Best of LinkedIn: TRANSFORM 2026

00:00:00: This episode is provided by Thomas Allgaier and Frennis, based on the most relevant LinkedIn post talking about Transform.

00:00:07: Frennis supports ICT enterprises with market and competitive intelligence decoding emerging technologies customer insights regulatory shifts in competitor strategies.

00:00:17: so product teams strategy leaders don't just react but shape

00:00:24: millions of euros building this perfect impregnable digital fortress.

00:00:28: You've got the retinal scanners, the steel vault doors... The absolute bleeding edge of cybersecurity!

00:00:34: Right like full-on movie level security

00:00:36: Exactly.

00:00:36: and then you just give the teenage kid who delivers your office water cooler a master key to the back alley.

00:00:41: Oh man Yeah.

00:00:42: And that scenario where the biggest most secure companies in Europe are suddenly vulnerable through their smallest daily operations That is exactly what we're looking at today.

00:00:51: It's a scary thought.

00:00:52: Yeah, but for those of you tuning in our mission and this deep dive is to basically cut entirely through the noise.

00:00:58: today we are extracting The top five trends from bit comes transform.

00:01:02: twenty-twenty six conference.

00:01:04: And we're doing this based entirely on a highly curated stack of insights shared by the attendees and speakers themselves, on LinkedIn.

00:01:12: We are taking you right to conference floor!

00:01:14: What is just absolutely fascinating about reading through these stacks of posts...is the distinct shift in air Like if you've been following the tech space for the last few years, You already know The Drill.

00:01:26: It's always about that next massive

00:01:27: thing!

00:01:28: Right it is so breathless.

00:01:29: But reading these first-hand accounts from Transform in this year, the vibe is totally different.

00:01:35: Honeymoon is over and reality has officially set In.

00:01:39: Yeah the tone of those posts are crystal clear.

00:01:42: We're past the hype phase The focus entirely on natural smart and highly focused implementation.

00:01:49: No fluff, no over-explaining.

00:01:51: Nobody is wasting time explaining what a large language model is anymore!

00:01:55: No definitely not.

00:01:56: the conversation has matured from like What Is This?

00:01:59: to how does this actually make us money and keep us secure?

00:02:02: Okay let's unpack this because that maturity was evident right out of The Gate.

00:02:06: it's this realization That seemed to hit the conference Like A Bucket Of Cold Water A

00:02:11: very necessary bucket of cold water.

00:02:13: Seriously It's the Realization That Talking About Transformation Is No Longer Enough.

00:02:19: We are looking at the definitive end of PowerPoint transformation.

00:02:23: That is an incredibly apt way to describe it.

00:02:26: I mean if you look at the posts from the event.

00:02:29: there's this collective palpable exhaustion with pure theory.

00:02:34: Yeah, nobody wants to see another slide deck exactly.

00:02:36: take Marvin Palo six post for example.

00:02:39: he bluntly stated that PowerPoint transformation is over.

00:02:42: now it's about decisions implementation and impact of love that And he was echoing a sentiment That Was Everywhere.

00:02:48: we also saw Linda Oldenburg issuing this very clear almost frustrated rallying cry.

00:02:54: She just said no more AI pilots

00:02:55: No More Pilots Which Is Great Because If You're A Product Manager or a Strategist List listening to this right now, This means your leadership no longer cares about how cool the underlying tech is.

00:03:05: Right they just want know how many hours it saves you team by Friday.

00:03:08: Exactly Running endless pilots like buying a premium gym membership putting on expensive new workout gear and then endlessly stretching in the lobby without ever actually lifting weight.

00:03:19: That's perfect analogy.

00:03:21: You feel

00:03:21: that doing something or sweating but not building any actual muscle

00:03:26: Right, and Anja Sankhani brought the harsh reality check to back this up.

00:03:30: She noted that eighty-nine percent of companies are using AI right now but ROI remains a massive challenge.

00:03:37: Actual return on investment is just missing?

00:03:40: Yeah which is the core tension here?

00:03:42: you have eighty nine percent adoption But if the return isn't materializing You have to ask why.

00:03:49: And Wolfgang Wendt from IBM provided a brilliant diagnostic for this, he pointed out that you cannot just slap artificial intelligence onto existing outdated workflows.

00:04:00: processes must be radically reviewed and unnecessary steps eliminated before automating.

00:04:05: wait let me make sure i'm getting the mechanism here.

00:04:07: yeah because if you have a terrible highly inefficient process Let's say an approval chain requires six different signatures via email.

