At the Rise of AI Summit 2020, Chris Boos, CEO of Arago AG, argues that AI has already arrived and the real question is what to do with it. He opens by noting that capital markets value three Silicon Valley platform companies more highly than Germany's entire publicly listed industrial economy, that revenue per employee is far higher at a company like Apple than at Volkswagen, and that employees' contribution to actual productivity has been declining for decades, evidence that the industrial era, built on standardization and economies of scale, has run its course. He estimates that with today's technology 80 percent of current work can already be automated, using implicit and explicit knowledge held in data to let machines find individual solutions rather than standardized processes. Boos gives four predictions: society must act now on environmental, populist and industrial-disruption pressures; the current adversarial system of politics, economy and society must give way to a knowledge economy; AI is already being applied in agriculture, medicine, education and mobility, but only in small steps; and Europe's own path should be humanism, distinct from US efficiency and Chinese cohesion. He closes by urging companies to stop running pilots, since the technology already works, and instead change their mindset to let AI act.
Key takeaways
- Boos says three Silicon Valley platform companies outweigh Germany's entire listed industrial economy in market capitalization.
- He estimates 80 percent of today's work can already be automated with existing AI technology.
- He warns e-mobility threatens 400,000 German car-industry jobs while AI investment has not kept pace.
- He argues Europe's own AI path should be humanism, distinct from US efficiency and Chinese cohesion.
- He says AI adoption is a mindset problem, not a technology problem, since pilots already prove it works.
Detailed notes
Why the industrial model has run its course
Boos argues capital markets have already priced in the shift: three platform companies out of Silicon Valley carry more market capitalization than Germany's entire publicly listed economy, and comparing revenue per employee at Apple and Volkswagen tells the same story. The contribution of employee time to actual productivity has been declining for decades. He frames this as the end of a roughly 150-to-200-year industrial era built on standardizing, consolidating and analyzing work to justify mass production, the model Henry Ford summed up with "you can have any color as long as it's black." AI, in his view, does something different: using the implicit and explicit knowledge collected in data pools, it can find an individual solution for every individual problem instead of standardizing, and can be applied to almost everything except language and true innovation. He states that 80 percent of what is done today can be automated with existing technology, and dismisses corporate 20-to-30-year adoption plans, noting the iPhone spread across the population in under a year.
Four predictions for the shift to a knowledge economy
First, Boos says if society does not act now there is no future: resource consumption is unsustainable, populism is rising because the system is destabilizing, e-mobility threatens 400,000 jobs in the car industry while AI investment lags, and the COVID-19 response was effectively run by Google and Apple rather than governments. Second, the current system, in which politics, economy and society pull against each other, has been stable for decades but depended on an industrial system that has ended; the needed switch is to a knowledge economy where machines handle most jobs and people focus on new ideas and interaction, a societal rather than technical change. Third, technology is already the solution in small ways: roughly ten percent of farms use AI-guided drones and livestock algorithms, medicine uses AI-enabled minimally invasive procedures, and mobility is shifting toward AI-enabled models beyond individual car ownership; schooling, designed to produce uniform factory workers, needs to shift toward lifelong learning that keeps children's natural curiosity alive.
Europe's own path: humanism over efficiency or cohesion
Boos argues that if Europe wants its own way with AI it should be humanism, distinct from an American model built around efficiency and profit and a Chinese model built around social cohesion. A humanist approach fits AI development, he says, because humans generate the implicit and explicit data the systems need, and it produces a society where curiosity outranks security and facts outrank belief. He adds that this kind of change is only possible in a society with either nothing left to lose or, as in Europe today despite the crisis, absolute abundance.
Stop proving the technology works
Boos says organizations must stop running pilots, tests and proofs of concept meant only to show AI works, because it already does; the real question is whether a company can let go of control and let a machine find its own efficient solution rather than run a predefined process. He criticizes managers who avoid risk because their career survives even if the company fails, and argues the pandemic is the moment to act decisively rather than take baby steps, since the advantage of owning today's knowledge, data and technological power disappears once it is shared or surpassed by others.
Q&A highlights
Asked how change happens when many people are comfortable staying put, Boos says society, not just individuals, must respond to failed attempts with encouragement rather than mockery, citing Germany's corona-app debate as a case where data protection was prioritized over health data collection under public pressure. Asked about creativity, he distinguishes artist-type creativity (swimming against the stream), engineering-type creativity (combining unlikely components, which he says Germany and France do well), and pioneer-type creativity (people who need risk), arguing society currently channels pioneers into extreme sports instead of honoring them inside companies. Asked for a wish for future leaders, he says he hopes leaders rediscover solidarity and accept that short-term egotism can never outweigh the benefits of working together as social animals.
Quotes
The technology works, that's not the question. The question is, are you able to make the change to actually let AI work for you?
Chris Boos
No one ever got fired for hiring IBM.
Chris Boos
We've got to move now. Right now we own the knowledge, right now we have the data, right now we have the technological power.
Chris Boos
Questions answered in this talk
What path should Europe take with AI according to Chris Boos?
According to Chris Boos at the Rise of AI Summit 2020, Europe's own path should be humanism, distinct from an American model centered on efficiency and profit and a Chinese model centered on social cohesion.
How much of today's work can already be automated with AI?
According to Chris Boos at the Rise of AI Summit 2020, about 80 percent of current work can already be automated using existing AI technology.
Why does Chris Boos say companies should stop running AI pilots and proofs of concept?
According to Chris Boos at the Rise of AI Summit 2020, the technology already works, so pilots only prove what is already known; the real challenge is a mindset change that lets a company give up control of predefined processes and let AI find its own solutions.