15 Tech Visionaries You Have to Follow on Social Media

Social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter / X have become more than just places to stay in touch with your network. They’re now powerful marketing tools, with many companies leveraging their capabilities and spending billions of dollars on them. 

Given this, influencers can have an enormous impact on their communities. In the tech sector, particularly in the B2B space, influencers include founders, futurists, and CTOs with real industry expertise. Rather than promote the products of a specific brand, though, they drive conversations and change. 

Many such leaders share original content related to their area of interest and are considered visionaries. In this guide, we’ve put together a list of 15 must-follow tech visionaries on social media platforms like X and LinkedIn. They’re experts in their fields, ranging from AI to ethics to digital transformation. Let’s find out why you should be following them.

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Our first five entries include CEOs, CXOs, and founders, with expertise in AI, big data, and the world of startups.

Nandan Mullakara

X follower/subscriber count: 1,700

LinkedIn follower count: 15,618

Texas-based Nandan Mullakara is a top AI voice on LinkedIn. He’s the founder of the Bot Nirvana organization for leaders in Intelligent Automation. 

As a former head of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) at Fujitsu Americas, Mullakara is one of the top experts in business automation. He even co-authored a book on RPA solutions. 

Mullakara posts frequently on LinkedIn but less often on X. Many of his LinkedIn posts are about AI, generative AI, and automation, while some posts relate to updates from large AI operators, like Microsoft.

Much of his content compares different AI tools, commentary on AI and automation developments, and AI and automation ideas. If you’re looking for an AI or RPA use case, Bot Nirvana’s website has over 100 to choose from.

Mullakara’s X feed has similar posts on AI use cases but also features personal content related to his other hobbies, like marathons and NoCode.

Helen Yu

X follower/subscriber count: 62,000

LinkedIn follower count: 20,441 

YouTube subscriber count: 30,300

Founder of Tigon Advisory and host of CXO Spice, Helen Yu is very active on social media as a thought leader.

As a former Solutions Architect at Oracle, a board member of several organizations, and a self-described “growth hacker,” she was perfectly positioned to found Tigon Advisory in 2017 to help startups grow via CXO support and technology and cybersecurity services.

A lot of Yu’s X and LinkedIn posts feature personal stories related to tech and topical issues in the industry, such as IoT, AI, and decarbonization. A big part of her brand is the intersection between tech and humanity, so much of her content features an element of storytelling related to her personal experiences.

In addition to X and LinkedIn, Yu has a YouTube channel under her name, which serves as a platform for her fellow thought leaders to share their views and stories. Yu is also a published author.

Rich Rogers

X follower/subscriber count: 10,000

LinkedIn follower count: 32,000 

Seattle-based thought leader Rich Rogers is the founder of Xemelgo, a software company that helps organizations achieve operational efficiency with IoT. Before launching Xemelgo, Rogers was the IoT and Product Engineering VP at Hitachi, which gave him the expertise needed to launch Xemelgo.

Rogers is considered one of the top leaders in the industrial IoT space, and he serves on the board of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing Puget Sound. He also has several industrial patents in his name, listed on his LinkedIn page. 

LinkedIn is where Rogers is most active professionally – his X feed is mostly made of personal posts. Rogers often shares content on LinkedIn, with updates from his company, news on industrial IoT and smart manufacturing, and Industry 4.0.

Dr. Sally Eaves

How hyper #automation is advancing #manufacturing and set within broader vectors of change too 👍
Including #tech convergence 🔥
Excellent session #MWC23 on the Industry City Track – thanks to all the Industry City sponsors across these sessions, this very much reflects the power… pic.twitter.com/rr2FYZmci8

— Prof. Sally Eaves (@sallyeaves) September 26, 2023

X follower/subscriber count: 138,800

LinkedIn follower count: 36,240

YouTube subscriber count: 59,000

The “torchbearer for ethical tech,” Professor Sally Eaves wears many hats. She’s a CTO, an ambassador for various tech4good initiatives, and serves as an advisor and a board member to several organizations, including the Global Foundation for Cyber Studies and Research and Effect.AI.

On top of that, she’s an international keynote speaker on AI, Blockchain, and the Future of Work. Eaves is very active on X and LinkedIn, as well as YouTube. Her channel, “Tomorrow’s Tech Today,” features the latest tech updates across AI, blockchain, 5G, and other topical issues.

On X, she often posts about different organizations’ activities in her areas of interest, creating original content and sharing posts. Her LinkedIn features similar content alongside long-form articles.

