We live in a time when your credibility is measured by how many LinkedIn carousels you post per week, how many AI acronyms you can drop in a sentence, and the obvious, how many followers you have.
And the other unspoken superpower often not mentioned except in furtive whispers is “Cracking the LinkedIn Algorithm Code”.
But in this noisy world of ChatGPT-generated thought soup, a few voices still manage to cut through. They teach. They question. They even (occasionally) admit they don’t know everything.
So, I decided to do something both insightful and slightly unhinged: Rank the top AI thought leaders on LinkedIn. Yes, I used follower count. No, it’s not the only thing that matters. But let’s not pretend it’s irrelevant either.
So here they are: The ten voices in AI worth following if you want your feed to be 90% more intelligent and 100% less “An AI companion is going to replace your girlfriend” clickbait.
What’s a thought leader in a digital world?
The phrase thought leader has become almost as bastardized as the meaning for “influencer”. And sometimes the two get mixed up.
Research has revealed that over 50% of people under 40 want to become an influencer. But keep this in mind. “An influencer asks, “How do I look?” and a thought leader asks, “What do you see differently because of me?”
Let’s take a closer look at what a thought leader should be. And I am asking this as many phrases and words are what we call suitcase words.
You open the suitcase of definitions and we discover multiple meanings for most words that have mixed up definitions in different cultures and decades and centuries of history.
A thought leader in the digital and AI world is no longer just someone with expertise… it’s someone who frames the future, not just explains the present.
Here’s a definition tailored to this new era:
A thought leader in the digital and AI world is a trusted, forward-thinking voice who:
- Interprets complexity (AI, data, automation) into accessible insights,
- Shapes conversations about how technology intersects with humanity, work, and ethics,
- And inspires action by offering a compelling vision of what’s possible — before it becomes obvious.
In the age of AI, thought leadership can be a mixture of activities, content creating with a large dose of visible credibility
So what does that content look like and sound like? It includes the following:
- Perspective Pieces (POV Posts) – They offer opinionated clarity in a noisy world.
- Trend Synthesis & Signal Spotting – They filter the chaos to surface meaningful patterns.
- Tech + Humanity Bridges – They explain AI without losing the human plot.
- Tutorials & Tool Walkthroughs (with Context) – But with insight, not just step-by-step.
- Contrarian Hot Takes – They challenge hype and bring earned skepticism.
- Narrative-Driven Case Studies – They tell real stories of change, not just product features.
- Philosophical or Ethical Explorations – They zoom out to ask the big questions.
Final thought – “The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.” – Albert Einstein.
My favourite thought leaders have that skill.
Where do thought leaders hang out?
Aspiring to be a thought leader in any industry means that you need to do the work and also be seen sharing the work and content. There also needs to be an investment in time and resources to create the content and find it.
Being a thought leader isn’t just about what you say, but where you say it and how you show up. The best thought leaders meet their audience where they think, scroll, listen, and connect.
Pro tips for thought leaders navigating platforms
- Pick 2 core platforms: One for reach (e.g., LinkedIn or Twitter), one for depth (e.g., newsletter/YouTube)
- Repurpose smartly: A single podcast → video clips → quotes → carousels → threads
- Show up consistently: Frequency builds familiarity. Familiarity builds influence.
- Don’t forget the inbox: Email is still the highest-ROI platform for trust and monetization.
In a noisy world, you need to be able to pull all of the above together. So when you go through this list below you need to keep in mind that they have all played the long game and invested in sharing what they do with a passionate purpose.
Top 10 AI thought leaders on LinkedIn (2025)
I reviewed the top 10 AI thought leaders on LinkedIn based on actual follower count and more importantly, actual insight. These aren’t hype machines. They’re thinkers, builders, and educators. Follow them for less noise, more signals.
These individuals are renowned for their contributions to artificial intelligence and regularly share valuable insights on LinkedIn.
#1: Andrew Ng
He is the co-founder of Coursera and founder of DeepLearning.AI, and an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University’s Computer Science Department. Andrew is a leading figure in AI education and research.
As a pioneer in machine learning and online education, Dr. Ng has changed countless lives through his work in AI, and has authored or co-authored over 200 research papers in machine learning, robotics and related fields. In 2023, he was named to the Time100 AI list of the most influential AI persons in the world.
Follower count; 2,088,914
To follow him, here is his LinkedIn Profile.
Here is one of his latest posts. And interesting to note that it is about Agentic AI.
My take on his content:
He obviously has deep technical skills but he encourages everyone to learn how to program with AI and also learn through his courses. He also offers some strong opinions on ensuring that the USA doesn’t strip funding for universities and research.
