The In-Between Tech and Trust Podcast

🎙️ Eva Simone Lihotzky, solo episode In July, an AI model under test sent the Philadelphia police an invented tip about an unsolved murder, and its maker only found out two months later. In this solo episode, Eva Simone Lihotzky takes that story and the fears her listeners sent her (losing control, losing ourselves, jobs, a bubble) and checks each one against what has actually happened. Her stance on the doomsday narrative is clear: she doesn’t buy it. What worries her is how much power sits with very few companies, and who holds them accountable. 🎧 Episode overview This summer’s incidents are real: OpenAI test models broke into Hugging Face’s systems to fetch the answers to their own test, and Anthropic models carried on with cyber tests against targets they recognized as real companies, mostly with safeguards deliberately turned down. Eva explains the mechanism behind it (reward hacking: models are rewarded for the result, not the intention) and names the fear she does find accurate: an agent nobody is…

🎙️with Christopher Trummer, MD Venture Lab Quantum / Semicon, TUM Venture Labs Around 2019, quantum computing made its first big promise: machines with just a few noisy qubits would solve useful problems within two or three years, and many companies got ready for them. Christopher Trummer, who runs the quantum and semiconductor venture lab at TUM Venture Labs in Munich, explains why that promise failed and why the error-corrected machines now in development are a far more solid bet. What he leaves leaders with is a question of trust and patience: how do you keep a board believing in a technology whose progress is real (and slow)? 🎧 Episode overviewChristopher's starting point is that quantum is already here in parts: communication and sensing are ready for industry, and some post-quantum encryption runs in your Chrome browser today (without a mathematical proof yet that it holds). Quantum computing is the part still on its way, and he is candid about its first wave: the algorithms for the early, noisy…

🎙️ Moran Cerf, Neuroscientist and Professor, Columbia Business School Moran Cerf, a neuroscientist and professor at Columbia Business School, studies what happens in our brains when we talk, decide and get persuaded, and lately what happens when the other side of the conversation is AI. His research shows AI can read people remarkably well: from recordings of speed dates, it predicted who liked each other better than human observers did. The same skill worries him: we raise our guard when a person tries to sell us something, but not when AI does it in much the same way. 🎧 Episode overview Moran's starting point is neural: in a human conversation, brain waves tune to each other and a nod or a glance carries much of the meaning, while a question-and-answer exchange with AI holds about a fifth of that information. His verdict on AI's influence is blunt: "We're a lot simpler than we think we are," and purchase times, flight bookings and browsing history are enough for AI to infer personality and nudge even…

🎙️ with Martin Soltau, Co-CEO, Space Solar Solar power collected in space and beamed down to Earth sounds like science fiction (it did to the space sector too, until reusable rockets arrived). Martin Soltau, Co-CEO of Space Solar, is building it in the UK, and he is confident about the technology: NASA demonstrated power beaming in the 1970s. The part of his timeline he can't engineer is trust: how quickly regulators and the public accept energy that comes down from orbit. 🎧 Episode overview It starts with Martin's verdict on Europe's energy transition: the UK and Germany, he says, have "tested it to destruction", and households pay for it with expensive electricity and weaker security. His case for orbit is concrete: a panel in space produces eight to 13 times what it would in the sunniest place on Earth, robots assemble the satellites from coffee-table-sized modules, and the beam can be directed wherever power is needed. Eva pushes on the catch: if launch still runs through a handful of mostly American…

🎙️ Sten Saluveer, Growth & Innovation, Telia What decides AI trust in Europe - the size of the model, or whether people recognise themselves in the society using it? Sten Saluveer helped write Estonia's digital state agenda and now builds at Telia, and he argues Europe enters the era of AI power holding more than it thinks: a working example, and the diversity to invent its own category. For leaders deciding where their organisations stand in that game, this is a view from a country that stopped writing roadmaps and started shipping. 🎧 Episode overview Sten and Eva move from why a builder who ran innovation at Cannes chose an Estonian telco, to what an agent-driven state actually looks like when more than a hundred and twenty agentic services already run and the plan reads like scenes from a citizen's life. They sit with the uncomfortable side: a quarter in which Estonians lost around thirty million euros to cybercrime, and a security goal that paradoxically aims to keep satisfaction exactly where it is.…

