The Good Future: Humanity in an AI-Driven Era (Gerd Leonhard Complete Keynote DHL New Energy Conference ’26)

The next ten years will bring more change to our world than the previous one hundred years (no, that's not hyperbole). We are moving rapidly out of the era of extraction - where we mined oil & fossil fuels, land & agriculture, and then, data - and are entering a massive civilizational reset driven by AI and the intelligence revolution. This is a powerful yet challenging convergence of three major shifts: the digital transformation, the sustainable transition where "green is the new digital," and the human transformation (new economics, and the shift towards purpose). We must now focus on using these amazing technologies to empower us, to cognify and augment ourselves rather than to pursue full automation and end up with "cognitive surrender," delegating our thinking to machines. While AI's excel at raw logic, they completely lack our uniquely human-only skills like intuition, emotional intelligence, creativity, and wisdom (but yes, sure they will attempt to simulate them ;). To build a truly "good future," we cannot rely on technology alone; we must balance our advanced tools and 'digital agents' with a clear telos—the Greek word for purpose and direction. The future is not a predetermined path, and it does not simply happen to us!  Youtube