Rachel Botsman is an author and researcher on trust and an Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School. Her work explores how people decide whom and what to trust as technology changes relationships, institutions and everyday life. She brings that inquiry to leadership, organisational culture and the design of digital experiences.
Botsman's early work examined the rise of collaborative consumption and the sharing economy. With Roo Rogers, she co-authored What's Mine Is Yours, which explored how technology enabled new forms of access, exchange and cooperation. This research raised a question that continues through her work: what enables people to take a chance on someone or something they do not yet know?
In Who Can You Trust?, Botsman examines how trust moves between established institutions, networks, platforms and individuals. The book considers the implications of that shift for business and society. Her audio work How to Trust and Be Trusted turns attention to the choices and behaviours involved in trust, connecting a broad social question with personal relationships and leadership practice.
At Oxford Saïd, Botsman's work includes trust in organisations and digital environments. Her recent conversations examine AI's role in decision-making, accountability and the limits of what an organisation should delegate to a system. She also communicates her ideas through public talks, writing, audio and installations, using different formats to invite people to reconsider familiar assumptions about trust.
For business audiences, her contribution is to make an often abstract concept specific. Trust can involve a colleague, a leader, an algorithm or the organisation responsible for a service; the uncertainty and obligations differ in each case. Botsman's perspective is relevant when leaders introduce technology, ask employees to embrace change or seek to repair confidence after a failure. It provides a language for examining the relationship at stake and the evidence people need before they can rely on it.