His focus is very much on AI education at all levels.
#2. Bernard Marr
Founder and CEO of Bernard Marr & Co., Bernard is a best-selling author and advisor on AI, big data, and digital transformation.
If there’s a new AI development, Bernard’s already written a 10-slide carousel and published a Forbes piece about it. The man is a machine. He also seems to focus more on newsletters rather than articles or posts to inform and educate.
Follower count: 1,541,936 To follow him here is his LinkedIn profile.
My take on his content:
Great source for digestible insights on AI and business. A content engine in human form.
His main focus is newsletters and has 3 different newsletters.
- AI & Future Tech Trends – 832,505 subscribers
- The Future of Work – 352,524 subscribers
- The Intelligence Revolution – 604,560 subscribers
His posts take a back seat and often link to his newsletters and his external website.
#3. Allie K. Miller
Allie is the former Global Head of Machine Learning Business Development for Startups and Venture Capital at AWS, Allie is a prominent AI strategist and advisor.
She is a top leader in artificial intelligence, advising leading companies like Novartis, Samsung, Salesforce, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic.
With nearly 2 million followers, she is also the most followed voice on AI business.
Previously, Allie built a multi-billion dollar business at Amazon as the Global Head of Machine Learning for Startups and Venture Capital at AWS, launched the first multimodal AI team at IBM, shaped national AI strategies, and taught AI as an instructor on MasterClass.
Allie’s groundbreaking insights on AI have been featured in Forbes, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and more.
She currently has 1.535 million followers on LinkedIn and here is her LinkedIn profile.
Below is one of her latest posts revealing the velocity and change of small AI teams building massive empires.
My take on her content:
She shares research that you may not have heard of. She will reveal something that you generally don’t already know.
Note: For those curious about the source of her chart and post you can find it here on GitHub. And the study was inspired by Sam Altman’s vision he articulated over a year ago:
“We are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it… There’ll soon be a 1-person billion dollar company“
#4: Pascal Bornet
Chief Data Officer at Aera Technology and author of “Intelligent Automation,”
Pascal Bornet is an award-winning expert, author, and keynote speaker on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Automation, and Agentic AI, with over two million social media followers. Regularly ranked as one of the top 10 global AI and Automation experts, he developed his expertise through 20+ years at McKinsey and EY, implementing AI
He currently has 1,454,935 followers and here is his LinkedIn Profile.
Here is one of his latest posts that had over 11,000 likes and 1085 reposts.
My take on his content:
He publishes and shares a lot of videos and he shares groundbreaking news on AI from all around the world including other research, studies and stories that he has found.
He adds a very human touch to AI that reflects the impact and intersection of AI and humanity. Also his content and perspective ppears to be heavily influenced by a business slant as he has MBA from UCLA.
#5: Zain Kahn
Founder of Superhuman, Zain shares insights on AI, productivity, and the future of work. He has also scaled products to 8 Million+ users and built the world’s biggest AI newsletter with 1 Million+ readers.
Here is his LinkedIn Profile and he has 978,000+ followers.
Here is one of his latest posts.
My take on his content:
He creates videos for his LinkedIn profile and also shares many videos from external sources on his “video” tab. So very video centric and text light.
#6: Yann LeCun
Yann is the chief AI Scientist at Meta and a pioneer in deep learning, Yann is a Turing Award laureate and influential AI researcher.
He is also a professor, researcher, and R&D manager with academic and industry experience in AI, machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, intelligent data analysis, data mining, data compression, digital library systems, and robotics.
He also has a PhD in computer science from the Pierre and Marie Curie University. Specialties include research, technical consulting, scientific advising.
Here is his LinkedIn Profile And he currently has 993,000+ followers.
Here is one of his latest posts about robotic vision.
My take on his content:
Well…he is a scientist and it is all very “sciency” and technical with many words you will not understand. But if you want to greek out go and check his content out.
#7: Kai-Fu Lee
Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures, Kai-Fu is a prominent AI investor and author of “AI Superpowers.” which I read recently.
He gained his PhD Carnegie Mellon University in computer science 1998..
Sinovation Ventures is a leading venture capital firm in China, started in 2009 by a team led by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, with presence in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Nanjing.
They currently manage over US$2B AUM between four USD funds and three RMB funds in total, and over 350 portfolio companies across the technology spectrum in China.
Followers: 800,000+ and here is his LinkedIn Profile.
My take on his content:
What is refreshing from the content he creates and shares is that we can obtain information from someone that is not USA centric. Getting insights from a Chinese AI Investor that has investments on 350 companies allows a fresh perspective.
