THE AI INTERVIEW
“ They are not native AI, so they are not built with AI,” he says of many established suppliers.“ What I ' m looking for in a partner is something where I say,‘ this is a great solution which is helping us and adding a lot of value.’”
That search has increasingly led him increasingly towards startups, particularly those based in the US, which he believes are producing standout solutions in the agentic AI space.
Central to Lutz’ s approach is avoiding vendor lock-in, where companies become overly dependent on a single supplier’ s technology and struggle to move away.
“ What I’ m looking at is creating some kind of plug-and-play architecture where I can use a certain solution and plug it in,” he says.“ If the solution is not satisfying my needs anymore, I’ ll take it out and plug in another solution.”
Crucially, Lutz values partners whose solutions improve continuously through built-in reasoning and learning capabilities – a trait he currently associates with startups rather than more established vendors.
Embrace AI or disappear Lutz predicts that the speed of AI adoption – rather than existing domain expertise – is set to become the defining competitive factor for businesses. His warning is that companies hesitating to experiment with AI risk losing ground to competitors more willing to reshape entire business models around it.
“ COMPANIES STILL HESITATING AND NOT WORKING WITH AI WILL, SOONER OR LATER, DISAPPEAR”
Lutz Beck Chief Information Officer Daimler Truck North America
“ All the companies still hesitating and not working with it – and not working on the cultural change – will, sooner or later, disappear,” says Lutz.“ You need to start working with AI, you need to be bold and you need to take risks.”
Elsewhere, Lutz expects market pressure to force reluctant companies into handing data to more agile rivals, eroding their competitive position over time.
He believes organisations that retain control of their own data will be best positioned to navigate the sweeping changes ahead.
“ There is a lot of change coming for different industries,” Lutz concludes.“ It’ s not just one industry, but all industries, that will experience significant changes over the next decade.”
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