00:04:14: Ugh, the worst.

00:04:15: Right and you automate it with AI.

00:04:17: all you've done is create a highly efficient terrible process.

00:04:21: The

00:04:21: A.I.'s

00:04:21: just doing this stupid thing faster

00:04:23: Precisely.

00:04:23: You haven't transformed anything...you have accelerated your bureaucracy.

00:04:27: So lack of ROI isn't an AI failure It's a process architecture failure.

00:04:31: That

00:04:32: makes so much sense!

00:04:33: The tech isn't failing..the container is broken.

00:04:35: Alright If we are finally moving past these isolated pilots in fixing our core processes What does the actual implementation look like?

00:04:44: Because human beings simply cannot execute at this speed of these new workflows.

00:04:49: Yeah, we need systems actually doing heavy lifting

00:04:51: and that shift dominated the discussions.

00:04:54: This brings us to the second trend The rise of a gentic and physical AI.

00:04:59: yes And this showed up in the most unexpected highly tangible ways.

00:05:03: it really

00:05:03: did.

00:05:04: Giara Maria Retzek and Marvin Polelsik both highlighted a surprisingly powerful presentation from OpenAI's Sarah Kemether about the combination of German bread, an artificial intelligence.

00:05:15: Bread & AI.

00:05:16: it sounds like punchline?

00:05:17: It does!

00:05:18: But it proves that AI is moving out-of-the digital ether into tangible everyday reality.

00:05:24: You're using algorithms to analyze weak quality or predict local bakery demand based on tomorrow's weather.

00:05:30: Yeah, it's the digital brain orchestrating physical mechanics and Stefan Ostwald from Parloa deepened this analysis beautifully.

00:05:37: he pointed out that we are no longer building tools

00:05:40: because a tool requires a human hand

00:05:42: exactly.

00:05:43: instead We're building what?

00:05:44: He calls AI workers And the ultimate test for a genetic AI is can you walk away?

00:05:48: and it keeps working independently.

00:05:50: here's where it gets really interesting Because walking away isn't just about software-executing background code anymore.

00:05:56: Mandy Klingbale posted a physical example from the event.

00:05:59: Oh,

00:06:00: Bobby The Robot!

00:06:01: Right?

00:06:01: Yes

00:06:01: she met Bobby at the SAP booth.

00:06:04: Bobby is a warehouse robot prototype from ILLION GMBH and Bobby doesn't move boxes blindly.

00:06:10: he connects directly to SAP's business data cloud to figure out items dimensions its weight what specific packaging required before you even picks it up.

00:06:19: See, that is the convergence of the digital brain and physical body.

00:06:23: But as Heiner Kuhlman from Spotify noted AI scales execution brilliantly but it doesn't replace vision...

00:06:30: Because Bobby The Robot can pack a box perfectly!

00:06:33: But Bobby Doesn't Know Why We Are Shipping It

00:06:35: Right, Bobby doesn't know business strategy.

00:06:37: therefore leadership becomes more critical not less.

00:06:40: You need human conviction to point these AI workers in right direction

00:06:44: Absolutely.

00:06:45: But if we connect this to the bigger picture, handing over execution-to-autonomous agents and robots creates massive new vulnerabilities.

00:06:53: If a robot is moving physical goods based on cloud data your security perimeter isn't just a firewall anymore.

00:07:00: it's

00:07:00: the physical world itself which brings us to the third trend, security and sovereignty.

00:07:05: Yeah... And Thomas Sauersegg from SAP issued a stark warning here that technology has literally become geopolitics.

00:07:11: It's all intertwined

00:07:12: Completely!

00:07:13: And Micah Alexander-Sannenberg amplified this by sharing notes from BSI President Claudia Plattner's Wheel of Distortion.

00:07:19: The

00:07:19: wheel distortion?

00:07:20: That sounds intense.

00:07:21: It

00:07:21: is.

00:07:22: it places geoeconomic confrontation as number one global crisis risk for twenty.

00:07:26: twenty six nation states are actively using technology infrastructure as weapons.

00:07:31: So it goes back to that analogy you opened with, a castle's defense is only as strong as its weakest wooden-backed door.

00:07:37: the state sponsored hackers aren't attacking the massive bank vault.

00:07:40: they're hacking the underfunded water delivery company.

00:07:43: That Is Precisely The Mechanism and Mark Lowe ever pointed out.

00:07:47: while heavily regulated mass industries doing well defensively SMEs remain biggest cybersecurity challenge in supply chain.

