News & articles by our team of futurists

  • Why the Major Push for AI May Prove Revolutionary

    AI agents are moving from idea to practice, powered by reasoning language models capable of planning, remembering, and managing ever‑longer chains of tasks. Automation is shifting from deterministic rules to probabilistic judgment. This pushes human value creation toward clearer goal‑setting and smarter process design. At the same time, the threshold for building tailor‑made software is collapsing. So, what does this mean for organisations that want to keep up?

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  • Future-Proofing the Future Work

    A multi-uncertain world, an AI revolution, and recurring crises are shifting the rules of the game. Organisations that fail to keep an eye on the future risk falling behind. But how do successful organisations actually work with future-related issues today? And what will it take to succeed tomorrow?

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  • If the city is a technology, can we use scenario thinking to design what it should solve for in the future?

    Cities are slow-changing technologies. How can we build and design them for fast-moving and uncertain worlds? Scenario thinking might help.

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  • Future thinking in a transforming economy

    When Kairos Future was invited to lead a foresight master class at the Strategic Intelligence Forum in Harare, Zimbabwe, hosted by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), the conversation in the room quickly turned from uncertainty to opportunity. Over three intense days of lectures and workshops, industry leaders explored the areas of strategic foresight, AI and sustainability.

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  • A Management Team for The Time of Digitalization

    Digitalization and AI are rapidly reshaping how value is created and how work is organized. That imposes new minimum requirements on knowledge and ways of working for everyone in a management team. This article captures the essentials: why change is necessary, how digitalization differs from digital transformation, and the four competence domains that define the competent management team going forward.

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  • Introduction to Scenario Planning – the Tool of Our Time

    How can we possibly prepare our organizations when the future is so unpredictable?

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  • What if AI Doesn't Get Much Better? Kairos Future's Take

    In a recent New Yorker article, Cal Newport asks a provocative question: What if AI doesn’t get much better than this? The piece examines the rise and recent slowing of large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s GPT series. After years of hype around “scaling laws” – the idea that ever-bigger models would inevitably deliver ever-bigger breakthroughs – the release of GPT-5 has led to a wave of disappointment. Instead of a new leap, we have seen incremental improvements, fuelling scepticism that current approaches can truly deliver artificial general intelligence (AGI).

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  • AI in Strategy Work? A Pilot Study from Real Life

    AI is on everyone’s lips. Expectations are high, but so is uncertainty. What can the technology actually contribute? How can organisations avoid being dazzled by hype and instead create real value? In such situations, running an AI pilot can be an excellent first step – not trying to do everything at once, but testing, learning, building competence, and creating value in a concrete use case.

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  • Can citizens' assemblies save democracy?

    Democracy is declining in different parts of the world, and something must be done about it. Citizens' assemblies create conditions for collective decision-making that both includes and informs the residents – perhaps a way to counter this development?

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  • Foresight-Based Hunting Grounds

    The world as we know it, is changing rapidly. Customer expectations are shifting. Technology is constantly redefining what is possible and what is expected. At the same time, organizations face the increasingly complex task of determining where to focus their innovation efforts. As options multiply and the landscape reshapes in real-time, foresight-based hunting grounds offer a vital sense of direction.

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  • Do you really know what we do?

    To many, we are mostly known as speakers and report authors. But that’s not where we spend most of our working hours. We are strategy consultants.

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  • Curiosity and Courage are the Core Assets in the New Normal

    For more than 30 years, I’ve devoted myself to understanding “where we’re headed”, helping companies and organizations do the same – understanding where the world is going, how to relate to forces you can’t control (whether to sidestep them or ride the wave), and how to handle the things you can control.

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  • "Mission-Driven Government" – The British Search for the Society of the Future

    How can public actors tackle complex societal challenges faster, smarter, and with greater impact? This question is highly relevant for many of our clients and Europe as a whole. This article offers a quick overview of what in the UK is called mission-driven government. It outlines four principles and eight success factors, all drawn from the British innovation agency Nesta.

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  • Innovations three horizons

    In traffic, you look ahead and adapt to what is coming. When you run, you scan the terrain to plan your steps. Our ability to anticipate and analyze change helps us navigate a changing world – and the same principle applies to innovation.

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  • From Vision to Action

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  • When Societies Fall – A Reflection on What we can Learn from Crises, Power Plays & Visions

    The time of crises is here. Wars, climate change, pandemics and polarization are testing societies. Why do some collapse under the pressure while others survive - or even thrive?

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  • The Future Barometer: Where is the Future?

    In this Future Barometer, in the fall of 2024, we take a global perspective. Which parts of the world do leaders and managers in Sweden today think are most important to monitor, and where are the blind spots – what important progress, events, and developments do the Swedish business intelligence agencies risk missing? As usual, we also visit the Future Index, which is currently not moving significantly – as in the previous survey, the Swedish economy seems to be in a standby, without any significant development. Hopefully it will shift sooner or later.

