Jonathan Lakin

Jonathan Lakin is Co-Founder and Group CEO of Intent HQ, the deep-tech company he founded in 2010 to solve one of AI's hardest problems: giving machines a genuine understanding of human intent. His conviction is that the winners in AI won't be those with the biggest models, but those with the richest human context feeding them; and that this context can be captured without personal data ever leaving the customer's device.

Under his leadership, Intent HQ has built the full technical stack to make that real: reading customer intent as it emerges, acting on it in the moment it matters, and doing so privacy-first by architecture rather than by policy. The technology now underpins $85 billion of customer value, models more than 325 million profiles, and processes 250 billion behavioural events every day, protected by a portfolio of 49 patents including patents covering behavioural and
privacy-preserving AI.

Jonathan has grown Intent HQ into a trusted partner for global enterprises including Verizon & MTN, turning real-time human context into measurable revenue for some of the world's largest brands. The company's work has been recognised with AI Business of the Year (National AI Awards 2025), Analytics Company of the Year (British Data Awards 2025), and Best AI Ethics & Diversity Strategy (AI World Series Awards 2025), a rare combination of innovation, analytical
depth, and ethical leadership.

He holds an MBA from IESE Business School and a BA in Typography and Graphic Communication from the University of Reading - an early fascination with how humans read meaning from patterns that still runs through everything Intent HQ builds.