German Manager Magazine: Hope made in Germany002463

The visitor from the future rushes up and introduces himself: “Hi, I’m Navel. What’s your name?” The kid measures 72 centimeters, wears a blue knitted hat and looks at the person opposite with big eyes. He can play guessing games, read the news and tell jokes, but above all he can perceive and react to the mood of his interlocutor. According to the inventors, it is a “social robot”.

The funny plastic dwarf is still a prototype and can only be admired in advertising videos by the Munich start-up Navel Robotics. But as early as next year it should be ready for series production and with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) entertain people and keep them company. Not like a flesh-and-blood interlocutor, but still more moving than a dead product. Far more than an Alexa on wheels.

Opportunities in the multi-crisis

Technological progress in 2023 will again significantly increase the speed of business and society. Just two years ago, it seemed as if digitization was the biggest disruption since the invention of the steam engine. But at least since the US start-up OpenAI launched the AI program ChatGPT on the market at the end of 2022, which independently generates high-quality texts and images, another, even more far-reaching technical revolution has become apparent.

At the same time, measures to combat climate change are forcing companies to rethink all products and processes from a sustainability perspective, while rising geopolitical tensions are driving up energy prices and disrupting supply chains.

Threatens Germany deindustrialization due to high costs? Are smart machines taking people’s work away? Will the domestic economy be pushed out by the tech giants USA and China left behind? There is already talk of a multi-crisis, and in fact there are risky developments that are forcing politicians and companies to self-reflect and change course. But where there are multiple risks, there are also multiple opportunities – for those who have innovative ideas and the courage to implement them.

This is how Navel is in the social robot – surprise! – lots of technology from Germany. Elisabeth André (61) and her team taught him how to perceive and decode human emotions. The computer science professor from the University of Augsburg has been researching algorithms that improve communication between humans and machines for more than three decades and is considered one of the leading AI experts in the country. She sees no reason to say goodbye to Germany as a technology location: “We don’t have to hide under any circumstances, not even in international comparison.”

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Machine and man: AI professor Elisabeth André with robot.

Photo: Daniel Delang for manager magazin

One of the greatest strengths of the German economy has always been inventiveness and innovative strength. This year’s three winners prove that nothing has changed Game Changer Awards. Since 2015, manager magazin and the strategy consultancy Bain & Company have given the award to companies that have fundamentally rewritten the rules of the game in their industry.

How the Game Changers 2023 were determined

The titleThe Game Changer Award is an award for German companies that have disruptively changed the rules of the game in their industry. manager magazin and Bain & Company award the prize in three categories: Customer Experience, Product & Service Innovation and Operations of the Future.

The test companies cannot apply for this award, they will be selected. Based on the criteria of innovation, disruption potential, sustainability and economic success, more than 60,000 companies based in Germany are analyzed. The 100 best in each category make it onto the long list and are examined in an in-depth business analysis (due diligence) and evaluated according to a point system.

In the SiegerPro category, the five companies with the highest score are shortlisted and judged by a jury of experienced business experts: How disruptive and sustainable is the business model really? What is the probability of success? All seven jurors submit a written evaluation, and in a concluding discussion the decision is made as to which three companies will receive the award. The award ceremony took place on April 27, 2023 in Berlin.

This is how the medical technology group succeeded Siemens Healthineers with the use of artificial intelligence to significantly improve the quality of imaging diagnostics and at the same time reduce the radiation exposure for patients. The Berlin start-up Enpal devised a subscription model for solar systems that enables homeowners to easily switch their power supply to renewable sources without their own investments – and became the fastest growing energy company in Europe in 2022. And of all things the sports car manufacturer Porsche, whose 911 is the epitome of petrol-powered acceleration, the Taycan was the first technically convincing electric sports car.

“Many German companies have taken a significant step forward in the past two years,” says Walter Sinn (57), Germany boss of Bain & Company. Digitization and Industry 4.0 have become a matter of course. Now, however, the economy is facing the next turning point. “The possibilities of artificial intelligence raise the function of the Internet to a new dimension,” says the consultant.