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  • How to stay ahead of the curve

    In the first article of this series, we explored how organizations can use the TAIDA framework for strategic foresight to prepare for uncertainty in an increasingly volatile world. Now, we take a closer look at the first two steps of the TAIDA framework — Tracking and Analyzing — and dive into the methods that organizations can use to monitor the external environment and analyze their findings for strategic decision-making. These steps are crucial for anticipating changes, capitalizing on opportunities, and avoiding disruptions. We explore how effective trend tracking and analysis can help you stay ahead of the curve and ensure long-term robustness. Let´s dive in!

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  • Boosting Business Intelligence With AI

    Imagine having an employee who gathers relevant information around the clock about what is happening in the world, what customers, competitors, and other key players are doing, thinking, and feeling – in news or social media, in reports she finds or you upload, in patents, scientific articles, or internal documents. All the things you ask it to look for that are critical to keeping track of short- and long-term risks and opportunities.

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  • Preparing for Uncertainty in a Highly Uncertain World

    At Kairos Future, we talk about the two forces pushing and pulling us towards the future; the WANT and the SHOULD (or MUST) principles. We all, both as individuals and as organizations, have a vision of what we WANT – a compelling idea of what and where we want to be at some point in the future. But then there is the SHOULD, what we should or must take notice of and continuously monitor to keep being relevant, viable and robust in the future.

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  • Future Barometer: Coffee for the future?

    We see a sluggish plateau in optimism for the future in this month's Future Barometer – but things look brighter for some than others. In this survey, we've looked at how we eat in the workplace, linked to Kairos Future's insights on food.

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  • Scenario Planning: More Than a Workshop Method

    Scenario planning is not just a tool for strategy processes in boardrooms or future-proofing business models. Our ability to imagine, anticipate, and prepare for what lies ahead is a fundamental aspect of our cognitive evolution and our progress as a species. Therefore, we can see scenario planning as a reflection of something much deeper – our inherent human capacity to envision multiple futures.

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  • The Ironic Generation and their Midlife Crisis

    People who belong to the Ironic Generation - also known as Generation X - were born between 1965 and 1984. As their name suggests, they have long used irony as a way to protect themselves from a mean and all-too-serious world. Nowadays, their ironic and lighthearted attitude is threatened, mainly by the phenomenon commonly referred to as the midlife crisis; the realization that one's body is all too fragile, that one has aging parents who need support and children who can make it on their own, perhaps even a career that has reached a dead end. Life marches on relentlessly, with no respect for the limited time we have left and the fact that many of us would rather be doing something else. What does this mean for the future of Generation X? We revisited our 2017 report to see what is happening to this generation as they approach retirement age.

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  • Time to reinvent knowledge work with strategies for productivity and well-being

    The future of knowledge work is about technology and people, and how to get them to work together. Clearly, the topic is relevant. The hopes and fears surrounding the ChatGPT breakthrough and the popularity of self-help books for professionals demonstrate that the ideal way of life in knowledge economy organizations is not well-defined. To define it, there is much to be learned from history, as a look back at two of history's greatest knowledge workers shows.

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  • The Future of Human-Machine Collaboration

    In the rapidly evolving energy sector, strategic foresight is essential. In this project, we partnered with leading energy companies and consulting firm Profu to create scenarios for the future of energy markets. By integrating energy industry expertise with advanced AI tools, we developed detailed, actionable scenarios that help our clients navigate uncertainty and make informed strategic decisions.

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  • Why you Need Strategic Foresight to Harness AI’s Potential for Disruptive Transformation

    In the rapidly evolving landscape of business, there's a singular issue that commands the attention of almost every organization: the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). This transformative force is not just a buzzword; it's a paradigm shift. For many organizations and businesses, an understanding of how to strategically navigate this shift will be what separates those who survive (or worse) from those who thrive and grow.  

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  • Attracting and retaining young talent – how?

    When you think about your future, what do you dream of? "A good job," say 43% of Generation Z. But what is a good job for this generation? Many older people look at the younger generation and see them as unmotivated and unfocused – do they even want to work?

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  • To Lead in Uncertain Times

    After a few turbulent years, many leaders are probably tired of dealing with uncertainty and working against the wind. Having to lay off employees is heartbreaking, and it's common to feel a sense of Sisyphean effort when new initiatives you've been working on have to be canceled. Others may be energized by the challenges and see every crisis as an opportunity to learn and grow.

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  • Why Leading Companies Work with Foresight

    The world around us is full of clues. They point us to changes that may happen in the coming years and decades and could alter the rules of the game for many. Entire industries can be revolutionized by what a small company does in a garage. Given that these revolutions seem to be accelerating, organizations have developed special tools to stay ahead of the game.

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  • Wellness for the Soul

    Statistics on mental health and meaninglessness point to the need to change the way we live, care for our health and work on healing. Young people today experience anxiety about twice as often as young people at the turn of the millennium, and about 40% of the Swedish population agree either with the statement that life is meaningless or that they are dissatisfied with their existence. Many also experience stress because the world feels insecure and unstable. What are the future keys to spiritual well-being?

