Overview:

By 2020, several key building blocks of the future tech universe have been firmly established. Significant progress in areas such as quantum computing, big data, artificial intelligence, robotics and immersive reality have been made, enabling a clearer understanding of how tech will develop in the next 10-20 years. By 2030, emerging robotics and AI will have made remarkable progress in changing the face of current industries and processes. Most fast food outlets will run mainly on robotic labour, with human labour representing only a small fraction of total spend. AI will be able to support, and eventually supplant, at least 90% of current effort implemented by service professionals such as accounting, consulting, or law.

And by 2040, we will feel comfortable enough with this technology that it will be widely adapted. Our cities, homes and workplaces will be transformed through technology and predictive analytics. Self-driving vehicles will reduce congestion and pollution. Robots will remove the need for widespread human labour. Most processes, such as financial management, will be fully automated and managed by intelligent agents, removing the need for mundane tasks like queuing at a bank or going to a supermarket for groceries.

Advances in gene therapies and biological – mechatronic interfaces will rapidly transform medical technology and health outcomes. These have the potential to not only significantly expand human lifespan, but also improve human health. At the same time, it is clear that as a society and as a government / economic policy, we are far behind the curve in understanding how these will affect our educational systems, employment and the very idea of human potential.

Comparatively few citizens will be able to adapt successfully to gainful employment (or entrepreneurship) in the future tech society. This means that families and citizens today need to start making decisions for how they will live 20 years from now. These decisions affect their own educational and investment choices, as well as the very nature of our society.

Speaker:

Philip Ammerman is a consultant, entrepreneur and investment advisor who has advised start-ups, investors and enterprises on digital disruption, internationalisation and investment-led growth since 1994. He is founder of Navigator Consulting, Numenor Capital and the Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Philip started his consultancy career in 1992. He supported the first wave of disruption in sectors such as banking and travel between 1995 and 2000, when the first dot.com crash took place. In parallel, he supported “real economy” investments, primarily in industry and manufacturing, that took place in Greece, Central & Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He has advised on over 120 investment transactions with a total investment value exceeding € 6 billion. He has multi-sectoral experience in due diligence, business planning and financial modelling, in sectors including digital/tech start-ups and scale-ups, agri-food, manufacturing and hospitality.

The Web 2.0 boom continued Philip’s engagement in the tech sector, and in 2010, he founded the Navigator Entrepreneurship Charter, an initiative to support growth in Europe by investing in 10 new start-ups and spin-offs between 2010 and 2020. In this capacity, Philip acts as early stage angel investor and board member, and has co-founded or invested in 6 start-ups so far, all in the B2B online services space. He has recently been appointed as Team Coordinator for Greece by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and is supporting innovative Greek companies in the field of competitiveness and internationalisation. Projects are underway for Mastiha shop, an innovative food, cosmetics and parapharmaceuticals firm based on Chios gum mastic products (mastiha), as well as for Milkplan, an innovative dairy equipment manufacturer.

Philip acts as regional portfolio manager for Brookstreet Equity Partners, a London-based private equity firm active in tech and innovation investments. Brookstreet recently announced its first investment in Greece, in the nanotechnology firm Nanophos. He is a non-executive director of Redfin Capital, an asset management firm, and is an evaluator for the European Union’s Horizon 2020 SME Instrument.

Philip studied at Princeton University and Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labour Relations. He is also a graduate of YCombinator’s Startup School and the Oxford Fintech Programme.

Originally from Athens, Greece, Philip is a resident in Cyprus since 2016, and travels over 250 days per year. He has implemented project work in over 40 countries, and has lived and worked in Greece, Cyprus, Germany, France and the United States.