Towards the end of the year, everybody is reflecting a bit over the past months and so do we. And what a year it was to be grateful again. Travel is back in full swing, and every forecast knows just one direction: up and to the right.
It is not only the growing middleclass, it is especially the trend for experiences over things. It can be seen as a next step in the evolutionary climb up the Maslow Pyramid and it will for sure be a long-term development, far more influential than can be described with the word “trend”.
Well, and then there is AI. It looks like we somehow reached the peak of the hype, where AI seemed to be the solution for everything, no matter if there even was a problem to begin with. Slowly but surely the shortcomings are seen clearer and the benefits are applied to use cases where they really fit. A sober reality check is almost always useful when it comes to technology, and thanks to AI this will be also true for news in general.
Unfortunately, providing intensive health care in regions and situations where medical help is not available is nothing AI could solve in the foreseeable future. For this it still needs organizations like Medicins sans frontiers, doing this immensely important work. We happily follow our year end tradition of donating, being truly grateful for their commitment to humanity.
And we are also grateful for the very pleasant and fruitful collaboration with all our customers and partners throughout the year, many of whom we are honored to call friends. To all of you, we wish you a merry Christmas and a very successful New Year, full of health and happiness!