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  • Knowledge-Building Leadership

    Everyone is looking for skilled employees - but how do you get them? The answer to this question is multifaceted and may require long strategy processes and large investments. With that in mind, it is perhaps not surprising that many managers wonder whether they could cultivate the right skills themselves - much like the consumer who starts planting potatoes in the garden in times of high food prices. The answer is that you can; it is possible to create competence within organizations, and it is becoming increasingly important to understand and manage the competence and knowledge you have as an organization today. 

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  • Scenario Planning to Rapidly Increase Resilience

    With the help of scenario planning and other foresight methods, most organizations can quickly improve their ability to deal with uncertainty, increase their mental preparedness and thus their resilience to unforeseen events. 

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  • Sustainable Gifts, Unclear Goals

    In the last Future Barometer of the year, we have asked questions about sustainability and circular economy to the members of Kairos Future Friends, our network of people in managing positions around Sweden, both in the private and public sector.

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  • The Art of Long Term Planning

    Switching between short-term and long-term planning is an art. Even though short-term perspectives seem overwhelming right now, companies still have a lot to gain from thinking long-term. In this article, we’d like to provide you with some inspiration on how to practice long-term thinking. It is precisely in periods of economic turbulence like this one it is needed the most.

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  • Dreams of AI at Work

    A mini-study on how generative AI is redrawing the map for analytics and knowledge production.

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  • In the Midst of a Paradigm Shift: What Can Burning Man Teach Us About Prototyping a New Society?

    Join us as Kairos Future's future strategist Åsa Jonsson explores how Burning Man can be a cradle for the new society. Burning Man is a context where new ideas can be developed, the project as a whole is a prototype for an alternative system of meaning and provides conditions for individuals and collectives to practice dealing with complexity.

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  • How to Think about the Future and Succeed with your Strategy

    A successful strategy helps organizations shape their own future and avoid surprises. A robust strategy takes its cue from changes in the world, helps achieve the organization’s vision and leverages all its assets. TAIDA is a model and a methodology, as well as a process for developing future-proof strategies and acting on them. This article describes the components of the model and how it can be used in practice. In addition, we provide our top tips for a suc- cessful strategy process.

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  • The AI Artist

    Artificial intelligence is an elusive and vague term that can mean anything from simple algorithms to complex neural networks – but in modern times it has increasingly become synonymous with the later, especially as services like ChatGPT have rapidly taken the world by storm. So-called "generative" AI services are capable of generating new content – hence the name – and are at least somewhat creative. But if creativity is no longer something unique to humans, but something that can be managed by a machine, what does this mean for the future of humanity? And how do we define it?

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  • Meaning and the search for myth

    In 1991, in the autumn of his life, the American existentialist psychoanalyst Rollo May wrote the book The Cry for the Myth. In it, he argues that the root of 'evil', all the turmoil and anxiety of the American people in the late 20th century, comes from the loss of myths, stories that can provide guidance, direction and stability in an increasingly fast-paced world.

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  • The Great Data Chaos (Radical Retail part 5/5)

    Over the past five or ten years, data and tech has become the new geopolitical and business battlefield. National as well as corporate competitiveness is increasingly built on the ability to accumulate and capitalize on data, and especially consumer data. But consumers are getting more restrictive in what they share, and thus harder to track. The data war is on.

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  • China Inc, squashed hopes or a sovereign path? Revisiting scenarios for China’s creative economy

    Over the past twenty years or so, relations with China have undergone a tumultuous journey. As China has reminded the world that it is not a blank slate for the rest of the world to write on but has its own ambitions, the climate has shifted from unbridled optimism to increased skepticism or fear. At the same time, China remains an important trading partner and central to achieving all global sustainability goals.

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  • From swimming pools to solar panels

    After decades of economic growth, low inflation and low interest rates, homeowners had become accustomed to living in a world where credit was cheap and property prices kept rising. Suddenly, the 2020s forced society to leave this fantasy world and deal with reality. This reality not only includes economic deterioration, but also looming security threats from both foreign powers and climate change that may alter how homeowners view their precious homes.

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  • It’s High Time for New Visions

    Humankind is always on the way to a better world, and as soon as we arrive, we leave for an even better place we have envisioned. For many years, in Sweden this vision was the Folkhemmet (the people’s home = the social welfare state organising society like a family), manifested in the three Vs: villa – vovve – Volvo (to own a house – a dog – a Volvo car). But where are the visions that today can both attract and unite, give hope and inspire? To make us feel that we all are part of an important, shared project? Where each brick we contribute is more than a brick, it is central to building the cathedral of the future. Could it be that the current lack of vision is at the root of a rapidly growing sense of meaninglessness?

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  • Mytopian Retail (Radical Retail part 4/5)

    Individuals and communities are increasingly becoming centers of gravity for attention and communication, as well as co-producers of ideas, goods and experiences. Each person becomes the center in their own utopian retail-verses – or Mytopias.

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  • Do we take Growth for Granted?

    Is the endless story of infinite growth coming to an end? For 250 years, growth in every sense of the word has been synonymous with the capitalist success story – is the story over?