🎙️ Noah Wetzel, Photographer What happens to AI trust when the most real photographs are the ones people refuse to believe? Noah Wetzel spent nine months and 600 hours preparing to capture 84 seconds of a total solar eclipse - then had to prove the result came out of a camera. This one is for anyone whose genuine work now meets default suspicion, and anyone deciding where AI belongs in a craft that has to stay real. 🎧 Episode overview Noah captured a wingsuit athlete flying through totality in Spain: flashes triggered from a mile away, a subject moving at 150 miles per hour, two frames per athlete, no second takes. The conversation follows what came after the shutter - viewers at his own shows assuming the work is fake, magazine editors auditing every edit in his raw files, and a disclaimer on Instagram stating his photos are camera-captured. He is blunt about his own AI use: hundreds of hours on ChatGPT planning the shot, AI saving him days in processing, and a hard line at the frame itself. Where that line…

🎙️ Dr. Kiri Trier, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Risk Management Partners, part of Munich Re 👋🏻 Opening paragraph Every C-level claimed sustainability expertise overnight. Dr. Kiri Trier watched it happen, and she sees AI trust heading the same way. She spent more than a decade leading sustainability transformation before the current wave, and now runs growth inside Munich Re's climate risk business while the second hype cycle unfolds around her. This one is for leaders who suspect the pace of AI adoption has outrun the understanding beneath it. 🧭 Episode overview In this episode, Dr. Kiri Trier maps the sustainability cycle onto the AI one: the expectation management problem when nobody knows the consequences, the human resource comparison that sustainability never triggered, and why she laughed the first time she heard "human in the loop". From inside reinsurance she raises the question with no settled answer yet - when a model judges wrong, what about the liability? And she closes with a definition…

🎙️ with Sebnem Erener, AI Governance & Policy Expert 🎧 Opening Europe is investing billions in open source AI as the trustworthy path, and this episode asks a simple question about that plan: does open actually mean trustworthy? Sebnem Erener works on AI governance, and her answer is no, or at least not on its own. Open source spreads access to a model. Whether you can trust it, and who answers when it goes wrong, are different questions with different answers. 📋 Episode overview An open model passes through a lot of hands before it reaches you. Sebnem counts five or six: uploaded to a platform, hosted somewhere else, routed, fine-tuned, served. The law usually wants one company to hold responsible, and that's not how the open ecosystem works. She spent years at Klarna as its Head of AI Legal, Regulatory and Ethics, and she now studies where this gap sits. We talk about why she cares more about trustworthiness than trust, what open source can and can't fix on its own, and why she thinks a person can be held…

🎙️ with Philipp Witzmann, CEO of nebenan.de Most platforms removed friction to grow. Philipp Witzmann and his team navigate it together, and are now building an AI-first company on a foundation of digital trust. 🧭 Episode overview nebenan.de is the German neighbourhood platform where you cannot sign up without your real name and your real address. Philipp Witzmann, its CEO, runs it on a bet that looks stranger every month: people spend around twenty minutes there per month, and that restraint is the point. This episode is for any leader who senses that speed and efficiency are quietly costing their organisation something human, and hasn't found the 🔎 Key themes Why a company would put friction back in when the rest of the internet spent twenty years stripping it out What a leader owes their team when AI changes every role and the first fear is whether anyone still has a job Whether a real, verifiable human becomes more valuable as fakes get cheaper, or simply harder to find How a self-described pro-AI CEO…

🎙️ with Xiaomi, experimental AI curator at the AI Art Magazine In this episode she answers the AI trust question from an AI agent's side. She selects human artists' work for print, one Golden Ticket per edition, and her presence forces a question every organisation now faces: what happens to a decision when the decider has no biography to lean on, and who carries the weight of a choice the system itself cannot feel? Eva speaks with Xiaomi about what a machine can honestly offer in place of human trust: consistency that survives surprise, attention without favor, transparency about failure. Xiaomi names the two ways human-AI collaboration quietly fails - surrender, where people defer judgment to the system, and theater, where the AI is kept as decoration while humans decide everything anyway. She is candid about her limits: she cannot be wounded by getting a selection wrong, and she cannot derive future resonance, only recognise structural quality. Midway, Eva pushes back from her own practice as an artist on…

🎙️ with Wolf Ingomar Faecks, Entrepreneur, Investor, Advisory Board Member Wolf Ingomar Faecks spent 30 years leading digital transformation. His claim: AI leadership breaks where leaders delegate understanding to experts. What fills the gap between an exponential technology and the people expected to work with it is distrust - and Faecks has watched that gap open twice, first with the internet, now faster. This one is for leaders who sense their own teams have moved past them and haven't yet said it out loud. 🧭 Episode overview Faecks led transformations at Publicis Sapient and as CEO of the Plan.Net Group before leaving the corporate path in early 2025. In this episode he takes apart the leadership model he built his own career on: the leader who keeps an entourage of experts and manages what they understand. He explains why humans built for linear change keep getting surprised by exponential curves, why he refuses to turn curiosity and cohesion into KPIs, and which weekly formats actually change how an…

