𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐭?

Last year, we brought our portfolio companies and partners together in Munich for the first ekwithree Portfolio Day. This year, we returned for round two – with a topic that is changing almost as quickly as we can discuss it:

𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬 𝐀𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝: 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐈

The conversations went far beyond which AI tools to use. We talked about what AI means for the organizations themselves – their people, skills, structures, economics and, ultimately, their future.

We started with a ride on Munich’s Ferris wheel 🎡, almost 80 metres above the city. In a way, our Portfolio Day aimed to do something similar: step away from the day-to-day, bring different perspectives together and look at our businesses from a different height.

What does AI transformation actually mean in practice?

🔄 Transformation doesn’t necessarily mean adding more. Sometimes it means reinventing the business with what is already there – while preserving its identity rather than replacing it.

🎲 Where does your company fit in the different AI futures being predicted today? From a world where deep domain expertise remains a critical differentiator to one where AI increasingly runs businesses.

🤝 People cannot be forgotten as the value drivers of AI. And neither can economics: AI costs can outpace the productivity gains if implementation is not carefully managed.

🤹 What happens to skills? If AI writes our emails, analyses our information and increasingly performs junior-level work, which capabilities are we developing – and which are we losing?

🫅 And who leads companies 20 or 30 years from now if fewer people get the opportunity to learn through traditional junior roles?

📑 AI can be an enormous time saver, but it can also create information overload. We are already learning which tasks to give to which AI – and sometimes using one to structure the output of another.

💵 How do we price knowledge work when AI performs part of it? And what becomes more valuable as AI gets better at tasks we once considered distinctly human – including creativity?

💾 Implementing AI today can sometimes feel a little like introducing Excel when it was the new kid on the block: the tool matters, but learning how to integrate it into the way people actually work matters much more.

And, of course, we wrapped up the day with a traditional Oktoberfest celebration – Bavarian style! 🥨