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  • Fact-Driven Skills and Competence Provision: The Art of Not Looking for a Needle in a Haystack

    In the wake of the recession, it is tempting to put the brakes on hiring. But the need to control costs in the short term should not make you lose track of the long term. On the contrary, times of crisis are exactly the right time to take steps to prepare for the future. Skills and competences are one such issue. According to 3,000 European and Asian business leaders, getting the right skills is the biggest strategic challenge facing companies and organizations in both the short and long term. This is despite the economic uncertainty many are currently experiencing. 

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  • From Manpowered to AI-powered (Radical Retail part 3/5)

    Did you like a nice shirt on Instagram or TikTok but commented that you would prefer it in green? Imagine that your idea is picked up, quickly produced and delivered to you by Postnord's delivery robot Hugo already two days later. Welcome to a world of RADICAL retail.

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  • The breakthrough of AI is now

    The Internet hit the mainstream in 1993 with the launch of the first graphical browser, Mosaic. Things really took off the following year with the launch of Netscape Navigator in October 1994. But despite the availability of easy-to-use Web browsers, it took time for the general public to get access to computers and Internet connections via modems, and to start e-mailing and surfing.

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  • What’s NXT: Phygital Experience (Radical retail part 2/5)

    What will shopping be like in 2030? Today, we observe a boom in technologies that enable personalized experiences, mixing of the virtual and physical as well as automation of many service steps in the customer journey. Technology is enabling a new generation of store experiences, and they are making shopping both more exciting and involving and, in addition, almost friction free.

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  • What’s NXT: Regenerative Retail (Radical Retail part 1/5)

    Today, we are in the middle of the third retail revolution, characterized by automation, social involvement, and embeddedness. Shoppers and communities are increasingly becoming co-creators, and the physical world is merging with the digital, which is on its way to manifest in the metaverse. This shift is happening in parallel with a dire need to adapt practices to the limits of life and resources of our planet.

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  • What’s NXT: The Future of Sustainability

    Issues of sustainability have always affected societies, albeit in different shapes and forms. Whether it was the wood crisis that plagued our early industrialization or the ozone crisis, we are constantly dealing with the impacts of our consumption. Now that we have “gone global” since the 1990's, sustainability is taking on an even more complex shape. The next decades will see the emergence of new environmental and sustainability issues. What can we expect in the future?

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  • What’s NXT: Understanding the blockchain startup landscape using AI

    What if you could read the minds of a thousand entrepreneurs and see what their visions for the future are? What insights could you gain? What if you could also know who is receiving investments from leading venture capital firms? In this article, we describe how you can use startup landscapes to better prepare for the future, with blockchain startups as an example.

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  • What's NXT: These are the five challenges leaders must know for the future of work

    The last few years have seen a series of uncertainties in the world of work. Digital disruption was followed by a pandemic and in its aftermath, the leadership in organizations worldwide must deal with an increasingly hybrid work life. At the same time, growing sustainability requirements and a rocky labor market combined with a war in Ukraine is setting the stage for a turbulent world that disturbs supply chains and creates anxiety among both customers and employees.

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  • Longing for Spring

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  • What’s NXT: The competent management team of the future

    All organizations live in a landscape of obligations and opportunities, and as that landscape changes, so do the skill requirements of the management teams who are tasked with leading the business. In this article, we take a closer look at the competences that digitalization will require of each member of the future competent management team.

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  • What’s NXT: How to think about the future and succeed with your strategy

    A successful strategy helps organizations shape their own future and avoid surprises. A robust strategy takes its cue from changes in the world, helps achieve the organization’s vision and leverages all its assets. TAIDA is a model and a methodology, as well as a process for developing future-proof strategies and acting on them. This article describes the components of the model and how it can be used in practice. In addition, we provide our top tips for a successful strategy process.

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  • What’s NXT: Why Companies that Work with Foresight are Leading

    The world around us is full of clues. They point us to changes that may happen in the coming years and decades and could alter the rules of the game for many. Entire industries can be revolutionized by what a small company does in a garage. Given that these revolutions seem to be accelerating, organizations have developed special tools to stay ahead of the game.

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  • Case: 
Foresight-driven strategy in South American region Atlántico

    The Department of Atlántico has a strategic and unique position in northern Colombia. Its capital Barranquilla is the seaport to Colombia, as it sits on the Magdalena River outlet facing the Caribbean Basin and the Atlantic Ocean. It also has important industries, for example in agribusiness. As for any region, Atlántico is subject to tough competition and thus needs to develop its capabilities.

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  • What's NXT: The [digital] organisations of the future are agile

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  • What’s NXT: (Digital) transformation — four strategies of the highly successful

    The signs are everywhere. We've taken a big leap in digitalization during the pandemic, especially in our daily lives. We shop, work, and hold meetings online to an extent not imagined as late as two years ago. Studies show that firms and organizations that were ahead in digitalization at the eve of the pandemic have pulled ahead even more since then. Those who've put off their digitalization efforts struggle to catch up, causing what we call "digital anxiety" – an affliction affecting actors in all industries. The question they ask themselves is a broad one: How can we use digitalization to create better and more relevant offers for our customers?