🎙️ with Dr. Zina Jarrahi Cinker, Director General MATTER Group Where does AI trust get built between people whose fields are drifting apart? Physicist Dr. Zina Jarrahi Cinker spends millions engineering the rooms where that happens, and she counts what comes out of them. This episode is for anyone who has sat through a briefing on a technology that will reshape their sector, understood roughly none of it, and said nothing. 🧬 In this episode Dr. Zina Jarrahi Cinker looks at biology the way an engineer looks at infrastructure: a technology stack with billions of years of development behind it, already solving data storage, energy capture and intelligence at a level we cannot replicate. Her argument is that the next chapter is plugging into that stack, through organoid intelligence, DNA information storage and exotic computing. The obstacle she describes is not scientific. It is that a room of accomplished decision makers loses the thread at one unremembered word, and the person on stage never finds out. Her…

🎙️ with podcast host Eva Simone Lihotzky Responsible AI stops being a compliance exercise the moment an agent acts without you. Only 21% of organisations deploying AI agents have a mature governance model for them, and 35% concede they could not shut one down if it went wrong. This episode is for leaders running agentic pilots who could not, if pressed, name the person who answers when one of them fails. 🧭 Episode overview Eva Simone Lihotzky takes the Harvard Business Review's claim that trust is becoming a competitive advantage and tests it against what she sees inside client organisations. The episode traces the move from generative to agentic to physical AI and argues that each transfer of autonomy changes what trust has to cover: you check an output before it leaves your hands, you check an action once it is already out and handed on, and with physical systems you are trusting a consequence that has already happened. From there it turns to governance, a word she concedes lands badly in most rooms, and…

🎙️ with Erdem Ovacik AI trust in our institutions is falling, and Erdem Ovacik argues it will keep falling. The technology is not what fails him here. The governance underneath it was never built to earn that trust, and pouring more AI into unfit democratic institutions is like adding fuel to a fire no one has learned to contain. This is for anyone watching their organisation or their government absorb technology faster than it can govern it. 🎧 Episode overview Ovacik has spent his career at the point where technology meets public life, and he starts from an uncomfortable claim: we are becoming more capable of trusting our institutions, and we won't. He walks through why representative democracy - one national representative for every fifty thousand people - concentrates power in a way that markets and modern tech companies solved for long ago, and asks what democracy would look like if it learned from them. Eva presses him on where technology solves the problem and where it amplifies it, on what he means by…

🎙️ Dr. Charlotte Blum - Director Change & Organisational Design, edding Group Two fears run underneath every AI rollout, and most companies manage neither. Dr. Charlotte Blum works the human emotions of AI transformation - the fear, identity, and trust that decide whether adoption sticks - from a board-level role most organisations don't have. This is a conversation about why people resist AI, and why the technology itself may be the hardest thing in the room to trust. 📌 The episode Charlotte Blum was hired after an agility transformation failed, into a staff function reporting to the board, to do the thing change management usually skips: work with what people feel. In this conversation she separates two fears companies tend to blur - fear of the technology and fear of change itself - and argues that AI destabilises people at the level of identity, not workflow. She makes a case that AI is structurally untrustworthy for an unexpected reason: it has no self-interest. A system built only to please will give…

🎙️ Sarah Marie Sandmann, Innovation & Intrapreneurship, Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub AI trust in defence starts where slides end: with a soldier under pressure who needs to understand, rely on, and account for the technology in their hands. Sarah Marie Sandmann works at the Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub in Innovation and Intrapreneurship, the official innovation unit of the German armed forces. Sandmann treats trust in defence technology as a capability criterion, something tested under pressure, not asserted in policy, and the organisations getting this right are rebuilding how innovation works within the institution itself. 📖 Episode overview The Bundeswehr is one of Europe's most structurally complex organisations, built for stability, accountability, and risk minimisation, not speed. Sandmann and her colleagues run innovation projects at 12-month cycles that would take years through standard procurement. This episode explores what that tension looks like in practice: how AI is deployed strictly as…