The jury

Expand the Andreas von Bechtolsheim area

The co-founder of Sun Microsystems was one of the first investors in Google. Today, the entrepreneur of German origin is the chairman of the network equipment manufacturer Arista, a tech investor and a sought-after consultant in Silicon Valley.

Open the Sven Oliver Clausen area

The economist has been close to the decision-makers in the German economy for more than 20 years. He worked for FTD and WELT as an investigative reporter and department head. In 2014 he switched to manager magazin, where he has been editor-in-chief since 2018.

Expand the Philipp Justus area

As Vice President Central Europe, the trained management consultant is responsible for the business of the tech group Google in 36 countries, including Germany. Previously he was CEO of Zanox and manager at Ebay and PayPal.

Expand the Joe Kaeser section

The current structure of the Siemens Group goes back significantly to him. In 2021 he resigned as CEO of the Dax group and today oversees NXP Semiconductors, Linde, Siemens Energy and Daimler Truck, the latter two as head of the supervisory board.

Expand Harald Krüger area

The car manufacturer BMW has shaped his career: Here he started as an engineer and rose to the board of directors, of which he was chairman for four years. He has been working as a freelance consultant since 2019 and is a member of the supervisory board at Lufthansa and Deutsche Telekom.

Expand Verena Pausder area

Digital education and equal opportunities for children and young people are her concerns as an entrepreneur. She founded several start-ups in this field, she is also an author, podcaster and co-owner of the Berlin women’s soccer club Viktoria 1889.

Expand the Walter Sinn area

The Germany head of the strategy consultancy Bain & Company is considered to have intimate knowledge of the German economy and is well connected in its management floors. For years he has accompanied the digitization and sustainable restructuring of many companies at close range.

He is currently experiencing an “explosive interest” in AI among his clients. “We are at the beginning of a rapid dynamic. The potential is enormous.” The US market research company IDC estimates global sales of AI at around 500 billion euros in the current year alone.

pick up speed

ChatGPT may still seem like a fun gimmick at the moment, as the algorithm generates texts based on probabilities – and therefore sometimes spouts nonsense. But the chatbot has made it clear to the general public for the first time what AI is capable of. And gives an idea of what it could one day be capable of.

In Augsburg, Elisabeth André and her team are already working with partners from business on very specific applications: AI-supported avatars, for example, which convert spoken language into signs in real time and enable the deaf to follow speeches, lectures and conversations better. Or smart diagnostic aids that derive valuable information for doctors and psychologists from patients’ gestures and facial expressions.

Social robots like Navel could be used in the therapy of traumatized children, who are more open to a cute, wide-eyed playmate than to an adult. One day, says AI researcher André, an intelligent robot as an everyday companion will be as natural as a smartphone is today.

The only question is where such future technologies will come from. The confidence in domestic companies that Germany will play a leading role in the AI business has recently decreased significantly (see chart). While Microsoft billions are invested in OpenAI in the USA and thus make a development like ChatGPT possible in the first place, there is a lack of risk capital, specialists and computer capacities in Germany. And while Europe is still discussing what artificial intelligence is allowed to do, American and Chinese companies are already creating facts. “We’ve lost speed and are getting tangled up in bureaucratic structures,” says Bain consultant Sinn. “I’m generally optimistic about the innovative capacity of our industry, but when companies like Biontech move some of their research to the UK, that’s a red flag.” The Mainz vaccine pioneer had the 2021 Game Changer Award won.

Politics and business are faced with difficult decisions. Investments in research, development and technology must be accelerated in order to keep pace with the rapid pace of global development. At the same time, it is important to define the conditions and standards under which this development is to take place, as recently German Ethics Council

has done. And then to enforce this internationally, if possible, so that the technology will continue to serve people in the future – and not the other way around.