What the Top Voices Program Recognizes
Top Voices is the program through which LinkedIn highlights members whose publications are authoritative in their field. The badge cannot be requested: it is awarded by LinkedIn, based on a selection by its editorial teams, considering the quality and consistency of contributions and the engagement they generate with the community. Each new group is presented by LinkedIn News; the January 2026 group was announced on January 28, 2026, in the article "The January 2026 LinkedIn Top Voices to Follow in France".
A Group of Leaders and Champions, One Single AI Expert
The January 2026 group includes a mix of very different profiles: leaders of major corporations, including Guillaume Faury, Executive Chairman of Airbus, and Sodexo CEO, Thierry Delaporte, as well as an Olympic judo champion. In this selection, Mustapha Benkalfate is the only member chosen for his expertise in artificial intelligence.
This distinction recognizes extensive work: since 2019, he has been publishing analyses on LinkedIn for non-technical professionals on AI literacy, responsible AI, governance, and the cognitive risks of generative AI. His profile also features the mention "Top 10 LinkedIn voices to follow for understanding AI".
A Nomination Discovered... Thanks to an AI
Mustapha Benkalfate often tells the story of how he found out. During a keynote given in July 2026 at the Modern Women & Administrative Summit in Kuala Lumpur, he explained that a web-connected AI assistant notified him while he was preparing a workshop.
"In January 2026, I was named among these people, who are very important individuals. In this group, there was the CEO of Airbus, the CEO of Sodexo, the Olympic judo champion. I was very honored. But I didn't know it. Do you know who told me? An artificial intelligence system. Was it a hallucination? I checked: it was real."
The anecdote summarizes his stance on generative AI: when connected to reliable sources, it can identify information one might have missed; however, it never exempts from verification. This is the principle of the méthodologie du doute© he teaches to teams.
The Topics That Earned the Distinction
His publications follow a few consistent themes, which are also found in his keynotes and courses:
- AI only creates value with trained humans. This is the motto of Revenu IA, "the value of AI lies in the humans who know how to use it." See why 95% of generative AI projects fail.
- The method matters more than the tool. The SCOPE©, PROBE©, and SEAT© methods are its practical application.
- Generative AI has a cognitive cost. He details this in the eight cognitive traps of AI and in his analysis of studies on cognitive debt.
- Shadow AI is combated through education, not prohibition. See shadow AI in the enterprise.
What the Distinction Means for Organizations
For an executive committee or an event organizer, the nomination signals a popularization effort followed by a large professional community and recognized by LinkedIn, which is part of the Microsoft group. It adds to an already public track record: LinkedIn Learning instructor since 2019, associate researcher at the University of Nottingham, author of the book AI Generation.