What do we stand for in the AI age and what are our values?

If you are just getting to know AI, that is exciting and interesting. We talk about it across all social media, many new AI companies are emerging. What is completely missing in all of this, for me, is a very different debate.

I come from Lower Franconia. We have a very lively culture there, in which hundreds of thousands of people dedicate themselves to preserving culture and traditions — voluntarily, unpaid, in their free time. You may know it. The whole thing is so important that no politician can ignore it. It is part of the identity. Or think of the Oktoberfest in Munich: it is a global export hit.

I asked myself: what are the characteristics that make exactly this possible — that people are involved with heart and enthusiasm without expecting anything in return? This also applies to many other cultures worldwide. I worked out that there are above all three points that give the whole thing its power.

First, there is a strong rootedness: historically, where do you come from, what is the origin, what is the identity? Second, there is a shared vision of what you want to achieve, because a human being usually wants to transcend into something, to be part of something bigger. And last but not least, shared values that are lived and carried by shared experiences.

When I think back to how large corporations successfully implemented the agile transformation ten years ago, exactly that happened. Across all activities there was a clear picture of the roots, the vision and the shared values.

I think we should take AI as the occasion to ask these questions once again and to work them out for our own company.

Where does your company come from, where do you want to go, what are your values? And AI is only the means to an end. If you start this way, you have a clear orientation on what exactly you need in terms of AI, what has priority and what does not.

Let me give you an example: if you are a family business with a long tradition, your vision includes the further development of your services and products, and your values include offering an exclusive, high-quality customer service, then installing an AI voice bot is perhaps not your first measure. If you focus purely on AI consulting, the first piece of advice is often: get an AI voice bot.

I think you have to differentiate from company to company. What exactly do we actually want, what do we stand for — in order to then decide: where does an AI voice bot perhaps make sense, and where does it make no sense because it contradicts what we actually want to achieve? Just as one example.

If you are already the market leader and can hardly keep up with customer demand, but have completely different challenges in coping with bureaucracy or in machine maintenance, your AI strategy will look completely different.

Or let us assume you are in a fiercely contested market — do you sound exactly like your competitors?

For me, therefore, there can be no AI strategy without first defining what kind of company you want to be.

I think this will matter even more in the future, when customers use AI to research something. What makes you distinguishable?