Maimuna Mosser has been Country Director of Google Austria since March. Yesterday she came directly from Silicon Valley (USA) to the OÖN Digital Days in Linz and spoke on stage about the challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) and what role Austria can play in this.
“I am convinced that AI will continue to influence our lives. And it also has a lot of potential for creating value in Austria,” said Mosser. A Google study for Austria shows that this potential is 35 to 40 billion euros over the next ten years. According to these estimates, this could create around 2.8 million jobs. This is “quite impressive” and accounts for around eight percent of the gross domestic product. According to Mosser, there is no need to be afraid of digitalization: a maximum of six percent of jobs are actually questioned by AI, and these people will then have to be deployed elsewhere.
“No unsolvable tasks”
Compared to the USA, the Europeans and Austrians still have some catching up to do in digital, “especially when it comes to development and innovation”. In addition, according to Mosser, digital talent needs to be promoted more, but the tasks “are not unsolvable.”
Europe and Austria are important markets for Google; here it is a particularly big issue to “encourage companies to digitize their business areas and processes and to use innovations,” said Mosser. Europe – and Austria in particular – is less risk-averse than the USA, for example. This could lead to competitive disadvantages in the short and long term.
For Google itself, artificial intelligence will play an even more important role in all areas in the future. Thanks to Google Workspace – with around three billion users – you can reach a lot of people. “It’s all about becoming more productive,” says Mosser. Annoying tasks, such as summarizing emails or travel expenses, could increasingly be taken over by intelligent, digital assistants – such as Google Gemini. In short: “things that make your life easier”.
Innovations as a “privilege”
On stage, Mosser also spoke about her own career – “from hairdresser to head of Google Austria”. She used to actually want to become a hairdresser, “but unfortunately my talent was running out.” So Mosser initially ended up in the media industry – standard in the early years, later she worked for media agencies and most recently in management positions at Ikea. “For me, going to Google was a logical step,” says Mosser. It’s not far from a European company to an American one – clear goals and a culture of error that promotes innovation are crucial there. Her advice to young entrepreneurs: “Have fun learning,” because innovation is a privilege.
Mosser calls the triumph of AI “a paradigm shift.” It is the third major one, after the Internet and the smartphone. The head of Google Austria advises all companies to deal with this because it will have a strategic influence on most business areas.
The conversation with Maimuna Mosser was also recorded for the “Club der Cleveren” podcast and will be posted soon for listening.
Also read the pros and cons about AI Page 6
