Issue 03/2018

Lettering "I spy, ...with my little eye", and the head of a woman with black hair and white skin and shimmering make-up

Editorial

Customer relationships without collaboration are a thing of the past – for example in terms of developing solutions that bring companies and customers closer together. Which can already be seen in some ways today: Artificial intelligence (AI) will play a pivotal role.

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Focus

Picture shows two human-like, female robots lying in each other's arms in a purple environment

When decency meets temptation

TOPSTORY. Everyone understands the logic behind virtual representations of real products. Yet when combined with networks and clouds, artificial intelligence and machine learning take humanity and its digital twin to the limits of what should and should not be done.

Picture shows a robot hand holding a cup

Mirror image with potential

POTENTIAL. They help represent physical products and processes, predict their behavior and optimize their continued development: Digital twins promise much opportunity yet are barely being utilized.

Picture shows laboratory work with different samples, a pipette and tubes

Preventively sick

DIGITAL HEALTH. The start-up Alacris Theranostics tests the effectiveness of drugs on digital twins instead of real patients.

Picture shows a dark room, on the right an open box from which light and the letters "KI" shine

Why does it do that? And why like that?

EXPLAINABLE-AI. When it can be explained how machines learn, transparency factors into the decisions made by artificial intelligence.

Portrait of Dr. Michael Grieves, the inventor of the digital twin.

Paternity established

PIONEER. Did he discover it or invent it? It doesn’t matter. In any case, Dr. Michael Grieves is, for all intents and purposes, the digital twin’s “daddy”.

Portrait of Prof. Dr. Oliver Zöllner from the Stuttgart Media University

Obsession with control

ESSAY. Media sociologist Professor Oliver Zöllner on data traces on the web and the logic behind putting digital shadows on a short leash.

Portrait of Prof. Dr. Arun Nagarajah from the University of Duisburg-Essen

Root cause analysis

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT. Professor Arun Nagarajah studies how digital twins unerringly get to the bottom of errors.

Best Practices

Picture shows the interior of a car, the driver has no hand on the handlebar, the car drives autonomously

Driverless cars get rolling

DIGINET-PS. The Technical University of Berlin, Fraunhofer, and T-Systems design the rollout of autonomous driving.

Portrait of Damian Dunyan, CEO of Uniper SE

CIO-Talk with Uniper

TRANSFORMATION. Damian Bunyan, CIO of the energy company Uniper, on paths to new business models and the “employee role” of service providers.

Picture of Dr.Robert Zores, CTO REWE digital

CTO Talk with REWE digital

E-COMMERCE. Dr. Robert Zores, CTO of the commercial start-up REWE digital, on newcomers and discontinued models in the shopping habits of retail customers.

Picture shows Heiko Scholz, Chief Marketing Officer of Barmenia Versicherungen

CMO Talk with Barmenia

ROLE OF KING. Heiko Scholz, CMO of Barmenia Versicherungen, on how the customer is king when developing innovative insurance products.

Picture shows an agricultural vehicle working on a yellow field, bird's eye view

Field work in the cloud

WIBANK. Wirtschaftsbank Hessen lets software plow the often-impenetrable jungle of farming subsidies.

Picture shows a young woman looking through a round Mönninghoff fitting

Translation assistance

MÖNNINGHOFF. A basic IoT structure allows the most varied machines to speak the same language.

Illustration shows marbles on strings are different persons, all around letters, tools, gears

Crowd Services

BARMENIA VERSICHERUNGEN. For product development, the insurance company uses the wisdom of the crowd.

Fist of a robot hand against fist of a human hand with shirt sleeve

In 2021

the global business value of artificial intelligence (AI) will be 2.9 trillion US-$.

Digital Twin

Carton whose lid is opened wide and warm light streams out. It is dark all around

6,2 Mrd. Hours

of working time will be saved annually by AI.

Artificial Intelligence

Picture from bird's eye view shows green meadow with many brown and white cows

With 1,35 Mrd.€

EAFRD is subsidising sustainable and environmentally friendly farming with support programmes.

WIBank

Picture shows an electric car at a roundabout in Berlin

In 10 years

at the latest, automated driving will be part of our everyday life.

Diginet-PS

Hand with green rubber glove holds a plate for a microscope in the air

4,5 Mrd.€

a day are spent by the European health systems - a large part of it on medicines that do not work.

Digital Health

Woman whose much larger shadow at the top of a wall reaches for a gift

4 data points

are usually sufficient to deanonymise anonymous profiles with 95% certainty.

Essay

Supermarket aisle between two food shelves

WIFI

in the supermarket today is as essential as light, water and electricity.

E-Commerce

The head of a woman with black hair and white skin and shimmering make-up

2 Mio.

new jobs will be created in the field of artificial intelligence by 2025.