Europe’s coolest tech conference is back! After a 3 year slumber Tech Open Air has reopened. Much smaller, much more intimate, but in Berlin style and with the same quality of people and content.

...and it's a wrap!

Here are my top 3 takeaways on innovation & AI from TOA 2023:

#1 The enthusiasm for AI companies is huge and will remain so

According to the people at TOA, we are in a long AI summer. If you read this then you will know that despite the mixed macroeconomic situation there is a huge wave of enthusiasm for AI companies right now. Investments are high, such as the 4-week old AI startup Mistral raising 105 M€. According to the people at TOA, that trend is not a bubble but expected to stay.

In the words of Michal Pěchouček, CTO of Gen: “This will be a disappointment to some [sic] but I don’t see an AI winter coming, not in the next 5-10 years.”

A panel discussion at Tech Open Air 2023 in Berlin

#2 The tech space has never been more human

Throughout the tech industry, as well as at TOA, there are discussions about purpose, mental health, consciousness, spirituality and becoming the best version of your professional self.

In a conversation titled “(Startup) Things We Can’t Say on Stage”, Rolf Schrömgens, who co-founded Trivago, discussed talking about bringing your whole self to work – and even to board meetings.

Cevat Yerli, of Far Cry fame and now with the TMRW foundation, is building “an internet that is about getting together, and not as soldiers or racing drivers [as in video games] but as ourselves.”

From sensors to ease stress and support focus though monitoring brain waves to services supporting your mental health questions, there is now a vibrant ecosystem catering to the human side of growth and company building.

#3 Concerns about AI ethics have reached mainstream industry

But it’s not all rose-tinted optimism. While TOA has always been a place for tech (and techno) optimists, and there were no warnings of the AI apocalypse that I could hear, people are more and more aware of the complexities in bringing AI products to production.

Again Michal Pěchouček, CTO of Gen on regulation: “Do not hope that regulation will resolve all AI ethics questions – it will not.”

Daniela Gerd tom Markotten speaking about AI applications for Deutsche Bahn

Daniela Gerd tom Markotten, Board Member for Digitalization and Technology at Deutsche Bahn, emphasizes the role in AI for driving change in the railway industry – but she also pointed to the risks of bias even in everyday models, such as dynamic pricing systems for ticketing. Even in the case of seemingly innocent applications like the automatic soap dispensers in trains, she pointed out, Deutsche Bahn works to make sure that there is no bias in accuracy. You obviously want to avoid getting into situations where appliances will fail to detect hand movement due to out-of-sample skin color.

In summary, Tech Open Air is back doing what it does best: Inspire and connect people. If you wish to meet people thinking about the future of humans and technology, there is scarcely a better place in Europe.