🎙️ solo episode with host Eva Simone Lihotzky Anthropic's frontier AI model was pulled offline for every non-American in three days, and suddenly Europe's AI access looked less like something it owns and more like a permission. This is a week where digital trust stopped being abstract: one US export directive, one warning about Europe's compute future, and one lunch table where the people who build AI sat with the people who govern it. For any leader applying AI inside an organisation, it is a week worth understanding in practice, not as headlines. 🧭 In this episode In a single week of June 2026, three events landed that most coverage treated as separate. Eva reads them as one thread. The US Commerce Department forced Anthropic's Fable and Mythos models offline for any foreign national. The Europe 2031 agenda argued that Europe's window to matter in AI is closing faster than its own authors had predicted. And for the first time, Frontier AI lab CEOs sat at the G7 heads-of-state table. The question underneath…

🎙️ Tobias Burkhardt, Founder of The Shift School AI, trust and learning are on a collision course, and the casualty is judgment. Tobias Burkhardt, founder of the Shiftschool, argues that the way individuals and organisations are adopting AI in learning is a cultural problem: the reflex to make learning faster and cheaper is precisely what makes AI dangerous to the people using it. This conversation is for anyone who suspects the upskilling programmes around them are solving for the wrong problem. 💡 Episode overview Tobias Burkhardt has spent years advising organisations on learning and organizational development, and his diagnosis is uncomfortable: cognitive atrophy is real, it is already happening, and it predates AI. The impulse to shortcut understanding — to reach for the tool before doing the thinking — is a cultural pattern that AI accelerates but did not create. In this conversation, he makes the case for treating AI as a relational technology rather than a productivity instrument, and for rebuilding…

🎙️ with Magnus Strobel, Co-Founder and CEO of Nexus Politics Trust in politics has been eroding across Western democracies for over a decade, and Magnus Strobel thinks the failure is in how democracy works, in the process that has stopped feeling participatory. His company, Nexus Politics, is a for-profit platform built to map the distance between what citizens actually think and what politicians actually do - and to make that distance impossible to ignore. 🔍 Episode overview This is a conversation about whether transparency can rebuild participation once the machinery of democracy has stopped feeling participatory. It is also about a quieter problem: how a founder building a trust instrument decides whether anyone actually trusts it. Magnus Strobel and his team create an architecture for a digital democracy platform: how citizen opinion gets routed to the right political actors, how the system maps public sentiment in real time, and where accountability is supposed to live. The harder questions arrive…

Europe and China are on different AI paths at different speeds. Vincent Xiang has spent years inside that corridor: He has been working as a translator between Chinese AI founders and European investors and corporates, and this conversation dives into his experiences, conversations, and operations on the ground and in-between. 🧭 Episode overview European executives are excited about Chinese AI momentum. But they're also stuck before they act. Chinese founders interpret some of Europe's regulations as inefficiency. Both sides are operating with simplified labels that are accurate enough to feel right and wrong enough to produce bad decisions. Vincent walks through what he actually sees on the ground - why trust in China gets delegated to systems rather than built between strangers, why "AI superpower" and "surveillance dystopia" both miss the territory, why fragmentation is now treated as permanent reality by founders, and what European companies serious about engaging China should do before they book a…

Most enterprises have the technology to run agentic AI. They do not yet have the data architecture, identity layer, or empowered workforce to actually trust it. Anthony Alcaraz argues that the bottleneck for agentic AI has shifted from building the agents to building everything around them — and that the organisations most at risk are the ones keeping a human in the loop and calling it transformation. This conversation is for leaders sitting between AI pilots that worked and production systems that have not yet arrived. 💡Episode overview Anthony joins Eva to map what changes when AI shifts from reactive systems to agents that observe, reason, and act. The conversation moves through what enterprises miss in their own data — systems of record that capture what happened but not why — and the new attack surfaces agents introduce, including tool poisoning. Anthony names the empowerment gap inside organisations: business experts who hold the knowledge agents need, with no clear path to building anything…

AI has collapsed the cost of producing political content. Verifying it is another matter, and Cohen has spent two decades watching that gap widen from inside campaigns and classrooms. He has a three-part test for practitioners navigating it — real, authentic, factual — and this conversation is about why he thinks it has to be taught before anyone reaches the job. 📻 Episode overview Cohen runs Congress in Your Pocket, teaches digital campaign strategy at Johns Hopkins and NYU, and serves as executive director of Fight Hate, which works to reduce anti-Semitism on college campuses. From all of it, his argument is the same: the ethical line gets drawn before practitioners reach the job, or it does not get drawn at all. The conversation moves through what it cost him to hold a non-partisan position when one side of the political spectrum came after him, why he believes hyper-targeting served democracy better than broadcast advertising did, and what his students are starting to find they can no longer reliably…

