Digital Afterlife Keynote: Grief, Technology, and AI

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When Death Meets the Digital World

Grief bots, digital legacy, and the future of death tech

The dead are still here. They’re made to speak, they continue to ‘work,’ and they influence our everyday lives in ways that were science fiction a few years ago.

Chatbots trained on the dead are making headlines and driving the plots of movies and TV series. The dead stay in their social networks, retained by default. The recently deceased are deep faked for emotional, commercial, and ideological purposes. We’re sold the idea that technology can ‘solve’ grief.

Just because something is technologically possible doesn’t mean that these developments are desirable. Elaine has spent over two decades researching what happens when death meets the digital world and is a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. In her keynotes, she addresses the intimate, the systemic, and the corporate implications of digital death.

For this talk, Elaine draws on her consultancy work, groundbreaking books, academic scholarship, and behind-the-scenes roles advising on grief-technology storylines.

What does the Digital Afterlife keynote cover?

  • The grief bot revolution: Why AI companions for the bereaved are poised to go mainstream, and what we need to understand before they do

  • Legacy and environment: How our digital Doppelgängers outlast us, from their carbon costs to the data trails we leave that affect future generations

  • Corporate accountability: What happens when the deceased become training data, product-development fuel, or posthumous influencers or workers

  • Designing your digital afterlife: Practical frameworks for individuals and organisations to prepare now

Why book a talk on grief, technology, and AI?

Elaine's take on AI starts with death, the ultimate human universal. That lens brings novel questions and unexpected dilemmas into focus — for individuals reckoning with their own digital lives, and for organisations navigating the legal, ethical, and operational implications of data that outlasts its owners. Audiences leave thinking differently, often with an unexpected sense of clarity and motivation to act. Elaine brings warmth and humour to territory many people instinctively avoid.

Who is the Digital Afterlife keynote for?

Elaine's digital-legacy talks work for ideas festivals, corporate stages, and thought leadership events, appealing to anyone grappling with what it means to be human in an age of AI. They can be tailored for tech companies and product teams, HR and wellbeing leads, data governance and legal teams, healthcare and end-of-life organisations, and leaders thinking about ethics, identity, and innovation. Elaine also delivers executive briefings, policy workshops, and the acclaimed Design Your Digital Afterlife workshop — as experienced by Pullman Hotels & Resorts.

Why book Elaine to speak on digital afterlives?

Elaine is one of the original cyberpsychologists to focus on death and technology. She began researching grief on Facebook in 2005, following with books, book chapters, articles, and broadcast appearances. She is an internationally recognised expert on death tech and its impact, and has served as Honorary Professor at the University of Wolverhampton and Visiting Professor at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath in recognition of her body of work on digital afterlives.

To explore more before booking her, learn what’s happening with grief bots and digital afterlives, read or listen to All the Ghosts in the Machine, or listen to one of Elaine’s podcasts.

What other keynotes can Elaine deliver?

The themes of Elaine’s digital afterlife keynote relate closely to her other topics of expertise and interest, on which she also offers keynotes.

Digital afterlives affect the world of work through the emerging phenomenon of ‘dead labour’ or ‘spectral labour.’ She tackles other dimensions of technology in the workplace with her AI at Work keynote.

Increasingly, grief bots overlap with the related phenomenon of AI companions. You can dive deeper on this subject with Elaine’s AI Companions and Digital Relationships keynote.

Technology is changing what grief looks like and what we expect from it. Think more about wellbeing online in Elaine’s Digital Wellbeing keynote.

Book Elaine through the Speaking Office

For enquiries contact
Andrew Hickman
The Speaking Office
+44 753 843 8455

Book Elaine to Speak