Getting people to volunteer The voluntary commitment shown by lots of people enables society to work effectively. Many organisations today nevertheless struggle to find volunteers. This is often attributed to demographics and an... Society Dec 18, 2024
GDI must-reads 2024 As the year draws to a close, we've put together a carefully chosen selection of books that particularly impressed our researchers and staff. From social upheaval and technological challenges to perso... Retail Society Sustainability Technology Dec 14, 2024
AI: a threat to mediocrity On 8 February 2023, around USD 100 billion was wiped off the share price of Google's parent company Alphabet. That's because Google's AI chatbot 'Bard' made a mistake during its inaugural presentation... Society Technology Dec 10, 2024
When work is no longer the benchmark Daniel Susskind equates the economy to a pie. It’s baked or produced, divided up for various purposes – and then consumed. Human work has always played a pivotal role in both production and distributi... Society Technology Dec 6, 2024
GDI study on food culture and innovation: no cap of rump for aperitif GDI: Mrs Schäfer, sauerkraut is eaten in the north, foie gras in the west and the ‘Röstigraben’ – the divide between German and French-speaking Switzerland – lies in between - don’t our regional tradi... Food Society Dec 3, 2024
Karin Frick: “When the motor came along, horses didn't all of a sudden become extinct” What makes a particular technology ‘game-changing’? Finance is vitally important. A technology must provide opportunity for use in business cases to attract the funding required for research and to dr... Society Technology Nov 29, 2024
Getting the right deals done Negotiating with an AI? Of course, Maya Ben Dror says: „It will be a gamechanger. New research shows AI reduces nearly all the human biases in negotiations.” A digital counterpart will focus on the ve... Society Technology Nov 26, 2024
Lauding the unpredictable Douglas Rushkoff is very much a welcome guest at GDI events. A radical advocate of the human use of new technologies and media, he has presented his findings on social media and currencies at several ... Technology Nov 5, 2024
“We deploy AI to address various target groups in a standardised way” The audience agreed that the live recording of the ‘Retail Reality Show’ podcast was not just entertaining, but also provided some fascinating insights into the specific application of AI. The GDI’s I... Retail Technology Oct 24, 2024
Old furniture, fresh impetus ‘Der Schweizerische Hausigentümer’: Vintage furniture is very much in vogue. What social and ecological factors have contributed to this trend? Gianluca Scheidegger : The trend towards vintage furnitu... Retail Sustainability Oct 21, 2024
Daron Acemoglu's vision for the future of human-centred AI This week, the renowned economist, together with Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson, received the highest honour in his field – the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Looking back, his presentation at... Retail Technology Oct 17, 2024
Experiences instead of products In his presentation on the "experience economy" at the 74th International Retail Summit, Avantgarde Group CEO Marc Schumacher highlighted the extent to which consumer behaviour has changed. The state ... Retail Society Oct 10, 2024