If you’re interested in social impact and how tech can make a difference, Professor Eaves’ social media feeds are a great place to discover the latest tech4good innovations and trends. 

Ronald van Loon

X follower/subscriber count: 317,400

LinkedIn follower count: 87,160

YouTube follower count: 27,700

The CEO of Intelligent World, Ronald van Loon, is a top influencer in 5G, AI/ML, and Big Data. Passionate about advancing education and leadership in these areas, he’s managed to build a large social media presence across many channels.

That expertise and vision are what led him to create Intelligent World, a portal for tech thought leaders to share their expertise. As his expertise is primarily in AI, van Loon’s content is mostly about technical advancements in this field.

He aims to help AI-driven companies generate value, and his content is fully on-brand with that. Featuring AI events takeaways, the latest innovations, and long-form articles, van Loon’s social media channels are a must for anyone interested in the value AI/ML and 5G can bring to the business.

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These next five thought leaders and angel investors include alumni from IBM and Google, and they have plenty to say about the shape of things to come.

Swish Goswami

X follower/subscriber count: 62,000

LinkedIn follower count: 138,420 

The Canadian entrepreneur Swish Goswami has founded several enterprises and served as an angel investor. As of 2018, he’s the founder and CEO of Surf and co-host of the Track Limits podcast. Surf helps users earn rewards for providing anonymized data rather than submitting their personal details. 

Anonymization and privacy are important topics for Goswami. Although he doesn’t post a lot on these subjects on his socials, his company and other ventures are gaining importance in the privacy space. 

The only representative of Generation Z on our list of visionaries, Goswami posts a wide range of content. A lot of this is in a relatable storytelling format, featuring snippets from his life as well as on current events he’s interested in.

He’s also a published author, having written a book on entrepreneurship, which is another subject he frequently shares content on.

Brian Solis

X follower/subscriber count: 270,400

LinkedIn follower count: 348,148

YouTube subscriber count: 6,440

The head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow, Brian Solis, is one of the top voices in digital transformation today. He’s a popular thought leader and keynote speaker on subjects like the future of business and technology and experience design.

Solis’ key topic of interest is the impact of digital transformation on our society and on creativity. In his book “Lifescale,” he explores how we can take control of our lives in a world where digital distractions are all around us.

As a keynote speaker, he travels the world and helps companies embrace changes brought about by digital transformation and to take charge of the future. A lot of Solis’ social media content is about innovation – but he also places a large emphasis on reflection.

Whether it’s musings about the possible impact of AI, a story about the importance of human design, or inspirational quotes, Solis’ LinkedIn and X feeds are all about embracing life experiences and reflecting on them.

Clement Mihailescu

X follower/subscriber count: 270,400

LinkedIn follower count: 348,148

YouTube subscriber count: 522,000

Former Google software engineer Clement Mihailescu launched his company AlgoExpert while working in his day job. The company was born in 2017 out of his frustration with the software engineering interview process.

Since then, Mihailescu has become one of the top LinkedIn voices on entrepreneurship and careers in software development.

He runs a very popular YouTube channel on tech trends and entrepreneurship. His LinkedIn and X profiles don’t feature as much video content, but a lot of his posts are in a storytelling format designed to engage with his audience.

Lisa Seacat DeLuca

X follower/subscriber count: 8,200

LinkedIn follower count: 744,055

Lisa Seacat DeLuca, the “most prolific inventor in IBM history,” worked for IBM for almost two decades before becoming an author and Director of Engineering and Product at Unstoppable Domains. 

DeLuca is one of the leading female voices in Web3 and holds hundreds of patents. At the moment, most of her time is dedicated to the Web3 company Unstoppable Domains, so a lot of her social media ouput relates to the brand and the innovations it brings. 

In addition to Unstoppable Domains, DeLuca posts a lot of content about Web3, leadership, and intellectual property. Her induction into the WITI Hall of Fame is just one of the many achievements that make her an excellent role model for women in tech.

Dr. Andrew Ng

X follower/subscriber count: 878,200

LinkedIn follower count: 1.3 million 

Founder of DeepLearning.AI and Landing AI and co-founder of Coursera, Dr. Andrew Ng, is an important voice in AI and tech education. Ng’s projects are helping thousands of companies and institutions and millions of students worldwide to boost their expertise and leverage AI through world-class training.

Needless to say, Dr. Ng is an important thought leader in AI and edtech. While he might have impressive credentials, his social media content remains accessible and engaging.

