How to Gain an Edge with AI-Driven Foresight
A practical and provocative guide to building the one capability we all need to stay ahead of the game: a disciplined habit of working with the future.
UK £22 | US $29.95
“The future is not something we predict; it’s something we practise.”
The future is not a script to be read, but a muscle to be trained. Fortunately, you can’t ask for better personal trainers than Nicklas Berild Lundblad and David Skelton. This is an unusually insightful and brilliantly practical guide to the mindset and the tools you need to be ready for whatever comes next. Even though the future is always uncertain, I can make this certain prediction: you will love this book.
Johan Norberg, author of Peak Human and The Capitalist ManifestoThe Future Habit is a practical toolkit for navigating an uncertain and open future. Foresight isn’t mystical – it’s a learnable skill, and one that founders, operators, and policymakers can’t afford to ignore. This book gives you frameworks to experiment with what’s coming. Read it.
Johannes Schildt, founder of unicorn health care startup Kry / LiviTo lead today is to navigate a new landscape in a violent sandstorm. The old ways of plotting a safe route in a straight line won’t work here. That’s why we need the future habit, where two of the clearest and deepest thinkers give us simple and effective tools to find our way and make the future visible. Highly recommended.
Matt Brittin, former president of Google EMEAIn a world defined by complexity and radical uncertainty, foresight is no longer a luxury but a core duty of governance. Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we explore, model, and engage with the future. David Skelton and Nicklas Berild Lundblad offer a timely and practical guide to these new tools, showing how AI can make the future more intelligible, usable, and actionable. This book combines conceptual clarity with concrete advice, and deserves the attention of anyone serious about governing with tomorrow in mind.
Yannis Mastrogeorgiou, special secretary of strategic foresight, presidency of the Greek governmentIn our work as futurists we constantly search for ways to move beyond the surface-level data, the litany of what is, to the deeper stories of what could be. The Future Habit is a wonderfully practical and pragmatic book that does just that. Lundblad and Skelton go deeper than the normal foresight approach, offering clear methods to search for the hidden narratives and metaphors that unconsciously shape our world. What is particularly innovative is how they provide a brilliant interface with AI models, not as a way to predict the future, but to help readers engage with it more creatively and effectively. This book is an essential guide for anyone looking to make foresight a genuine, transformative practice.
Sohail Inayatullah, UNESCO chair in futures studies, Sejahtera Centre for Sustainability and Humanity; professor, Tamkang University, Taiwan; editor, Journal of Futures StudiesDavid Skelton’s and Nicklas Berild Lundblad’s call to develop a future habit comes at just the right time. In Europe, trust in politics is crumbling: erratic global politics, rapid technological change and multiple crises are driving the systems – and many decisions seem like frantic countermeasures rather than conscious steering. Developing a future habit is the way to achieve conscious steering. Methods such as scenarios, pre-mortems or regulatory foresight help to clear the fog, think in terms of possibilities and alternatives, and make better decisions. But ultimately, it’s not a book about tools. It’s about attitude. It’s about the habit of thinking ahead to the future – before it hits us.
Nadine Schön, co-author of New State, member of the German Parliament 2009–2025 and deputy chairwoman of CDU Bundestag parliamentary group 2014–2025Lundblad and Skelton have applied a keen understanding of business, politics, and technology to create a lucid handbook for leaders who want to plan the future. Their remarkably readable book helps us develop a disciplined, repeatable practice of foresight to navigate an age of radical uncertainty and ‘compounding shocks.’ Those who follow this approach – Scan the environment, Model what is found, Decide how to act, Act, and Learn from the results – will master the future.
Ambassador Ted Osius (ret.), Xoogler, former president & CEO of the US-ASEAN Business CouncilIn today’s turbulent world, a robust process to explore possible future outcomes can be an important source of competitive advantage and preparedness. The authors provide an intelligent and accessible approach to developing a powerful habit to strengthen any business operation at any scale.
Scott Beaumont, adjunct professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and former president of Google Asia PacificWe are living through an era of extraordinary technological progress, political turmoil and social upheaval. In the face of such change, how can we chart a course to a brighter future? How can citizens, business leaders and politicians get ahead at a time of seemingly perpetual uncertainty?
Drawing on cognitive science, applied foresight and decades of strategic experience, the book introduces an actionable framework for cultivating a ‘future edge’ – a repeatable process of anticipating, adapting to and shaping emerging realities.
Written by experts who spent years embedding foresight in companies at the forefront of the tech revolution, The Future Habit offers a methodical approach to working with the future in real-world contexts – through predictions, pre-mortems, scenario work, narrative exploration and the creative integration of AI.
But this is not only a strategic playbook: it’s a generous and optimistic reassessment of our shared tomorrow. By prompting us to expand our mental horizons and consider the abundant possibilities of long-term thinking, The Future Habit shows that the future is not something we predict; it’s something we practise.
A writer, strategic adviser and entrepreneur working at the intersection of technology, politics and the future. He has built foresight teams, advised senior leaders and helped global institutions confront uncertainty and long-term change. He is the author of Little Platoons and The New Snobbery.
A technology policy expert, researcher and strategist with over twenty years of leadership experience. He has served as head of global policy at DeepMind, head of technology policy at Stripe and VP of public policy in EMEA at Google. He holds a PhD in informatics, an LLM in ICT law and a BA in philosophy.
Skelton and Lundblad, along with Rony Yuria, are co-founders of the Pharos Futures Research Group.
Publication date: 26 February 2026 • Hardback £22
We are living through an era of extraordinary technological progress, political turmoil and social upheaval. In the face of such change, how can we chart a course to a brighter future? How can citizens, business leaders and politicians get ahead at a time of seemingly perpetual uncertainty?
The Future Habit is a practical and provocative guide for building the one capability we all need to stay ahead of the game: a disciplined habit of working with the future. Drawing on cognitive science, applied foresight and decades of strategic experience, the book introduces an actionable framework for cultivating a ‘future edge’ – a repeatable process of anticipating, adapting to and shaping emerging realities.
It offers a methodical approach to working with the future in real-world contexts – through predictions, pre-mortems, scenario work, narrative exploration and the creative integration of AI. Having spent years embedding foresight in companies at the forefront of the tech revolution, the authors ensure that The Future Habit will make a positive difference to all readers who follow its lessons.
But this is not only a strategic playbook: it’s a generous and optimistic reassessment of our shared tomorrow. By prompting us to expand our mental horizons and consider the abundant possibilities of long-term thinking, the book shows that the future is not something we predict; it’s something we practise.
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richard.humphreys@bitebackpublishing.com (publisher)