An Exclusive CIO Growth Interview with David Wortley

He built one of the world’s first serious games institutes from a blank sheet of paper. He predicted AI’s threat to humanity before it was fashionable. Now, David Wortley is calling for a fifth industrial revolution – and warning that the world isn’t prepared for what’s coming.

The Man Behind the Prediction

Some careers follow a straight line. David Wortley’s has followed a question.

“My whole career has been shaped by one recurring question: how can technology genuinely improve human lives?” he says. “Everything else has been a consequence of chasing that question, wherever it led.”

That chase has taken him from a Post Office Telecommunications scholarship at Birmingham University to managing telecoms engineers, to a marketing executive role at IBM, to founding Mass Mitec – one of the UK’s leading presentation services companies and the first UK firm appointed by Microsoft as a Centre of Excellence. By 1992, he had founded the National Presentation digital imaging network, a franchise partnership spanning more than 100 outlets across the UK and Ireland.

When digital projectors rendered that model obsolete, Wortley didn’t retreat – he pivoted. He began exploring how digital technologies could address the social and economic challenges of globalisation, winning a £250,000 UK Government award for ComKnet, a Community Commerce and Knowledge Network that became a Government flagship project.

That work opened the door to higher education – and to what Wortley considers the defining chapter of his career: founding the Serious Games Institute at Coventry University.

Building from a Blank Sheet of Paper

“I was handed something rare: a blank sheet of paper and a genuine mandate to build something new” Wortley recalls. “I wanted to create a global leader in the use of games technologies for serious purposes, and we did exactly that.”

The Institute attracted international attention, generated real economic impact for the West Midlands region, and inspired similar models in the USA, South Africa, and Singapore. For Wortley, watching that happen – knowing it started from nothing – remains deeply meaningful.

But ask him about his proudest achievement, and he points to something less tangible: consistency.

“What connects the Serious Games Institute and my book, Gadgets to God, is a consistent pattern across my career: the ability to see structural shifts before the market language exists to describe them. Neither was fashionable at the time. Both turned out to be right.”

Published after he left the Institute in 2011, Gadgets to God: Reflections on Mankind’s Changing Relationship with Technology predicted the rise of AI as a danger to humanity’s future – at a time when most people still saw AI as either science fiction or uncomplicated progress.

“That prediction is now coming into reality faster than I anticipated.”

The Fifth Industrial Revolution

Wortley doesn’t mince words about what lies ahead.

“The world is not prepared for what is coming. AI is not simply the next wave of technological change. It represents something closer to a fifth industrial revolution – and the closest historical parallel is the first.”

He draws a stark comparison to the steam technologies that decimated traditional craft industries in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then, the disruption was catastrophic for those most affected, and widespread social unrest followed. Now, he warns, we face something similar – but the communities most at risk are not manual workers.

“They are knowledge-based workers and those in creative industries. The irony is striking: plumbers, electricians, and builders are far safer than lawyers, journalists, and content creators.”

What concerns Wortley most is the speed of transformation. “Institutions, governments, and individuals are still debating definitions while the transformation is already under way. We are collectively behind the curve.”

Bridging the Gap

Wortley’s role in what comes next is to help close that gap. Through motivational speaking for corporate audiences and international conferences, he works to translate what is technically happening into language that is humanly meaningful.

“I want to create those lightbulb moments where people see AI’s impact not as an abstract threat, but as something directly relevant to their own lives, careers, and communities.”

He also champions a multidisciplinary approach – one that transcends technology alone.

“The solutions to AI’s disruption will not come from technology alone. They will come from people who can work across sectors, connect different communities of expertise, and keep humanity at the centre of every conversation.

A Philosophy of Resilience

Wortley’s advice carries the weight of lived experience. His first piece of counsel is also the simplest: Believe in yourself, whatever.

“That phrase has carried me through periods most people wouldn’t have predicted I’d survive” he says. “Working night shifts in a frozen food warehouse to avoid going bankrupt, while building a business by day, is not a chapter most people include in their professional narrative. But it shaped me. It taught me that resilience isn’t a personality trait you’re born with. It’s a philosophy you practise: never bearing a grudge, moving forward as quickly as possible, and keeping your focus on living as fully as you can.”

His second piece of advice: cultivate human relationships with genuine care.

“The best opportunities in my career came through people, often unexpectedly, and often because I’d invested in relationships without any particular agenda. Serendipity plays a far larger role in a meaningful career than most professional advice acknowledges.”

Third: lead by example – and recognise that the best leaders are often the best followers.

“Real leadership means having an open and enquiring mind, seeing the hidden talent in others, and creating the conditions for people to grow. It means having honest conversations when things go wrong, understanding both perspectives, and learning together.”

Staying Human in an Age of Machines

Finally, Wortley offers a warning – and a reassurance – for a world increasingly shaped by AI and automation.

“Stay anchored in your humanity. Your individuality, your stories, your capacity to connect with other people – these are not soft skills. They are your most durable and distinctive assets. Protect them. Build on them. They will matter more, not less, as the technology around us becomes more powerful.”

The Futurologist’s Bottom Line

David Wortley has spent four decades watching technology reshape society – and predicting where it would go next. His message for 2026 is neither techno-utopian nor defeatist. It is a call to attention.

The fifth industrial revolution is not approaching. It is here. And the difference between those who navigate it and those who are swept aside will not be technical skill alone. It will be resilience, human connection, multidisciplinary thinking, and the courage to see structural shifts before the language exists to describe them.

As Wortley puts it: “Technology only matters when it genuinely serves people.”

In a world racing toward tomorrow, that may be the most important perspective of all.