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  • What's NXT in business intelligence and insight production – a personal research bot for everyone

    For almost ten years, digital assistants like Siri have been able to give us answers to simple questions. But for a long time, we've lacked the tools that can really help analysts and experts quickly get through large masses of text or to automate research work. But now, those days are gone. At Kairos Future, we have been using the latest AI methods for over ten years in order to streamline research work and create solutions for our customers. Now, those methods are also available to others. And shortly, we can all have our own personal research bot. In fact, it’s already almost here.

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  • Kairos Future takes on Nexer as majority shareholder – strengthening end-to-end competence in digitalization

    Kairos Future welcomes the global tech company Nexer as majority shareholder to accelerate the journey towards the core vision – a world where everyone puts future first. The news was released in multiple media last week. An unexpected choice for some, a clear decision for us. Here is the analysis underlying it.

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  • What's NXT: Long-term thinking in uncertain times

    In the light of last year's events, many wonder if planning for the long-term is worth it. Many, if not most, were taken aback by just how much a virus could disrupt the "normal" state of the world. Back in February 2020, for example, the Swedish Public Health Agency predicted the impacts wouldn't significantly affect Sweden.

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  • What’s NXT: The Art of the Long Term

    Switching between short-term and long-term planning is an art. Even though short-term perspectives seem overwhelming right now, companies still have 
a lot to gain from thinking long-term. For more than 25 years, Kairos Future has assisted companies and organizations in understanding and shaping their future. In this article, we’d like to provide you with some inspiration for how to do this ”long-term thinking” that everyone is talking about. It is precisely in periods of economic turbulence like this one it is needed the most.

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  • What's NXT: When work-life is shaken, offices may need to be stirred

    The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has required most office-based workplace leaders to double down on future-thinking. After an optimistic spring in 2020 where a swift recovery seemed to be on the agenda, the prospects of virtual life are more real than ever, at least for a while longer. The overarching question many wrestle with is, of course: what happens when the pandemic is over? Will offices flourish as they did pre-pandemic, or will our new habits of working from home, dog-walking, and the absence of commuting hours keep people out of offices?

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  • What’s NXT: 8 decisive trends the manufacturing sector should know to stay competitive in the future

    The manufacturing industry will undergo radical change over the next ten years. Of course, some smaller and niche manual manufacturing will prevail. But what about the rest? Who will survive the ever-growing competition brought by faster and more effective manufacturing? Are large corporations favored over medium-sized companies?

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  • What’s NXT: Post-pandemic behavioral changes

    For the past six to eight months, after the coronavirus took over the agenda globally, the majority of people have been forced to change and alter their behaviors.  ose who can are working from home, we have reduced our social network and started to meet up digitally instead, even our consumption habits have changed foregoing new clothes and shoes when we cannot go out. Opting instead for things that give us comfort – food, sweatpants, and other everyday luxuries. And not to forget, we don’t travel. At least not internationally.

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  • Getting to NXT – Kairos Future’s framework for disruptive times!

    Regardless of whether we think about the coming months, years or decades, much points in the direction of a tipping point. And tipping points often means existential crises. Old thinking needs to be replaced by something new. Old habits need to be thrown away and painful re-learning processes be started.

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  • What‘s NXT: Data-driven Masterclass:

    Covid-19 has accelerated a lot of trends, not least within digitalization and data analytics, which means that a lot of companies and organizations need to go through a digital transformation journey in the next couple of years. Transformation isn’t easy, sometimes even painful, the questions are many and the road ahead is often long and crocked.

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  • What’s next: What happens to travel and tourism?

    While parts of business and society are now on a path towards establishing a “new normal”, for much of the tourism industry, crisis is still ongoing. The summer season has provided much‑needed income for several players, but the overall situation is far from stable, and it is unclear how many companies will be able to cope beyond the post-crisis support period. For some, looking forward, next summer feels unthinkably far ahead. In spite of this, it is worth thinking about the future of travel in general. How does it look? And how do we get there?

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  • The future of gaming and e-sports

    When we talk about fundamental human needs, we sometimes forget the need for challenge – the need to face trial, persevere, and prove one’s skill. Innumerable consultants point towards Maslow’s pyramid of needs to explain complex behaviors, pointing out that man does not live by bread alone but that humans also require context, confidence and self-actualization. Perhaps the most ubiquitous way to achieve the latter is overcoming difficulty. When the local sports team wins, when the puzzle is completed, when the summit has been reached – many live entirely for these feelings of victory. For many, the best is to experience victory as a team, overcoming challenges together.

