Lecture topics

Smart Companies

AI in business practice

• The possibilities – and limitations – of AI
• Welcome to the factory of tomorrow
• Why computers make better bosses
• AI and HR – a perfect team!

Until now, the discussion about AI has mostly focused on rather dystopian future scenarios and less on how AI will transform and improve the economy and the lives of millions of people. But AI can be a real blessing for companies:

• By analyzing huge amounts of data, applying complex mathematical models, and using self-learning systems, AI researchers can look deep into the future, for example to identify retail trends or track the spread of epidemics worldwide and predict what could not only save thousands of lives but also protect us from a repeat of the economic crisis triggered by COVID-19 in 2020.
• Thanks to predictive analysis of machine data, companies can protect themselves from production failures and downtime and detect production errors before they occur – bringing the vision of “zero-defect manufacturing” within reach.
• AI could be the salvation from the impending climate catastrophe. In the age of global warming, flood forecasting systems such as the Delft FEWS (Flood Early Warning System) will play a key role in reducing or preventing flood damage.

Whether in medicine, retail, manufacturing, or administration, artificial intelligence is completely transforming companies and work environments. Automation will increasingly affect industries and areas that have traditionally relied on human labor. In return, it will create millions of new jobs where machine intelligence reaches its limits.

 

Digital Transformation

The next 5 to 10 years will decide who will belong to the digital winners and losers. 

Digital Transformation is mainly about improving process efficiency and focusing more on your customers. It will radically reshape the way businesses do business.

• Enterprises need to build bridges between the many digital islands they have created during the first wave of digitalization
• Electronic control and coordination of internal and external business processes will unlock revolutionary new ways to enhancing the customer experience and creating new value.
• Digital Transformation is not one-size-fits-all. Every enterprise needs to take a close look at the way it works and how it presents itself to the public. Customers are more critical than ever before – and more powerful!

 

Digital Overload

Why Gen Z suffers from digital anxiety and what employers can do about it

• Generation Z between technical savvy and digital disillusionment
• Why 70% of this generation complain of depression and anxiety
• Autonomy in the workplace as a response to digital skepticism
• Disillusionment as an opportunity: individual roles instead of one-size-fits-all solutions
• How companies can turn digital overload into loyalty and commitment

 

Wild Wild Web

What the history of the Wild West teaches us about the future of the digital society.

• Digital robber barons and the second age of gold leaf
• GAFA and how it sees the world
• Digital commons and digital sin eaters
• We are the web!
• 10 things we can learn from the Wild West

 

 

Social, Mobile, Big Data: a perfect storm

Can we ride the wave of total information, or will web e drowned by it?

• Three megatrens that will combine to reshape the world
• Opportunities and risks of digital transparency
• What do consumers and citizens expect from businesses, governments and society?

 

Digital Dummies

Understanding Digital Enlightenment

• Will Google soon tell us what we should think?
• Stop worrying about information overload!
• Home sapiens 2.0: Why Digital Transformation is simply part of the normal human evolution process