One year ago, I was lucky enough to secure a small spot at the „explorAItion Day“ to represent our „AI-Pioneers“. This grassroots initiative, which I ideated together with Sindy Leffler-Krebs and then started running with Ramona Grohs, Zainab Adni, Jessica Birr, and Stefan Dörken, had set its goal towards „AI Enablement at Deutsche Telekom“.
Now, one year, 1200 registered AI-Pioneers, hundreds of certifications, and multiple AI-Pioneer sessions later, we truly have grown. The accompanying images symbolize how things have evolved. It started small and humble, and today we can count many more supporters, passionate colleagues, and active contributors to our still growing community. So, that single dude from the first photo is smiling, happy, and is now starting to fade further into the background to give room for a new batch of „AI-Pioneers“. Colleagues like Lea Steiert, Britta Petry, Katharina Kummer, Marcel Schmidt, and Marco Juntorius are now starting to not just support the AI-Pioneers but they are actively transforming how we go into the future – 2026. It’s a huge responsibility.
Pioneers are there to make the first step, a step that is not comfortable at all. Pioneers break new ground, and history only knows those pioneers who survived their journey for the good of all. But I absolutely trust our AI-Pioneers to handle their roles and responsibilities with grace, a clear mind, and a huge heart. I couldn’t be more proud of what all these wonderful people have done for the community, and I am super curious about what they will come up with next. Of course, I will stick with the main team and community as long as people think I can be of value to bring AI-Enablement to Deutsche Telekom. And trust me, I am already bouncing around ideas of what may come next. There is always a „Next“.
Because events like the explorAItion day, once again show one thing quite clearly: even though AI might be the star of the hour, it still is (and I am pretty sure will be for the foreseeable future) HUMANS who create the unthinkable because our „dataset“ is vast and doesn’t stop at the physically possible.
We talk on multiple levels with each other, with ourselves and with those we lost.
We dream, we try, we fail and we love.
We feel, we hurt, we hope and despair.
We breathe the salty air of tomorrow deep into our aging lungs only to scream for no reason into the void of a non-forgiving universe.
Because we just think we earned our place beneath the sun and we want to leave our footprint in the dust of times.
Good luck stuffing all of that into a machine.
I am really looking forward to next year’s explorAItion day. If anything, we may just as well be in for quite a surprise looking at the break-neck speed at which (AI) things are jumping ahead.
Thank you, Kristin Winter, Arne Clauß, and all the great people of the orga teams behind this fabulous event. You really blew last year’s event out of the water. Here’s to you!