The spotlight was on the integration of AI and platforms at the November 13th Platform Leaders conference, a London-based event organized by Launchworks & Co. that brings together entrepreneurs, policy makers, academics, investors and practitioners to exchange insights and best practices on the future of digital platforms and ecosystems.
A session on AI infrastructure which focused on how firms can access leading edge capabilities now, and in the future, (pictured here), was moderated by the Innovator’s Editor-in-Chief. Panelists urge corporates not to over-index on the current model of large language models ( LLMs) and generative AI systems. AI research will continue to evolve, so it’s important that investments focus on enabling digital infrastructure. They also agreed that AI regulations should be formulated in a more technology-agnostic way so as to be future proof.
A panel on regulating in an exponential age focused on how the U.S. and U.K. are pursuing different regulatory paths, setting the stage for divergent consumer experiences—from self-driving cars to AI services—with significant economic implications. This panel explored how regulators can keep pace with accelerating technological change and strike the delicate balance between fostering innovation and ensuring adequate regulation.
Another panel looked at how digital platforms and AI can help solve the healthcare crisis. “Platforms can be part of the answer to coordinate participants and help orchestrate the emerging healthcare systems of tomorrow,” says Launchworks & Co.’s co-founder and COO Laure Reillier, the moderator of that panel.” Since they are smaller and nimble, they can begin by complimenting existing services and eventually transform them.” (For more on this topic see The Innovator’s in-depth story on the topic.)
The conference also included forecasts for 2025 from Benoit Reillier, Launchworks & Co.’s Managing Director:
Ecosystem Competition
As businesses increasingly operate within interconnected ecosystems, competition will continue to evolve from product rivalry to competition between entire ecosystems. In 2025 expect:
- A shift from product to ecosystem competition, both on the demand and the supply side
- Ecosystem level strategies emerge to solve big problems
- Ecosystem governance and orchestration capabilities will become more important
Digital Twins
While digital twins already play a role in optimizing industrial operations, Launchworks & Co. believe their application will expand exponentially in 2025 and enable new simulations:
- Digitalization of very large systems including earth (climate simulations), countries (Central banks using agent based modeling to assess impact of interest rates at the household level) and smart cities ( traffic planning, energy usage and simulations.)
- Digital twins for organizations and ecosystems that model their ecosystems and supply chains
- Personal digital twins and even twins of our organs. (For some heart surgeries digital twins are constructed of the patient’s heart and used to test procedures)
Ultra Personalization
Consumers will expect personalized experiences and products at an unprecedented level, driven by advancements in AI and data analytics:
- Expect dynamic product and service curation for health, such as diet an food products based on your blood surgar response and microbiome composition.
- Personalized Assistants will become much smarter
- Individualized products or unique interfaces to interact your content in the way you want. (NotebookLM)
Holistic Sustainability
Ecosystems will increasingly be organized around sustainability principles:
- Sustainability will become a pillar of policy making (ESG) and new generations of consumers increasingly demand it
- Circular economy thinking (reducing, reusing, refurbishing, repairing and recycling,…) will become central to sustainable ecosystems
- Corporates will need to further decorrelate economic growth from carbon emissions.
New Regulations
The first wave of platform specific regulations will be tested and new AI specific regulations designed:
- The Digital Services Act, a European regulation aimed at reducing the distribution of illegal content and creating more transparency between online platforms and their users, and the Digital Markets Act,which aims to establish a fair and competitive digital economy, will be tested, particularly the extent to which platforms are open enough.
- AI regulations will move from ‘risk-based’ EU model to other areas
- Regulations will likely require rules of disclosure around AI
Autonomous Platforms
Platform businesses connect sides and some of those sides are going to be replaced by AI. If you take the example of taxis, Uber demonstrated how an efficient platform could grow the market. Now in some areas drivers may be replaced by AI. And it is not just transport. Quite a few platforms are seeing one of their sides potentially being automated, says Reillier. Tutoring, for example, was replaced almost overnight by ChatGPT. Here is what to expect:
- While ubiquitous self-driving cars will take time and require regulatory changes, autonomous car platforms will start their exponential growth next year. Uber, Bolt and Lyft will have to prepare for an increasingly autonomous future.
- Waymo, Wayve, Tesla, and Cruise will start scaling their ‘self-driving miles’ in 2025.
- Lots of other platforms verticals will be disrupted and will need to adapt.
To access more of The Innovator’s Key Takeaways articles click here.