Often presented in a storytelling format, his X and LinkedIn posts combine text, images, and videos to provide content that resonates with his impressive audience. 

Dr. Ng has written hundreds of papers and publications on AI and ML and runs a Deep Learning research group at Stanford University. His portfolio and expertise, coupled with his engaging manner, are big reasons why he’s one of the most high profile voices in AI today.

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Our final five tech visionaries include some of the most influential people in tech today… and the world’s richest man.

Bernard Marr

X follower/subscriber count: 138,400

LinkedIn follower count: 1.46 million

YouTube subscriber count: 78,600

Bernard Marr, one of the top business influencers on LinkedIn, is a professional influencer and futurist. His main area of expertise is the intersection between business and technology. With 20 books and many articles to his name, Marr is one of the most popular thought leaders and business influencers in the world.

As might be expected, Marr’s social media feed relates to various tech issues – from the Metaverse to cloud cost optimization. And as a professional influencer, he creates engaging content tailored to his audience. 

A lot of what Marr covers relates to tech topics, such as generative AI, quantum computing, and cybersecurity resilience. In fact, he named these very topics as some of the key tech trends for 2024 in a recent article on LinkedIn.

Sam Altman

X follower/subscriber count: 1.9 million

As the co-founder and CEO of the organization that brought us ChatGPT, Sam Altman is undoubtedly an influential figure. Before OpenAI, he was the president of Y Combinator and a founder of a cryptocurrency startup. He’s also an angel investor.

Unlike many visionaries on this list, Altman isn’t active on LinkedIn – however, he’s got a large following on X. Other than that, his online presence is relatively humble. However, his X content is very engaging.

His down-to-Earth manner coupled with his deep interest in AI and innovation are big reasons why he’s one of the most respected AI influencers on X. His feed is a mix of personal posts and reflections, updates on OpenAI and other ventures, and comments on various issues of the day.

Naomi Simson

Are you an ideas person and not quite sure how to protect your invention? New episode of #handpickedpodcast #Business #startup #invention #growth #podcast Thanks to season sponsor @BizCover. LISTEN HERE https://t.co/t6zcGOoDi8 pic.twitter.com/FWafaoDANG

— Naomi Simson (@NaomiSimson) August 7, 2023

X follower/subscriber count: 32,700

LinkedIn follower count: 2.69 million

The most-followed female visionary on our list is Australian entrepreneur Naomi Simson. After decades in a corporate career, she founded a marketplace for experiences called RedBalloon in 2001 and co-founded Australia’s largest experience network in 2018. 

In addition to running these ventures, Simson is an independent director in several Aussie companies and a prolific keynote speaker, as well as a published author.

She frequently shares her expertise in entrepreneurship and finding purpose on her social media channels. She also has a LinkedIn newsletter, which features content on these subjects, as well as the future of work and growth hacking.

Simson’s passion for helping businesses and startups grow comes through in her content. That’s a big part of what makes her posts so engaging and why she has such a large audience.

Gary Vaynerchuk

X follower/subscriber count: 3.1 million

LinkedIn follower count: 5.3 million

YouTube subscriber count: 4.2 million

Better known as “GaryVee,” this serial entrepreneur is known for spotting tech trends early and being ahead of the game about what’s relevant.

Describing his hobby as “building businesses,” Vaynerchuk has founded several ventures across the years, including Resy, Vayner3, VeeFriends, and VaynerMedia – and those are just the tech ventures.

In addition to entrepreneurship, Vaynerchuk was also an early angel investor in Slack, Twitter, and Uber. His pursuit of building businesses has made him one of the most successful thought leaders in entrepreneurship today.

Many of Vaynerchuk’s LinkedIn and YouTube posts are videos, featuring snippets from his life, his thoughts on leadership, the latest tech and economic trends, and his business updates, as well as comments on other topics.

Elon Musk

New Tesla HQ Entrance pic.twitter.com/b0J1jI5DpD

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 26, 2023

X follower/subscriber count: 158 million

It’s hardly surprising that Elon Mark appears at the end of this list, no matter how polarizing he is. He does have quite a few more social media followers than the other tech visionaries listed here, after all.

Elon Musk famously doesn’t use LinkedIn, but as the owner of the Twitter / X social network, it’s little wonder that he makes substantial use of it. His posts are of a miscellaneous nature, relating to his business ventures like X and Tesla and his thoughts on politics, space, and the latest tech trends, to name just a few.

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