It is becoming apparent that there will be two AI superpowers. The USA and China. But his take on what that looks like can be summed up by his prediction in his book that the USA will lead breakthroughs, but China will be better and faster in engineering.
Most of his content are interviews with Bloomberg and Financial Times and other media and he also promotes a lot of the companies they have invested in.
#8: Cassie Kozyrkov
Cassie is the former Chief Decision Scientist at Google, Cassie is known for her work in decision intelligence and making AI accessible. In almost 10 years at Google, Cassie personally trained over 20,000 Googlers in data-driven decision-making and AI and has helped over 500 projects implement decision intelligence best practices.
Before that, she served in Google’s Office of the CTO as Chief Data Scientist. She is currently the CEO of Data Scientific
Followers: 600,000+ and here is her LinkedIn Profile.
My take on her content:
It comes with a warm and human angle and what is and will happen at the intersection of AI and people. There is very little tech talk and a lot more humanity perspectives from employment to education and being AI ready.
She shares some of her keynote snippets and she also links to her newsletter on Substack.
One of my favourite quotes – “We’re stuck in an awkward moment where the tech is ready, but the market—and the culture—aren’t.”
#9: Dr. Joerg Storm
Dr. Storm is the strategic partner at SKV Invest GmbH which is an award-winning impact investor and venture builder based in Stuttgart, dedicated to fostering innovative and sustainable startups.
He also spearheaded the development and launch of SimulTrayd, an innovative platform revolutionizing import/export arbitrage. By automating opportunity discovery and simplifying the trading process, we made global trade accessible to everyone, empowering individuals and small businesses to thrive in the $19 trillion industry.
He is a founder, publisher, and digital transformation leader with over 25 years of global experience in implementation, innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership. His mission is to help executives, decision makers, and industry leaders leverage AI to accelerate their productivity and growth.
Followers: 672,000+ and here is his LinkedIn Profile.
My take on his content:
He crafts some great text posts and then uses a complementary image or video from someone else that is in context that stops you scrolling the LinkedIn feed and that then gets clicks, comments or reposts.
It is an eclectic mix of multiple media and attention grabbing images and videos.
He also has a substantial external newsletter with 500,000 subscribers
#10. Ruben Hassid
AI content creator and educator, Ruben provides tutorials and insights on AI tools and appI
He wrote his first Linkedin post about the ‘How’ of ‘ChatGPT’ on December 7th, a few days after ChatGPT came out on November 30, 2022 and 1.5 million impressions later, he never stopped posting about it.
He has now reached over 200 million people on Linkedin — and built a 58k+ list of subscribers who follow me every week to master the ”‘How’ of ‘AI”. which is published on Substack.
His inspiration “There was no “How” of this new “AI’“ for non-technical people”
Followers: 500,000+ and here is his LinkedIn Profile.
Below is one of his recent popular LinkedIn posts.
My take on his content:
He breaks down complex AI topics into simple, clear insights, cutting through the noise for everyday users. He also shares breaking AI news, paired with eye-catching images and videos that make you stop scrolling. Plus, he curates practical AI tools to help you get started right away.
Final thoughts
There are many more AI thought leaders I haven’t mentioned, spanning every niche within the field. Interestingly, many come from science-heavy backgrounds. This article aimed to offer a general mix of influential voices to help lay a foundation.
In future posts, both here and on LinkedIn, I’ll dive deeper into specific niches such as Agentic AI and beyond.
Here are some areas I’ll be exploring next:
- Agentic AI – Autonomous agents that think and act on your behalf.
- AI for Creators & Solopreneurs – Tools to create, monetize, and grow your personal brand.
- AI Companions & Mental Health – Emotional support bots, coaching agents, and self-awareness tools.
- AI in Health & Longevity – Personalized treatments, smart diagnostics, and biotech-driven innovation.
- AI in Education – Intelligent tutors, custom learning paths, and lifelong knowledge companions.
- AI x Web3 & Digital Identity – Decentralized ownership, attribution, and AI-powered wallets.
- Enterprise AI Automation – Legal, finance, and HR automation—unsexy but incredibly valuable.
- AI x Creativity & Storytelling – Generative tools for film, music, games, and immersive narratives.
- AI Ethics & Regulation – Auditing bias, protecting rights, and building responsible AI.
- Multimodal AI Interfaces – Text, voice, and video combined into seamless experiences.
Following these thought leaders on LinkedIn is a great way to stay informed and ahead of the curve as AI continues to evolve.
The post The Top 10 AI Thought Leaders on LinkedIn (2025) appeared first on jeffbullas.com.
* This article was originally published here
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