Jay is a cofounder of GBN. His research has focused primarily on the role that human values and changing motivations play in business decision making and strategy. He has pursued these interests in collaboration with Peter Schwartz since 1979, when he joined SRI International, and from 1987-2009 with GBN/Monitor. Many of the scenario projects he led at GBN for both public and private sector clients addressed "public goods" such as telecommunications, health care, and education. While at SRI, Jay split his time between developing future scenarios for strategic planning and serving as director of research for the Values and Lifestyles (VALS) Program, a consumer segmentation system used in market research. He also authored monographs on social, political, and demographic trends affecting the values of American consumers.

Jay's work builds on his background as a philosopher. He taught at the University of Texas, Williams College, and for seven years at Yale, where he received his PhD in 1968. He is the author of Creating Better Futures: Scenario Planning as a Tool for a Better Tomorrow (2002), Living Without a Goal (1995), Many Dimensional Man (1977); co-author of China' Futures (2001) and Seven Tomorrows (1980); and editor of Self and World (1971, 1980) and Revisioning Philosophy (1991). He is currently at work on a book on emergent systems, e.g. consciousness, leadership, and wealth.