A new interface paradigm

By Martin Recke

Computing is expanding in two dimensions. Will conversational AI lead to a new interface paradigm? And what does that mean?

The most popular NEXT Insights of 2023

By Adam Tinworth

What themes caught people’s eyes in 2023? And what digital insights are they seeking?

Why AI second selves will be your greatest mentor — and opponent

By Adam Tinworth

If you don’t want AI to replace you, you need to use it to make you better at what you do, argues artist Harry Yeff in conversation with Accenture Song’s Mette Stannow.

Digital overload

By Martin Recke

People no longer welcome every new technology with open arms. Their sense of digital overload has consequences for businesses.

Can AIs have consciousness?

By Adam Tinworth

To explore the idea of AI consciousness, we first have to understand the human version of it. And, as Anil Seth and Thomas Mueller explore, that’s more complicated than you think.

The next interface

By Martin Recke

Generative AI has triggered the great interface shift, changing the way we interact with digital systems. The implications for brands are huge.

David Mattin: the trends that will define our future

By Adam Tinworth

Trends are tricky things: they rarely turn out how you expect. But David Mattin makes them work for businesses by focusing on the human tab the heart of them. Here's how.

The Hives and the creative urge

By Adam Tinworth

On stage at NEXT, The Hives’s Pelle Almqvist talked to Fabian Frese about their creative process, and how drugs, money and AI impact it…

NEXT23: AI as Assistive Intelligence

By Adam Tinworth

In our first exploration of the emergent themes of NEXT23, we look at the AI trailblazers, who have been exploring the intersection of creativity and AI for years.

Coco Krumme: putting the optimisation mindset in its place

By Adam Tinworth

Have we been seduced by optimisation to such a degree that we can no longer see its limits? Coco Krumme argues that that's esactly what's happened.

Sam Bompas: seeing the future in food

By Adam Tinworth

We all need to eat — but how we service that need, and make it fun, can tell us a lot about the future, suggests Sam Bompas.

NEXT23: your ticket to more than one conference

By Adam Tinworth

NEXT isn't the only show in town. Here's what to see and do while you're in Hamburg.

Searching for the Exit Routes

By David Mattin

Will technology save us or doom us? AI is the latest to be hailed as both saviour and destroyer. We need new ways of discussing the future.

The optimisation seduction: keeping data in its place

By Adam Tinworth

The limits of optimisation are a lesson we need to keep learning. Data seduces us into thinking of people as machines — but that's a huge management error.

Capability overhang, or the future of AI

By Martin Recke

The future of AI depends on what we imagine today. While we explore our new capabilities, imagination is the bottleneck.

The digital adds to the physical, not replaces it

By Adam Tinworth

The Metaverse has hit the trough of disillusionment with unusual speed. Perhaps technologists need a more sophisticated understanding of physical/digital interplay.

Becoming cyborg

By Oskar Trautmann, Wilhelm Rinke

Or what if we told you that you are one already?

Generative AI and the mystery of consciousness

By Adam Tinworth

The rapid advances in AI and large language models (LLMs) are raising questions about sentience and consciousness we can’t yet answer.

The office of the future won’t arrive anytime soon

By Martin Recke

We still don’t know what the office of the future will look like. But thanks to AI and the permacrisis, it will be leaner than before.