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  • New consumption behaviors emerging from the global coronavirus pandemic

    To map the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on behavior and consumption, we’ve analyzed over ten million social media posts, in addition to other digital footprints (including app downloads and search statistics). The stories that people in Sweden and around the world share about the new reality they are in help us to understand how behaviors and consumption patterns are changing. Overall, we find that the crisis has accelerated ongoing behavioral changes, giving rise to new trends. Below are five selected insights from the study:

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  • The Phoenix Bird

    In the Swedish hospitality industry, people talk about “Black Friday”, Friday, March 13, 2020. That was when the cancellations began to roll in, after Sweden announced a ban on March 11 for gatherings of more than 500 people. The situation became progressively worse as regulations for social distancing tightened. An entire industry, which, in the face of crisis, would normally roll up its sleeves and get to work, soon found itself in a collective depression. Madeleine Brehmer, CEO of Sabis AB, shared her perspective on the situation in a LinkedIn post on March 25:

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  • Three steps to innovation in times of crisis

    Kairos Futures surveys demonstrate that an ever-increasing number of organizations have found a new normal in the heart of an acute crisis and that many of those organizations gaze towards a future where everything has come back to normal and the wheels of the economy circulate once again. How should you think in order to arise stronger from this crisis and pinpoint your innovations now, as well as in the long run? Both of these aspects are important, and at the same time, they define the most crucial obstacle facing innovation for most organizations, namely: Finding a way to deliver the appropriate solution in an effective method here and now, but at the same time coping with producing the right services and products in the long run.

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  • To lead in Chaos

    With an ongoing pandemic and a turbulent stock-market, most CEO’s and Managers are occupied with coping with these swift and harsh alterations. Leading in chaos is not only about keeping several balls in the air at the same time or choosing between plague or cholera. Leading in chaos is also about being able to see what comes after the disarraying now and to accumulate a readiness for what comes next. By doing so, one possesses the calming virtues necessary for instilling bravery and hope to the own organization, but also future preparedness by harnessing strategies for what comes next.

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  • Generation Z, shapers of the future of work-life

    Generation Z – young people born between 1995 and 2005 – is a complex generation. They are very capable in gathering knowledge intelligently and are technically more equipped than any previous generation. However, they are fronting an adult life where man and machine need to collaborate side by side on a whole new level, where development goes so quickly that it might feel distressing. Generation Z gazes at their future work- life with fear and wonder. They put high demands on both the employer – and themselves – and are worried about not being able to do good enough. But they also have ambitions to shape a new world, with guiding ideals both in the small world and in the big world.

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  • The new innovation arena and the innovative Sweden

    That Sweden is innovative is a message that is often hammered home, both here in Sweden and in the international press. We often place, if not at the top, then at least amongst the best, often in the company with such countries as neighboring countries, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Korea and Japan. Both in rankings produced by international organizations as well as in research reports on the subject.

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  • A new, AI-powered paradigm for contextual analysis

    Most of the world’s valuable information is unstructured. It exists in the form of texts, images, videos, and audio internally within organizations and externally across the vast digital information universe. It grows rapidly in size: the size of all digitally stored information has doubled in size every second year, and this growth is set to continue.

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  • The Smart SeniorMunicipality

    The demographic challenges for municipalities are frequently discussed – to make sure that seniors receive services they are entitled to. It is tempting to put hope in welfare technology, but there are still many other matters that require more research within the field. One can learn a lot from the seniors who are front runners in the use of digital tools. Kairos Future is tracking in an ongoing research project about how these seniors make their way through their everyday lives and what development projects they pursue themselves. What are their most valuable digital tools? What have been the most important changes in their homes during their lives? And, not to forget: What are the solutions they hope to see in a short time from now?

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  • Who is GenZ?

    Generation Z – or GenZ - is the name of the young generation born between 1995 and 2005. By some people, they have been described as the ”hopeless generation”, and their values are influenced by the time after September 11th and the Climate Change awareness. We could also call them the “pragmatic generation”, since they literally go to direct action, though how and why they do it can vary very much.

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  • Rewriting the social contract

    13 SEK in the next twenty years – that’s the increase in taxation needed according to researcher Rolf Solli at the University of Borås if Sweden is to manage its social care needs. A challenge many countries are facing right now.

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  • The future of leisure

    A new wave of automation is upon us. In light of these changes, we could end up with a lot more leisure than today – or a lot less. Very likely it will not be evenly distributed. However, automation, digitalization and new technology also mean more ways to spend our free time, regardless of how much of it we may have. ”Free time” is relatively new as a concept – as old as industrialization – and has looked much the same since the nineteenth century. But how might it look different in the future?

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  • AI: the engine that extracts the power of consumer data

    Artificial intelligence is opening up a new window into the digital traces that consumers have shared for several years, that we haven’t been able to interpret fully before. Now, new data-driven consumer insights and groundbreaking ways to work with segmentation are within reach.

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  • Beyond clickonomics

    From the days of the ”yellow press” to the clickbait and fake news of the 21st century – journalism has come far, but retains a complex relationship with attention, propaganda, and advertising. But will modern ’clickonomics’ really be a sustainable and reliable way to fund media operations in the long run – and if not, what sort of systems might take its place? What has changed in the world of media, and what changes might we expect in the future? And what will the journalist of the future really be like?

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  • Inequalities of the Future

    The 20th century was an incredible journey of increased equality, in Sweden, in the West, and eventually in the world at large. However, the past few decades have seen the trend turn around in many parts of the world.

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  • Scenario planning can guide you through a disruptive world

    Spotify has changed the core of the music industry. Skype has changed the perception of communication. Airbnb is the world’s biggest hotel chain and Uber the the world’s biggest taxi company, without owning neither hotels nor taxis.