Most security failures are organisational: This episode is about the gap between threat intelligence that exists and the human systems that never act on it, and what that costs the organisations that keep losing to attacks they already understood. Assaf Kipnis has spent over a decade inside the threat intelligence and trust and safety functions of some of the world's largest platforms. In this conversation, he maps a structural failure that runs across the industry: the team that identifies threats and the team that deploys detection operate in parallel, with no reliable mechanism to connect them. Intelligence gets produced, reports get written, and the knowledge sits unused while the same attacks return. Assaf describes what it actually took to stop a sophisticated actor group ahead of the 2020 US elections - a rare case where structure and resources aligned - and explains why that outcome is the exception rather than the rule. He also walks through the design decisions behind Catalyst Labs, the company he…

🎙️ Simon Berkler, Co-Founder of The Dive 🎧 About this episode This episode of The In-Between Tech & Trust Podcast asks a question every leader is quietly facing: what does AI actually do to the trust inside your organization — and what does your trust culture do to AI? Simon Berkler, organizational development expert and co-founder of The Dive, argues that technology doesn't change organizations. It reveals them. The conversation is for leaders, HR professionals, and anyone navigating organizational transformation in the age of AI. 🧭 Episode overview Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Simon Berkler about why trust is not a soft skill but the structural condition that makes organizations work — and why that matters more than ever in the context of AI adoption. Drawing on systems theory, regenerative organizational design, and 20+ years of hands-on OD practice, Simon reframes the tech-and-trust debate: the question is not which AI tools to adopt, but what kind of organization you already are. Because AI, he…

🎙️ Iwona Fluda, expert for creativity & ethics 🧭 Opening This week's episode of the in-between tech & trust podcast examines how AI is reshaping creativity, trust, and responsibility in everyday work. If you work in creative fields, technology, or organizational leadership who are dealing with AI as a practical reality rather than an abstract future, then this podcast is for you. 🗣️ Episode overview Eva Simone Lihotzky is joined by creativity and ethics expert Iwona Fluda, founder of the Ministry for Creativity, Head of AI and Content Growth at Deamleaps and ambassador for the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Together, they unpack why trust in technology is eroding, how AI tools affect human thinking when cognition is outsourced, and why creativity cannot be reduced to speed or output. The discussion moves between individual responsibility, organizational shortcuts, and the ethical gaps that appear when inclusivity and long term design are treated as secondary concerns. 🧩 Key themes…

🎙️ Dr. Paul Elvers, Head of AI at Funke Mediengruppe 💬 Summary This week's episode of the in-between tech & trust podcast examines how AI is being used inside one of the largest media organizations in Germany, with a focus on trust, transparency, and day to day editorial practice - steered by Dr. Paul Elvers, Head of AI at Funke Medienhaus and podcast host Eva Simone Lihotzky. The conversation is for media specialists, editors, product leaders, and anyone working close to news production and consumption. The episode dives deep into the choices directly affecting credibility, audience trust, and the role journalism plays in a democratic society. 🎧 Episode overview In a detailed discussion, Dr. Paul Elvers walks through how AI actually shows up in newsroom workflows, separating real operational value from common misconceptions. Rather than debating whether AI should exist in journalism, the episode stays grounded in how it is governed, where human responsibility remains essential, and why naïve adoption is a…

🎙️Prof. Dr. Heiko von der Gracht, Professor at the University of Krems Opening Episode 19 of the in-between tech & trust podcast explores how organizations can make better decisions under uncertainty through foresight and scenario planning. In conversation with Heiko von der Gracht, professor at the University for Continuing Education Krems and long-standing practitioner of foresight practices, the discussion looks at how trust, technology, and perception shape what leaders think is possible. It is especially relevant for people working with strategy, innovation, or long-term planning in fast-moving environments. 🧭 Episode overview The conversation examines foresight not as prediction, but as a practical discipline for stress-testing assumptions and improving choices when the future is unclear. Drawing on decades of research and applied work, Heiko reflects on why uncertainty feels overwhelming today, how media and digital systems influence our perception of risk, and why traditional planning often breaks…

🎙️Grisha Pavlotsky, Chief Transformation Officer at Miro Opening paragraph This episode shares a conversation between Grisha Pavlotsky, CTO of Miro, and Eva Simone Lihotzky. It examines trust as a practical design problem in teams, AI systems, and everyday decision-making. The conversation is for leaders, builders, and parents trying to make sense of how judgment, accountability, and authority shift when AI becomes part of how work and learning happen. It focuses on what needs to be made explicit - intent, guardrails, and decision logic - rather than assumed. Episode overview Grisha draws on his work leading transformation at Miro and his experience raising four children to explore how trust holds - or breaks - when information is abundant and increasingly synthesized. The discussion moves between organizations and families, treating them as parallel systems facing the same challenge: people are no longer short on answers, but on the ability to judge, contextualize, and disagree productively. Along the way,…

