IMD AI Update offers AI knowledge for managers

(CONNECT) 350 managers from business and research took part in the first IMD KI Update in Zurich. On January 20th, they learned about thought models, decision-making mechanisms and strategies from numerous colleagues who appeared as speakers. The event concluded with a speech by German philosopher and author Richard David Precht. This new and annual series of events is organized by echo originals from Dübendorf and the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne.

Her conclusion of the IMD AI Update 2026 is: "Artificial intelligence must be in people's heads". Neuroscientist and AI investor Pascal Kaufmann, for example, was certain that "by 2030, science will have cracked the brain code", according to the organizers' press release. A so-called brain port then acts as an interface in the brain. What will count most in AI in the future is trust. He sees Switzerland as one of the leaders in certain areas, thanks in part to the two Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich and Lausanne.

CEO Daniel Bischofberger explained how Accelleron, the manufacturer of exhaust gas turbochargers for large diesel engines from Baden AG, uses AI to create value: "We in management create the framework, the team creates the return, the result." The aim now is to think more holistically in the future and integrate AI into the business model.

According to Nimrod Malinas, founder and CEO of the start-up Robonnement from Altstätten SG, which rents out robots, the changes brought about by AI are so crucial that they are clearly the responsibility of the CEO. Barnaby Skinner from the NZZ Media Group complained that instead of having users on their own sites via Google search, "AI is stealing our content" and taking users away from the media. Now it is a matter of "recapturing the data and marketing it ourselves again". Entrepreneur and board member Cornelia Diethelm from the Centre for Digital Responsibility, the think tank for digital ethics, also pointed out that AI is not objective and neutral and that company management must take responsibility for the shadow AI used by employees without authorization.

Richard David Precht continues to see humans in the foreground because AI is neither emotional nor imaginative. That is why morally gifted people are still needed. But he warned: "We don't know what political form we will have. We could end up with techno-feudalism." The next IMD KI Update will take place on March 2nd, 2027 in Zurich. Tickets are already available at a special price. ce/mm