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  • The home of the future: A place for life, care, and work

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  • Cyborg Society

    From smart watches to sensors in our clothes – machines move closer and closer to our skin and soon, perhaps, all the way into our bodies. How does a society look in which digitally enhanced bodies become the norm?

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  • Urbanization! ...or not?

    The Swedish population statistic for 2018 has arrived, a highlight of the year for everyone with an interest in how municipalities and regions are developing populationwise.

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  • Block chain inspired solutions for accounting, auditing, and taxation

    FAR, the Swedish Tax Agency, Kairos Future, Visma, Fortnox and FAR members Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and Grant Thornton have been working on solutions inspired by the block chain for accounting, taxation, and auditing. 

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  • Towards tomorrow’s career

    A career is not what it once was. 20 years ago the definition was clear: the objective was to become successful within a large organization or to create one’s own success as a self-employed entrepreneur. Often it came down to reaching a leader position, having a high salary, or a prestigious title. In some respects, this definition is applicable today, but only partially and not for everyone.

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  • New conditions for work and regional future

    Throughout history, production and consumption have shaped our local communities. Centuries old organizational and social structures are now colliding with new technological achievements and living conditions. Each community is changing in unique patterns through combinations of gradual and revolutionary transformations.

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  • Will AI change contextual analysis as we know it?

    In 2016, history was made. Lee Sedol, heralded as one of the most accomplished professional Go players of recent decades, was defeated by a rookie in front of 80 million spectators. While Sedol slumped in his chair, defeated and resigned, his opponent remained silent. How had experts, reporters, and even Sedol himself been so wrong in their predictions leading up to the match?

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  • The attractive organization of tomorrow

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  • The new trinity of innovation

    For years, innovation has been the top priority among many companies. No wonder considering that the rate of change is increasing in most industries and that business executives estimate the average lifespan of existing business models to be no more than 4 years.

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  • Is there a future for honesty?

    Honorable 1. In accordance with or characterized by principles of honor; upright 2. Characterized by integrity: guided by a keen sense of duty and ethical conduct Synonyms: ethical, honest, just, righteous, upright

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  • Kairos Future helps non-profit organization We effect with contextual analysis

    Every year, Kairos Future partners with a charitable organization with limited resources, offering them a contextual analysis pro bono. This week, 2018’s recipient of Kairos Future’s unique offer was announced: We Effect. During the partnership Kairos Future and We Effect will examine which trends affect Swedes’ future desire to donate money.

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  • The hopeless (?) generation takes the stage

    In 2001, the World Trade Center falls and shortly thereafter the US goes to war. In 2008, the world economy collapses in the wake of Lehman Brothers. In 2010 the Arab Spring sweeps across the Middle East, leading to conflict, a refugee crisis and humanitarian disaster. On top of all this, accelerating climate change brings about floods, hurricanes and forest fires in rapid succession. This is the only world the hopeless generation (Generation Z), born 1995-2005, have ever known. It isn’t too surprising they feel hopeless.

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  • Ahead of the election: seven types of citizens that are affecting the Swedish society, today and tomorrow

    Everywhere one looks – from bus advertising to news editorials and online trolls’ posts, even as far as in the latest Disney movie The Incredibles 2 – the future of society and the role of its citizens is being discussed. But who is the citizen of the future?

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  • World’s first certification for Innovation management professionals

    Will a certification create innovation? No, unfortunately it isn't that simple. However, Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) is launching the world’s first certification course for Innovation management professionals.

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  • How do we deliver healthcare in the future?

    Tomorrow's digitized care-intensive home will involve a lot more actors and resources than today, with higher demands on coordination. With the needs of the individual in mind, the development of supply and logistics will have to ensure that medicines, medical tools and consumables are the delivered to the right place, at the right time.

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  • When oddity becomes orthodox

    Being human means being caught between two instincts – the desire to belong and the desire to stand out. In time, what this means is that something unique, deviant, differing or odd often becomes something regular, as more and more people begin following a trendsetter. But what determines whether something odd remains odd, or whether it becomes normalized and joins the ranks of the ordinary? What phenomena do we envy when they differ, which ones do we fear, which do we look down on? What is it that determines when something odd becomes orthodox – and is it the case that we’re becoming increasingly desensitized to what used to be shockingly different?

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  • Blockchain tested live – can save billions for house purchasers and mortgage borrowers

    Lantmäteriet (the Swedish mapping, cadastral and land registration authority), SBAB, Landshypotek Bank, Telia, ChromaWay, Evry, Skatteverket (the Swedish tax agency), Svensk Fastighetsförmedling, and Kairos Future have presented a live testing of a blockchain solution for real estate transactions. During the seminar a fully digital real estate purchase was made. The solution can contribute to the savings of at least 500 billion Euro per year for Swedish real estate buyers, sellers, and borrowers.

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  • The future of customer dialogue requires transparency and relevance

    In the future, customer dialogue will look much different in a transformed media landscape. Fast-paced digitalization brings new technological innovations, which impact how we communicate with our surroundings. New ways of communicating with our technical devices, such as voice, and new platforms for customer dialogue in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, will impact the customer buying process and create new marketing channels. With increasing amounts of customer data, Artificial Intelligence will create new possibilities for individualization of the customer dialogue. But as the debate around data collection on social media continues, will integrity beat convenience in the future?