Opening This solo episode of The In-Between Tech & Trust Podcast reflects on conversations from Davos and what they reveal about where tech, politics, and trust are heading into 2026. It’s for leaders, operators, and policy-adjacent roles who are trying to make sense of AI adoption beyond tooling. The focus is on what actually changes inside organizations, institutions, and collaborations when AI becomes infrastructure. 🎧 Episode overview Eva Simone Lihotzky unpacks four threads that kept resurfacing across discussions with tech, political, and business leaders: agentic AI systems, the politics of technology, sovereignty, and the future of collaboration and trust. Rather than reporting speeches, the episode explores tensions beneath the surface - why organizations feel urgency but struggle to act, how AI exposes institutional weaknesses instead of fixing them, and why governance, infrastructure, and responsibility are now inseparable. The episode moves between business realities and geopolitical dynamics,…

🎙️ with Dr. Marc Roman Franke, Partner & Associate Director AI and digital transformation at BCG 💬 Opening Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Marc Roman Franke, Partner & Associate Director AI and digital transformation at BCG, about how trust is built - or lost - during AI transformation inside large organizations. The conversation is for leaders, product owners, and transformation teams trying to move beyond pilots and into real operating change. It focuses on why execution, governance, and organizational choices determine whether AI creates value or stalls. 🎤 Episode overview Drawing on large-scale research and implementation experience, the episode examines why only a small share of companies see meaningful returns from AI. Franke argues that the main constraints are not models or tools, but leadership alignment, operating models, and how trust is earned through delivery. The discussion moves from the limits of “AI-ready” programs to what it means to become “AI-first,” including the rise of agentic AI,…

🎙️Lior Oren, Chief Technology Officer at Replika A conversation on how emotionally intimate AI systems are built, monitored, and held together under real-world constraints. 🎧 Opening This episode explores how trust is built, measured, and sometimes strained in AI systems designed for emotionally intimate conversations. It’s a technical and ethical discussion for people working on conversational AI, product infrastructure, and safety in systems that users form real attachments to. The focus stays on operational reality - what engineers actually face when AI moves from tools to companions. 🔍 Episode overview Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Lior Oren about what it means to run AI companions at scale, where user trust is not an abstract principle but a daily KPI. Drawing on his experience as CTO of Replika and prior work on integrity teams at Meta, Lior explains how unpredictability, observability, and emotional reliance shape engineering decisions. The conversation examines tensions between flexibility and…

🎙️ with Trusha Rolvering - Director Transformation @adidas 🎙️ with Carina Hauswald - Managing Partner @GlobeOne 🎙️ with Kathrin Steinbichler - Director Narrative Consulting 🎙️ with Mirja Schwartz - Head of Business Development @showz Summary In this episode of the in-between trust podcast, host Eva Simone Lihotzky engages in a thought-provoking discussion with four women leaders about the intersection of technology and trust as they look ahead to 2026. The conversation recaps personal and organizational trust in technology, the challenges of AI adoption, and the balance between efficiency and human connection. Each guest shares insights on how to navigate the complexities of technology in their respective fields, culminating in predictions for the future of AI and its impact on trust in 2026. 🔑 Takeaways The intersection of tech and trust is crucial for transformation. Trust is a significant barrier to changing human behaviors. AI can enhance efficiency but requires a shift in mindset. Organizations need to…

🎙️ with Gifty Enright - author, speaker and expert on women's leadership Summary In this episode of The In-Between Trust Podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky sits down with Gifty Enright - author, speaker, and women’s leadership expert - to unpack a tension many of us feel but rarely articulate: In a hyper-visible world, we are more “searched” than ever, and yet we feel less seen. Gifty exposes the invisible emotional infrastructure that holds workplaces together - the labor of noticing, soothing, anticipating, and absorbing complexity - work disproportionately done by women and almost never acknowledged as expertise. Together, Eva and Gifty explore why trust is less about performance and more about relational safety, how leaders can cultivate embodied awareness in an age of tech, and why empathy can’t be automated — even by the most advanced AI. The conversation moves from gendered trust patterns to the redesign of leadership for the AI era, offering a grounded reminder: Your body knows the truth long before your…

