AI and digital transformation, sustainability, and geopolitical crises pose significant challenges for companies and their leadership. The event focused on three core areas: new entrepreneurship, technological innovation, and digital and sustainable transformation. To remain competitive in the future, the transformation must go beyond digitization due to changed conditions, explained event initiator Prof. Dr. Hubertus C. Tuczek (University of Landshut). The speakers, leading figures from business, science, and society, aimed to provide positive impulses and issue a wake-up call, as Prof. Dr. Niko Mohr (Global Partner McKinsey) emphasized in his keynote, urging a focus on future trends and initiating transformation now.
Advancing to Industry 5.0 through AI
"We need to rethink digitization with AI," Prof. Dr. Hubertus Tuczek asserted in his keynote on Digitainability (Digitization and Sustainability). Substantial productivity gains are expected, and AI will enable a new dimension of digitization, Industry 5.0. This development also offers enormous potential for sustainability, transitioning from a linear economy to a circular economy. Keywords for forward-looking development include changed processes, digital twins, smart energy networks, mobility control, and new materials.
However, prerequisites include changes in behavior and fundamental mindset shifts. Regular updates to the mindset are crucial to functioning effectively in a changed world. While Germany is on par with the USA in basic research, there is a significant gap in translating insights and ideas into actual innovations. Besides new technologies, the transformation in companies and their management poses a particular challenge. Developing and establishing new business fields, entrepreneurial courage for disruptive models, and fostering a spirit of innovation are necessary to secure competitiveness.
Driving Growth with Tech Trends
Prof. Dr. Niko Mohr used his keynote on the dynamism of change in a world of global upheaval to make a call to action. Growth and current prosperity are largely based on technological development. The McKinsey Global Institute identified 15 major trends that will significantly influence future economic growth. These trends encompass the AI revolution, creating a digital future, data processing and connectivity, cutting-edge technology (bioengineering, mobility, space travel), and sustainability. According to Mohr, these trends and their combination are fundamental to the future development of industry and prosperity in our society.
In many of these trends, Europe is not a leader, especially in software, infrastructure, and computer-driven topics. "We must not let this train pass by," emphasized Prof. Dr. Mohr, as Europe otherwise risks losing its connection, including in terms of growth. Particularly, generative or applied AI leads to a transformation with enormous application and growth potential. Mohr sees generative AI affecting all processes in a company, offering gigantic growth potential. He considers quantum computer technology, which will be the basis for exponential increases in processing power, as significant.
In this context, investments, startups, and their financing play a crucial role. Mohr is convinced that "50 percent of revenue will come from companies that do not exist today" in five years. Sleeping on tech trends is not a solution; companies and their leaders must address an average of eight of these tech trends to remain successful in the future.
Start-ups as Tomorrow's Job Engine
The first panel of the event focused on new entrepreneurship. According to a study, 50 percent of jobs will be in startups in 10 years, as explained by moderator Prof. Dr. Martina Mitterhofer. Prof. Dr. Rafaela Kraus, Vice President Entrepreneurship at the University of the Bundeswehr, quoted economist Joseph Schumpeter: "Inventiveness is not enough; entrepreneurial spirit must be added." The transfer must be prioritized and culturally embedded, particularly in universities. Researchers must become entrepreneurs, and a culture of entrepreneurship must be established. The significance of a team for founding and startups, along with a mindset that allows for mistakes, was emphasized by Nicola Baumgartner (Managing Director Natura GmbH and founder of Shuyao Teekultur). Sebastian Göbel (Co-Founder & CEO Vispa) called for more financial resources for founders, urging medium-sized and large companies to collaborate more with startups, even taking risks.
Inga Grieger, Business Development Manager at BMW i Ventures, showed how a company strategically invests in new technologies and startups. The company started its first fund in Silicon Valley in 2016 and invests in companies or products that could become relevant to the automotive industry along the entire supply chain and in the areas of digitization and sustainability. According to Grieger, founders in America see entrepreneurship as an opportunity. She also called for adopting an entrepreneurial mindset, finding a unique selling proposition for innovations, and starting a business as a team. She also had hopeful news: Currently, for the first time, more has been invested in the European region than in North America, so innovation can occur not only in Silicon Valley but also in the Isar Valley.
AI Leading to a Paradigm Shift
The second panel of the event dealt with innovations, especially in the technology fields of artificial intelligence and quantum technology, promising exponential growth. The moderator, Dr. Susan Lindner (Head of Digitization, bayern innovativ GmbH), emphasized the rapid development of AI capabilities, such as ChatGPT, image generators, etc., in just a few months. These are also the most frequent topics at Microsoft, as explained by Anna Kopp (Digital Experience Lead Germany, Microsoft). She is convinced that AI is not currently taking jobs away from anyone. Still, someone who can effectively use AI will do so in the future. Digital transformation is not just a tech issue; it's a people issue. People must be brought along. Even Microsoft's "Copilot," created as a personal assistant and support, only does what humans tell it to do.
Prof. Dr. Eduard Kromer (University of Landshut) provided insight into the possibilities and rapid development of generative AI. He showcased the shift towards the photorealistic realm in generating photos and entire film sequences. Explainable AI also allows for asking "why," for example, in decisions related to autonomous driving. Unresolved issues include legal questions, such as using images of artists for AI training or how to regulate or label fake content that is no longer recognizable as such.
A characteristic of generative AI is its ability to generate text, language, images, or 3D content based on a verbal description – without code skills, as explained by Bernhard Pflugfelder, Head of AI Use Cases & Application, appliedAI Initiative GmbH. This leads to a paradigm shift in software and application development with radical simplification in various areas. Currently, a crucial question in companies is how processes can be optimized. Especially for digital corporate data, there are many use cases where only small models are needed for an AI solution.
Skills Crucial for Implementing Sustainable Transformation
The third panel of the Leadership Forum addressed how companies can digitally and sustainably shape transformation. Here, people play a central role in implementing transformation operationally but also need the necessary skills.
