Bosch Connected World 2020 – The human unicorn on AI

Unicorns are different, Bosch is different too. Ties, walled garden ecosystems and hierarchies sound like a thing of the past at this year’s Bosch Connected World. Urban smoothies, technological openness and „Menschment“ (instead of management) have taken over. Transformation at Bosch is in progress – not only in a digital sense. And in terms of Artificial Internet-of-Things (AIoT), Bosch nails their business transformation with their new unit Bosch.IO and their human-focussed Artifical Intelligence (AI) codex.

Bosch has a a clear focus: Staying human – in business creation, employee resources, and especially all means of industrial artificial intelligence. Whatever the decision is for companies starting to implement artificial intelligence, humans shall keep control. „Artificial intelligence has to be accompanied by ethics. AI has to serve people. With our AI codex we give our employees a clear guideline for the development of intelligent products“, states Bosch-CEO Volkmar Denner in his opening speech at their big AIoT event Bosch Connected World (BCW) in Berlin. Denner is emphasizing their mission with the statement: „Our aim is to make people trust in AI products“ and his personal note for a more sustainable industry „I believe in the power of technology to balance economical, ecological and societal challenges of the future“.

Humans & AI: Together for a better future

The ambition Bosch has in mind is that people and companies have more trust in its AI products. Guided by their Bosch ethos „Invented for Life“, the company strives to create safe, robust and explainable products, while improving human’s quality of life and looking at sustainable ways to use natural resources. Reading their 3 main guidelines for decision making in AI-based products makes clear that all companies should have a similar approach to AI…

Humans-in-command (HIC)
The AI product is used as a tool and humans get to decide when and how to use it.

Human-in-the-loop (HITL)
Humans can directly change and influence the decisions made by an AI product.

Humans-on-the-loop (HOTL)
Humans can define certain parameters for AI during the design process and can also review any decision that was carried out by the product.

The management team of Bosch made clear that they aim at a partnership of humans and AI, AI is not a human challenger or competitor. Humans shall be able to make use of their decision-making skills through AI, and AI shall enable an optimization and transformation of machines and business processes to drive business efficiency. It’s a hand-in-hand that leverages AI for better industries.

Business driven by hearts

The HR department is further fostering the AI transformation internally. They are training their own employees across all departments via their academy. However, Bosch not only bets on AI. They also encourage change. The company takes change management serious. Maybe it is not happening at the speed of AI. But in a balanced, structured and enjoyable calm program that an ever-changing global workforce is asking for. In her presentation „IoT needs IoP – leading yourself to lead others leads to high performance“ Petra Kama-Welle, Bosch VP Human Resources, made clear that a mindset change in leadership comes with role modelling.

By describing her roles from mother to change manager, Kama-Welle explained that role modelling is the way to escape the former „leadership-in-the-box“ hierarchy mentality in order to path the way from „command and control“ towards „enjoy, growth & perform“. It’s a modern leadership mindset transformation from a heart for hearts to grow hearts. While some companies start to define their business purpose these days, Bosch is already on the purpose road to let hearts drive their business. A bit poetical, I know, but that’s the way unicorns tend to be.

Leveraging the unicorn playground

Maybe one topic at Bosch Connected World can be optimized (definitely not the awesome catering!): the conference program. Selecting the right tracks from five stages with various parallel sessions around business or industry focus, remains a challenge for every attendee. Figuring out how to make your perfect way in a short two days’ knowledge gathering seemed almost impossible. Maybe AI could have helped. Maybe an AI event app, in which you throw in your main tags of interest could have provided a solution here. And maybe a professional moderation is something to think about as well for 2021. But hey, nobody said that unicorns are perfect.

Some show cases made me think, e.g. if Nikola Motor’s Badger, providing nine hundred horsepower out of a battery and fuel cell combination, is really needed in times of sustainability wake-ups. Or if the heat map train app, showing me which cabin is less crowded before accessing the train and notifying me „Mind the gap!“ persuaded me? Probably not. Still, it’s a unique „sensoring“ of decision-making, empowered by AI value. Should I rather trust Lindera and their „Decision Intelligence“ to not stumble at the train station in the future instead?

We will see, which Bosch or other Bosch enabled unicorns will help us in an AI ethical and supportive way in the future, maybe already at the next Bosch Connected World.

