AWE USA 2026

Cortney Harding
United States
Founder & CEO
Friends with Holograms

 

Cortney Harding is an in-demand expert in helping businesses harness the power of smart glasses, artificial intelligence, spatial computing, and virtual reality. She has created AI-powered conversational avatars for companies like Amazon, Delta, and Intermountain Health, and immersive training scenarios around topics like child abuse, workplace exclusion, mental health, Black maternal mortality, and racial bias for companies like Lowe’s, Walmart, PWC, Target, Verizon, and more. She routinely leads workshops for Fortune 100 companies and universities on how to use AI, VR, and smart glasses in education and training. Her work as been honored on numerous occasions.

As an executive producer on JFK Memento, Cortney was nominated for an Emmy, and the piece won the audience award for best XR at SXSW and Best in the World at the QLD XR Festival. Her work has also been honored as the Best VR/AR of 2019 at Mobile World Congress, a SXSW Innovation Award Finalist, and a Top HR Product by HR Executive. She was named a Top 100 Global Woman in AI by 100 Davos Women in 2025. She is currently a member of the Fast Future Executive faculty and a co-author of the "Fast Future Blur" (Wiley, 2024). She has taught at CalTech, NYU, Barnard, North Carolina State University, and New Mexico State University, as well as co-writing and co-teaching the Coursera course "What is the Metaverse?" on behalf of Meta. Her latest book, The Spatial Race, was released in October 2025 on Fast Future Executive Press.