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  • Today: science fiction. Tomorrow: reality.

    For centuries mankind has dreamed about the future; dreamed, and speculated, and invented. Science fiction is the meeting between scientific reality and fictive speculation, but it has real value when it comes to understanding how people view, understand, and relate to their future. By now a venerable branch of literature after at least 200 years, the tricks and tools of the science fiction writer have become useful for more than just entertainment and diversion. These methods offer powerful ways of understanding the immediate and long-term future for a business or an organization.

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  • Kairos' AI lab: a new approach for extracting value from data through artificial intelligence

    In recent year, we have received many requests from companies who want to understand how they can benefit from AI in their business. Some of them have set up a costly IT infrastructure to work with AI and large-scale data analysis, but have not found applications and working methods which yield a return on investment. Others are unsure how to get started with working with AI, and what value there is.

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  • Seven keys to long-term digitalization

    In a world where digital tools, processes and strategies are adopted by more and more organizations, the border between digital and analog work is rapidly blurring. But are companies prepared for this transition? How should a leader manage this rapid digitalization, and what can be done to remain competitive?

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  • Transportation – From evolution to revolution

    The revolution is around the corner! After over a hundred years of incremental development in transportation solutions we can now see a shift towards more radical development – a transportation revolution. A new era in which digitali-zation, big data and the sharing economy will alter the underlying logic of new services and products within the transportation sector.

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  • Midlife Crisis for the Ironic Generation

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  • Millennial consumption and communication

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  • Behind the scenes of your next vacation

    May is the month millions of people throughout the western world plan their summer holidays. Chances are you're in the middle of planning your own right now? Maybe you work in tourism or hospitality? This article is about those industries and the rapid changes they're goin through right now. Let's have a look behind the scenes.

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  • A home for everyone

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  • The block chain – a facilitator in healthcare data management

    Until now, the digitalisation of the healthcare domain – of medical records and of various administrative systems – has meant various problems regarding integration and difficulties when it comes to efficiency and ease of use. The block chain could be a solution.

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  • Big Brother and Little Brother – On the future of cyber security

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  • The future of Innovation

    Innovation is the new black. But how will we innovate in the future? If we look a little further ahead there are five innovation trends that are hot right now. What implications do they have for your organisation?

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  • Digital and disruptive – four key factors for digital leaders

    Digitization is scaling up to a whole new level and these shifts may, in turn, bring dramatic changes to the very foundation of the business landscape, also known as disruptive change.

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  • When the Millennials – Or Pragma Generation – takes over

    Who are they actually, the youth and young adults of today? And what will they do when they take over?

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  • Sweden launches leading blockchain solution for land registry

    The Swedish Land Registry, ChromaWay and Kairos Future have investigated the possibilities with the blockchain technology for real estate transactions.

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  • Insects, the raw material for the future of food, feed, and cosmetics

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  • Migration towards 2030 – Living with the new normal

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  • Ready, steady, share

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  • Step up with STEP!

    European research project to increase engagement in environmental issues

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  • A circular economy – on the verge of a new economic and social reality?

    Industrial society, in its traditional form, is predicated on the idea that raw materials and industrial inputs are cheap and plentiful. So cheap, in fact, that the old habits of farmers to carefully reuse everything finally gave way to far more cavalier attitude towards physical resources. But today, that assumption is looking more and more hollow, suggesting that the old wisdom is due for a comeback. The potentially revolutionary concept is called circular economy – an economic system where materials move in closed loops. Development towards a circular economy is bolstered by both technological and economic factors like digitization and innovations in the service sector, and cultural changes like an increased focus on sustainability and a distaste for waste.

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  • How will crowd affect business?

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  • The sky is not the limit!

    Something is changing. Over the past 50 years, space has never been more attractive than today.

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  • Increasing cooperation between China and the EU

    The project Dragon Star Plus aims to stimulate research, development, and cooperation between companies and institutions in China and the EU.

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  • STEP – Societal and political engagement of young people in environmental issues

    Co:tunity in european research project aiming to increase engagement in environmental issues

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  • Join in on our webinars

    The Co:tunity Breakfast webinars is new serie of short breakfast sharings for those working with innovation, marketing , product development, business strategy and trend analysis and will find place once or twice a month. Sign up, get your yummy breakfast and tune in on one, or both (its free!), of the upcoming breakfast webinars.

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  • Future Sustainable Mining in central Chile 2035

    We are currently facilitating a scenario planning process for the Future of Sustainable Mining in central Chile until 2035 for the Chilean Mining Ministry, CORFO (The Chilean Economic Development Agency) and SONAMI (The Chilean Association of Mining Companies) and a broad group of stakeholders (environmental groups, NGO’s, local communities, sociologists and energy experts).

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  • The Ice Bucket Challenge

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  • Trend Hunting in London

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  • Become an International Certified Future Strategist

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  • Trend Lab: How will our workplace change in the future?

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  • The Cry for The Crowd

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