years old, I stood in front of audiences of 500 people to talk about movies.

Taking “behind-the-scenes” to a new level, I followed my entrepreneurial spirit early on to invent, develop, and market a patent-pending digital multimedia advertising and interactive technology platform for movie theatres. The Digireel technology was the first digital cinema advertising and video game program introduced to replace slide-based pre-show entertainment, creating a unique, AI-powered advertainment service. Digireel premiered in the summer of 1999 at Cinemapolis movie theatre in Anaheim Hills, California, and was acquired by National Cinema Network a year later. The Digireel technology became the foundation for onscreen advertising seen in theatres nationwide today.

In 2003 I joined the music industry with a small startup called Ruckus Network (Ruckus.com). We produced a legal music service for college campuses during Napster’s reign and the RIAA suing college students for music piracy. In 5 years, the company grew and was acquired by a joint venture between Universal Music Group and Sony Music called Total Music. During this venture, I helped design TunePost, the first cloud-based music player featuring AI-driven recommendation algorithms, predating the modern cloud infrastructure we use today.

No stranger to transforming various industries, my eye for innovation and strategic digital campaigns sparked several executive management stints, including FOX Broadcasting Company. While at Fox, I developed storytelling technologies and innovated new mechanisms for viewers to engage with television content for shows like Glee, Gotham, Sleepy Hollow, 24, X-Factor, and American Idol. My work also included developing TV Everywhere products and building new interactive media to support digital marketing initiatives across multiple media platforms, including Xbox, Playstation, Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast.

I am an active member and previous chair of the International Game Developers Association, supporting over 20,000 members in Southern California in the video game industry, including founding chapters in San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles. My passion for games led me to Co-found Blind Squirrel Games in Orange County, California, in 2009. Around this time, I spent more time in the AI space and began teaching courses at Colorado Technical University on AI/ML automation and ethics.

By 2014, my expertise garnered the trust and respect of dozens of brands. I developed the framework for Customer Transformation and continued to deliver customer-centric strategies for Universal, Doritos, Reebok, Columbia Pictures, Apigee, Emmys, and more.

In 2016, I joined Google to support Strategy and Transformation with an emphasis on AI. I utilized my thought leadership in AI strategy and transformation to help Fortune 100 clients deploy AI solutions. During my tenure at Google, I kept my finger on the pulse of the media and entertainment industry, participating strategically in our industry solutions and developing incredible customer experiences across all mediums. I also had the honor of creating and hosting That Digital Show, the first weekly business podcast for Google Cloud.

Building on this foundation of enterprise AI experience, I developed several pioneering frameworks that are reshaping how we think about artificial intelligence. The AgenticAPI Framework introduces a contextual language architecture for AI agents using ACTION-based verbs, enabling seamless multi-agent coordination. My Autonomy Validation Matrix provides a systematic 6×6 methodology for evaluating machine autonomy through execution capabilities and moral reasoning. Most recently, I created the Qualitative AGI Model (Q-AGI), which defines general intelligence through six measurable components: Reasoning, Understanding, Memory, Learning, Expression, and Transfer.

As of 2025, I am the author of Infailible: The Artificial Intelligence Ideology Reshaping Consumer Behavior and Customer Transformation. Recognized as one of the Top 30 Customer Experience Gurus by Global Gurus in 2024 and 2025, I explore the evolving technology landscape and its impact on consumers across all my platforms.

My role extends beyond speaking and strategic advisory; I also continue contributing to academia as an adjunct professor in AI ethics and business systems at Southern New Hampshire University, following my teaching tenure in AI design and modeling at Colorado Technical University.

Ways we can work together