Are you ready for the next level of future mobility? Young Germans are!

Germany is known as one of the leading countries in terms of innovation and inventions. But on the other hand germans are very careful and reserved when it comes to the use of new tools, processes and technologies. So the survey results of a currently published survey regarding future mobility astound somehow.  Read more

Internet Trends 2018 – Mary Meeker Report

There are a lot of reports within the technology business but there are only a few worth sharing. When talking about internet trends the following report from Mary Meeker is one of these positive examples we want to share with you. It covers more or less every interesting section within the tech industry where companies […]

Allianz and FC Barcelona Micro-Conference: The Future of Health

Smart clothing combined with a new generation of sensors as part of intelligent hardware components is one of the biggest markets when thinking about the future. This is not only a question for the insurance industry in order to create new business segments. There are also a lot of benefits for sport clubs by tracking the activities, health and workout data of their players to optimize the practice and to prevent potential injuries. Read more

Urban Loop System – Elon Musk next big thing

There are so many stories going around about Elon Musk and his ambitious plans around self-driving cars and renewable energy. But there are also other goals that Musk would like to accomplish. One of these projects Musk is running beside the car industry is the ‘Urban Loop System.’ Based on a recently report from Mashable.com Musk would like to solve the traffic problem with the mass of people using subways as well. Read more

Artificial intelligence and future mobility by Mercedes Benz at SXSW 2018

Over the last couple of days one of the biggest technology festival look place in Austin. The South by Southwest (SXSW). Instead of other conferences setting up only an expo the SXSW is more like a family meeting for creatives. Future mobility and artificial intelligence are two central topics at the 2018 South by Southwest this year. More then ever before the technology and the car industry are more as connected to each other. And exactly this was the reason why Mercedes-Benz brought the Concept EQ, the electric SUV of the Future to Austin. The car which should go into production in the near future demonstrates what future mobility might look like. Read more

The Responsive Car: Peugeot Instinct Concept

Not futuristic in terms of the design. Not too special compared to Tesla (big tablet in the middle, holographic head-up display, plug-in hybrid engine, and so on). Still, it is a smart car with a very much clean and intuitive layout. Peugeot unveiled their latest car study at Mobile World Congress last week, called Instinct concept.

That the trend of all car manufacturers is heading towards smart connected cars is no secret any longer. However, the Peugeot approach seems like a vision probably many people cannot envision yet. Autonomous, intelligent, self-driving cars that talk to all of your other devices and can even detect in which state of fitness you are sounds like a far too futuristic project these days.

“In the future, maybe you will have cars that can be only autonomous, and it will be forbidden to drive anymore. But this transition will be very long, and what we wanted to illustrate here is part of this transition, because this will take time.” Matthias Hossann, Head of Concept Car and Advanced Design, Peugeot

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Peugeot foresees a future where the drivers can choose how much control they want to give to the car. The concept offers two self-driving modes and two active modes. The car shall even be able to adjust its driving based on data analysis that it gets from connected devices like smartphones or tablets. The car technology will be based on the Samsung Artik IoT platform. As an example, the car manufacturers mentioned that if someone has been on a hard workout, the smartphone tells the car automatically to shift into an “autonomous soft” mode to let the driver relax. Sounds like a responsive car, right?

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“This is a bridge, and it’s something that we would like to push for the future. That’s why we didn’t create something that looks like a UFO”, states Hossann.

The official debut shall be at the Geneva Motor Show next month. However, even Peugeot sees that the technology of the car won’t be available until 2025 at the earliest.

BMW connected window. The glass for the future?

bmw-connected-windowYears ago, I have written about various options of companies envisioning the future of mirrors and screens. Whether it was Samsung or Toyota or any other company out there. Many brands think about the future way of living with new world of screens evolving. The rising mobility trend drives companies to work on the glass of the future.

This time BMW came up with their latest world of a connected window. Is it a good innovation to have such a window in the bathroom (as a mirror), as a window (which takes your awareness away from e.g. the playing kids outside in the garden), or even as a car window (which might drag your attention to the wrong topic instead of focussing on the street)?

Have a look at it and tell us what you think…

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Source title picture: https://pixabay.com/de/architektur-hochhaus-glasfassaden-2256489/