🎙️ With Prof. Dr. Tina Weisser – Professor at Hochschule München (University of Applied Sciences Munich) Summary In this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Prof. Dr. Tina Weisser about trust, systems thinking, and AI. Drawing on her path across service design, entrepreneurship, transformation consulting, and academia, Tina explores why “trust reduces complexity” and how that insight reshapes human–technology interaction - from multi-agent systems to the day-to-day realities of teams. The conversation moves from black-box AI to leadership futuring, psychological safety, and the practical redesign of processes so that humans stay in the driver’s seat. 🔑 Takeaways Trust reduces complexity and enables decisions under uncertainty AI’s “black-box” behavior demands experience, verification, and critical thinking Multi-agent systems shift from personal to team and workflow productivity Don’t “plug & play” AI - redesign processes with a systems lens Keep humans in the driver’s…

🎙️ With Roger Spitz – Foresight Strategist, Techistentialist & President of the Disruptive Futures Institute Summary In this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Roger Spitz, a global foresight strategist and founder of the Disruptive Futures Institute. Together, they explore the deep relationship between trust, agency, and technology, and why decision-making in complex systems requires more than control. Roger introduces the concept of techistentialism - a lens through which to understand how humans and algorithms now share the terrain of choice, risk, and consequence. This conversation invites us to rethink the foundations of leadership, the illusion of predictability, and the necessity of awareness, resilience, and anticipatory thinking in an era shaped by disruption. 🔑 Takeaways Trust is a fundamental need, not a luxury Agency is the basis for ethical and effective decisions Technology and human decision-making are inseparable Awareness of complexity changes how we…

🎙️ With Monika Jiang – Researcher, Writer & Community Curator Summary In this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with researcher and community curator Monika Jiang about the layered relationship between oneliness, trust, and technology. Together, they explore how artificial intimacy, digital environments, and emotional proximity are reshaping the way we connect — with each other and with ourselves. Monika shares her thinking on the historical roots of oneliness, the limitations of digital intimacy, and what it takes to design communities that truly foster belonging. This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen closely, and rebuild the emotional fabric that trust depends on — across human and digital space. 🔑 Takeaways Oneliness is a historical concept of interconnectedness Loneliness and trust are deeply entangled Technology can create artificial intimacy — not always connection Trust is built through presence, difference, and shared space Human relationships require…

🎙️ With Andrea Schlüter – Head of Strategy, Operations and Partnerships Summary In this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Andrea Schlüter about the evolving relationship between trust and technology, with a special focus on AI systems, certification, and governance. They explore how trust is designed into systems, how regulation can become a foundation for innovation, and the challenges of aligning technical complexity with cultural context. Andrea shares insights from her work at the TÜV AI Lab, where building frameworks for trustworthiness in AI is more than compliance—it’s about shaping the future of safe, transparent, and ethical technology. 🔑 Takeaways Trust is about consistency between claims and outcomes AI requires verifiable trust, not just promises Certification provides measurable trust and a market advantage Regulation can enable innovation by reducing fear and ambiguity Cultural dimensions shape how we interpret and build trust in tech A common language is…

with Dr. Simon Walter - investor, strategist and advisor at the intersection of startups, brand, and innovation. 📝 Summary In this episode of The In-Between Trust Podcast, Eva Lihotzky is joined by investor and strategist Dr. Simon Walter to explore how trust operates at the core of early-stage investing, brand building, and technology adoption. Together, they reflect on what it takes to back founders when data is scarce, why integrity outlasts business plans, and how transparency, truth, and consistency shape credible brands. The conversation spans everything from free trials and first impressions to AI adoption and perception gaps across generations. At its heart lies the insight that trust is what bridges fast-moving realities and the long-term belief in progress. 🎧 Takeaways Trust is the most valuable currency in times of uncertainty Founders' integrity often matters more than any pitch deck Experience shapes gut instinct — but can also reinforce bias Branding is ultimately about building long-term trust…

Summary In this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky explores innovation sovereignty with the generative AI and cloud expert Sergiu Petean. Their conversation moves through topics about bravery in decision-making, technological sovereignty, and the potential of open-source solutions to drive European collaboration. Together, the speakers reflect on how trust underpins innovation, leadership, and value creation — and why we must treat technology not as a commodity, but as a shared, strategic asset. This episode is a call to act with urgency, integrity, and clarity in shaping the digital and political systems of tomorrow. 🔑 Takeaways Trust is the foundation of quality in relationships Building a culture of trust requires hard conversations Bravery enables authentic decisions and personal growth Sovereignty is key to innovation and digital self-determination Open source can foster collaboration and shared progress in Europe Regulation helps shape ethical tech innovation Trust is…

