situational awareness for sovereign AI decision-makers
Memia reads the AI frontier from outside the default US-China frame and turns that into strategic bearings for governments, capital, and operators.
Signals / Sensorium
The live feed: what moved, what it means, and where the exposure is forming.
Surface 02Briefings
Weekly longform analysis with thesis, evidence, implications, and decisions.
Surface 03Advisory
Closed-door work for boards, governments, sovereign capital, and executive teams.
Surface 04Speaking & Keynotes
The worldview delivered to a room: direct, numerate, and built for decision-makers.
What's in the name?
Memia (pronounced mee-mia) is derived from the word meme: ideas that spread, adapt, and reshape the environment around them.
Memia has a 30-plus year heritage tracking key emerging technologies ahead of time. Originally incorporated in the UK in the mid-1990s early on during the original dotcom wave, the business relocated to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2008 and was one of the earliest cloud computing and SaaS advisory firms in the Southern Hemisphere. These days Memia focuses on tracking developments at the frontier of AI.
Founder and Head of Research
Head of Research
Founder Ben Reid leads Memia as an independent research and advisory practice: writing the weekly briefings, advising leadership teams, and delivering the worldview live.
Experience & Expertise
Thirty years at the edge of software, enterprise architecture and technology strategy. Founding Executive Director of the AI Forum of New Zealand (2017-2019), an AI policy think-tank and community activator. Author of Fast Forward Aotearoa (2024). Consulting and writing weekly about AI since 2020.
Ben works at the intersection of policy, capital, and operating strategy, with a particular focus on non-aligned jurisdictions negotiating their place in the AI economy from outside the US-China binary.
Selected quotes
"One of the most grounded and genuinely thoughtful conversations on AI I've seen this year. If you're serious about understanding where AI is actually heading, this is well worth your time. Calm, informed, and refreshingly free of hype." - ...
"Ben is one of my intellectual superheroes. I especially admire his eclectic and curious mind, and his ability to accommodate and synthesise multiple points of view." - ...
What clients are saying
"Able to work with a number of our team - not just the CEO - and therefore building capacity all around the organisation"
"Ben has a great way of breaking down complex problems and making sense of all the noise"
"Ben has been great as he doesn't assume prior knowledge on our part and presents his work in an easy to understand way, but always with a commercial lens"
"We have really appreciated and benefited from having an 'outside in' view from an external expert to shape our thinking"
Find out more about Ben on