"In the past we learned (in order) to work and now we must work (in order) to (conituously) learn": that is how Future of Work Strategist Heather E.McGowan describes this shift from a complicated world of work to one that is complex. Heather is one of the most powerful voices in the world when it comes to the future of work and learning so I'm very excited to announce that she has joined the nexxworks' Thought Leader Collective, consisting of some of the finest minds and voices in the world: from Raya Bidshahri, Pascal Coppens, Philipp Kristian Diekhöner and Peter Hinssen, Jerry Michalski, Nancy Rademaker to April Rinne, Rik Vera and Steven Van Belleghem. Heather was one of our very first guest bloggers, whom I serendipitously'met' over LinkedIn about 5 years ago, and as her relationship with nexxworks grew closer - after several (podcast) interviews, webinars and other collaborations - her repertoire proved to be perfectly compatible with that of the rest of our thought leaders. She talks with great depth and insight about the Future of Work, the Future of Learning, company culture, automation, diversity, leadership and our identity crisis as employees with great depth, experience and insight. Her latest book The Adaptation Advantage, co-authored with Chris Shipley, is a guide for navigating the highly complex and ambiguous Future of Work.

We have seen the integration of data into more parts of the customer experience, the merging of online and offline channels and the large-scale rollout of retail ecosystems. So, here I take a quick look at some of the major trends that are going to set the tone for 2019. Every customer touchpoint is going to become more digital. This trend may have started before 2019, and indeed I have talked about it a lot in 2018, but 2019 is the year when it is really going to take off. The quality of the'human touch' in customer service will fundamentally increase because more data will be available for the front line staff.

Peter: I love the Google Duplex example and I think it shows how powerful AI can be. Andrew Ng, your PhD advisor once said that "AI is the new electricity". Do you follow him in that? It means that every industry is going to be revolutionized by AI. Just like every industry – not merely the power generation industry – was revolutionized by electricity. It's not just IT companies like Google, Facebook, … that are going to be transformed by AI.