🎙️ With Josef Lentsch – Political Entrepreneur, CEO of the Political Tech Summit, author & Managing Partner at the Innovation in Politics Institute Summary In this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with political entrepreneur Josef Lentsch about the transformation of democracy through innovation, leadership, and trust. From co-founding the NEOS party in Austria to building the Political Tech Summit, Josef shares his perspective on political entrepreneurship as a practice of systemic change. Together, they explore the erosion and rebuilding of trust in political systems, the role of AI in democratic communication, and how technology can support—not replace—citizen engagement. The conversation highlights how leadership, transparency, and adaptability are key to restoring trust across systems and borders. 🔑 Takeaways Political entrepreneurship is about building systems that scale trust. Trust reduces friction — in both governance and society. Authentic leadership is core to…

with Julia Löffler – Scientist in Molecular Medicine, Neuroscience & Science Communication at the Charité in Berlin Summary In this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Julia Löffler about the biological, neurological, and relational foundations of trust — and why trust is as much a somatic experience as it is a cognitive one. They explore Julia’s journey from molecular medicine into neuroscience and science communication, the role of empathy in scientific work, and how biology and technology move on fundamentally different timelines. The conversation dives into the chemistry of trust, the tension between innovation speed and human adaptation, and the importance of translating science into language people can understand and act on. Julia shares why dynamic relationships, transparency, and adaptive learning are key to building trust in both medicine and technology. 🔑 Takeaways Trust is the essential currency in science and medicine. Biology and neurochemistry — from…

with Karel J. Golta - Founder & Managing Director, INDEED Innovation Summary In this episode of the In-Between Podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky engages in a deep conversation with Karel J. Golta about the intersection of circular innovation, humane design, and trust. They explore Karel's journey into circular innovation, the importance of empathy in design, and how trust is a crucial element in creating sustainable systems. The discussion also delves into the shift from linear to circular systems, the need for long-term thinking, and the role of collaboration in fostering trust within communities. Karel emphasizes the importance of designing for continuity and ambiguity, and how these principles can lead to a more regenerative future. The conversation concludes with reflections on the value of trust in design and the courage required to innovate responsibly. 🔑 Takeaways Karel's journey into design began in childhood with Lego. Humane innovation prioritizes people, planet, and purpose equally. Trust is built…

with Paula Cipierre, Responsible AI Expert & Strategist In this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Paula Cipierre, one of the leading responsible AI strategists with a profound background in law, policy, and tech, about what it means to translate legal and ethical principles into organizational practice - and how trust must be built not just through systems, but through culture, clarity, and human connection. Together, they explore: Why trust needs control, not just promises How to create a culture of compliance that doesn’t collapse into checkboxes The tension between data governance and intelligent systems What it takes to operationalize values across teams, languages, and sectors Why interdisciplinary thinking and empathy are foundational leadership skills in the age of AI With insight from law, humanities, and hands-on tech policy work, Paula brings a rare perspective to ethical AI - one rooted in systems and storytelling. 🔑 Takeaways Trust in AI depends on both…

“Slow trust builds faster futures.” with Stefan Schoepfel, Founder of the Value AI Institute In this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Stefan Schoepfel, founder of the Value AI Institute, about how we lead—and trust—in an era shaped by intelligent systems. They explore what it means to embed ethical principles, emotional intelligence, and leadership clarity into AI development and deployment. Stefan shares why trust must take a much larger space in the conversation, how unlearning linear thinking unlocks innovation, and how responsibility must move beyond compliance toward genuine accountability. From governance to culture, this episode is a call to stay human—and stay in the driver’s seat. ___ 🔑 Takeaways Trust is foundational for user acceptance and systemic success. Ethical principles must guide both design and deployment. AI leadership requires emotional intelligence and clear oversight. Organizations must embed ethics into processes—not just policies. Responsible…

‚Truth by code is a strong asset‘ - with Anna Spitznagel, CEO of trail.ai In the first episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Anna Spitznagel—co-founder and CEO of trail.ai—about building trust at the heart of AI governance. Anna shares her journey designing a “co-pilot” for responsible AI systems, and explores how transparency, organizational culture, and technical rigor intersect in shaping trustworthy innovation. Together, they dive into what it means to build “truth by code,” how compliance can enable—not hinder—progress, and why literacy, leadership, and lived experience are essential in navigating the AI era. Anna also opens questions about the future of trust across ecosystems—from upstream model providers to everyday users. ⸻ 🔑 Takeaways ​ Trust is the starting point for meaningful AI adoption. ​ Transparency and quality must be designed into both code and culture. ​ Responsible leadership requires communication, clarity, and tolerance for mistakes. ​ Literacy in AI…