00:07:54: Right, because if I'm a mid-sized auto parts supplier in Germany... ...I don't have an SAP level security budget.

00:08:00: But i am fully integrated into the data flows of the math of car manufacturers.

00:08:04: Exactly!

00:08:05: You are the back door.

00:08:06: so how do we solve this?

00:08:07: Katrin von Szefsky brought some deeply necessary nuance.

00:08:11: She argued that digital sovereignty isn't as simple yes or no.

00:08:14: It's not binary switch

00:08:16: Right.

00:08:16: it is a spectrum.

00:08:17: Companies must decide process by process How much control they need.

00:08:21: Keep your core IP heavily isolated but maybe leverage shared European cloud infrastructure for everyday HR workflows.

00:08:28: OK, But if sovereignty and resilience are paramount does our current regulatory environment actually allow us to build these defenses?

00:08:37: Which leads perfectly to the fourth trend Europe's unique and somewhat frustrating position in a global tech race.

00:08:44: Yeah, The frustration was definitely palpable.

00:08:47: Christian Fressel delivered this hard-hitting observation from the opening keynote.

00:08:51: He stated that Europe is lost in regulation.

00:08:54: He said, we have become world champions at minimizing risks but are losing our ability to realize opportunities.

00:09:00: We're playing not-to-lose instead of playing to win.

00:09:03: Playing Not To Lose.

00:09:04: that is such a defensive posture.

00:09:06: yeah.

00:09:06: so what this all mean for the company's listening right now?

00:09:09: How do we break out of this defensive crouch?

00:09:11: well The solution offered by Santiago Argelich Hess from Telefonica and Julian Cacarot Is radical collaboration!

00:09:20: not a risk.

00:09:20: Wait, so instead of a massive corporation trying to build perfectly compliant tool internally for five years?

00:09:26: They do what Kakarot calls open innovation and venture-clienting.

00:09:30: Large companies must open up an act as early clients from nimble startups solve complex problems.

00:09:36: Oh I see You outsource the actual risk taking to start ups And big corporations provide scale on funding

00:09:41: Precisely!

00:09:43: Tanja Ruker from Bosch echoed this noting that potential isn't enough.

00:09:47: We need less bureaucracy and more digital literacy to scale these ecosystems.

00:09:52: But

00:09:52: shifting from a risk-averse culture, to a collaborative ecosystem driven mindset isn't just software update.

00:09:59: it's human update which introduces our final trend the humans at center of transformation.

00:10:04: This raises an important question if AI is taking over task execution what role does the human have?

00:10:11: Bill Anderson from Bayer gave a fantastic answer.

00:10:13: He said, AI won't fit into your orb chart!

00:10:16: Right you can just hire a director of AI and put them in this high load box.

00:10:19: Exactly transformation requires the total rethinking leadership distributing responsibility rather than concentrating it

00:10:26: And Isabel Baumgart and Bettina Orlop shared a sentiment that really resonated In an age of AI efficiency trust and personal interaction remained central currency

00:10:35: because algorithms optimize, but trust closes deals.

00:10:38: Exactly.

00:10:40: Furthermore Judith Wise reminds us that diversity equity and flexible work are not just HR talking points.

00:10:46: they're crucial competitive advantages in securing talent for this transformation.

00:10:51: If you want top engineering talent You cannot enforce rigid nineteen fifties work structures.

00:10:56: But you know capping off the theme Dr Kloss driver made a brilliant grounded observation.

00:11:01: Oh about the secret to innovation.

00:11:02: Yes

00:11:03: Amidst all the talk of algorithms and geopolitics, one of the most vital success factors for AI innovation is simply a good night's sleep.

00:11:11: That is hilarious but so true!

00:11:13: We spend millions optimizing our server cooling systems But we run our executives on four hours of sleep in cheap coffee.

00:11:20: The biological hardware still dictates how well the digital software runs.

00:11:23: It really does.

00:11:24: So to synthesize our journey today... ...we've moved from death powerpoint pilots To rise autonomous agents

00:11:30: Right no more stretching at the lobby

00:11:32: Exactly.

00:11:33: We navigated the geopolitics of cyber resilience, challenged Europe's regulatory mindset and landed right back on the importance.

00:11:57: We've established that AI will increasingly take over the execution of tasks, leaving humans to provide vision and strategy.

00:12:05: But here is something.

00:12:05: think about... What happens when AI strips away busy work?

00:12:09: And reveals that organization never actually had a clear vision to begin with!

00:12:13: AI might just expose lack true leadership faster than any market crash ever could.