Music professional meets futurologist

Songwriter, musician and producer James Gruntz has released six albums over the past ten years, worked with various artists and won two Swiss Music Awards, while his conversation partner, Dr. Joël Luc Cachelin, inspires and supports companies in their digital transformation with his knowledge factory. He is one of Switzerland's leading digital thought leaders, was voted into the Digital Shapers Ranking in 2017 and is a lecturer in research and development and statistics at SMI.

Digitalization will change the world

The interviewees agree on the question of whether digitalization will change our lives in the long term. But where do they see the limits? James Gruntz is of the opinion that although the digital transformation is having a major and positive impact on the music industry - away from radio and towards streaming - producing music remains manual work, because the aim of a song is to convey emotions and create a physical experience for the audience. Ultimately, James Gruntz is convinced that no machine can do that - it needs people.

Can artificial intelligence be creative?

These statements are underlined by Dr. Joël Luc Cachelin, who wonders whether artificial intelligence will also be able to be creative in the future. He is a proponent of digitalization, is fascinated by the rapid development and the almost unlimited possibilities, and therefore sees the limits as being more human than machine. Dr. Joël Luc Cachelin is convinced that technical change can only succeed if there is also a willingness to cut back in certain areas, meaning that the digital transformation requires a rethink. This concerns, for example, forms of organization and their internal power relations, networking, changes to professional profiles and, last but not least, the transfer of knowledge.

SMI educational events become a tradition

SMI invited its current and former students, lecturers, partners and friends of the institute to an educational event for the second time since 2017. Ueli Jost, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SMI Swiss Marketing Institute AG, explains: "2018 is a very special year for us. On the one hand, we celebrated our 20th anniversary on May 18 and, on the other, we are looking forward to the future with excitement. To this end, we are working on various exciting digitalization projects - without fear of contact and without losing focus on people." And Nicole Spycher, Managing Director of SMI Swiss Marketing Institute AG, adds: "As a university of applied sciences in the field of marketing, sales and communication, it is important to deal with the development of the digital future. This event also serves this purpose. We want to provide the participants with food for thought and also offer them a platform to cultivate their personal network."