Christian Kromme: Finding the Soul in the Machine

When futurist and technology entrepreneur Christian Kromme takes the stage on October 3 at the HFA European Congress in Amsterdam, he’ll be sharing concepts not usually presented at business conferences. As the bestselling author of Humanification—Go Digital, Stay Human, Kromme is celebrated for his ability to decode the patterns behind technological revolutions that predict the next wave of innovation. He also challenges his audience to promote purpose over profits.

With more than 15 years of experience as a tech entrepreneur, he has participated in multiple successful startups and founded an agency in 2002 that helped organizations accelerate their rate of innovation. In 2014, he sold the agency to a multinational to focus on his passion: giving inspirational keynotes on disruptive technologies and their impact on human beings and organizations. He recently co-founded a startup for an AI-powered organization as a service platform called SymbioSys.

His journey into this field began through personal tragedy and discovery. After his daughter was born ill with no positive outlook—doctors said she wouldn't make it beyond her first birthday—Kromme began studying biology from a holistic perspective. This led him to see the human body as "a society of cells working together in harmony," and he discovered that "those cells have solved all the problems that we still have ahead of us as humanity."

HOW DID YOUR BACKGROUND IN TECHNOLOGY AND YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR DAUGHTER’S ILLNESS SHAPE YOUR CURRENT PHILOSOPHY?

I've always been involved in technology. I’ve had a few companies that helped large organizations to disrupt themselves to make new products and services. But the real change for me came when my daughter was born. She was very ill, and the doctor said she would not make it beyond her first birthday.

I started to look into biology. I started to look at the human body from a more holistic perspective.

When I studied cells, I discovered a lot of parallels between how cells use biological systems to build organisms and how people use technology to build organizations—we follow exactly the same path. That makes it more predictable to see where things are going, how technology will evolve, and how it will impact society and the human experience.

YOU SPEAK ABOUT TECHNOLOGY PROGRESSING IN WAVES AND MIMICKING BIOLOGICAL PATTERNS. CAN YOU EXPLAIN THIS CONCEPT?

Biology has had seven waves over two billion years, and human beings have had seven waves over hundreds of thousands of years. Technology follows a similar pattern. Every new wave makes technology more accessible.

It has progressed from the internet to the smartphone and now to AI conversational interfaces like ChatGPT.

As every wave progresses, it becomes more intuitive for us to interact with technology and to connect with other people through that technology.

We are now in the sixth wave in technology, which is parallel with the neocortex of the brain in biology. In this wave, we use a 2D interface on our smartphone and laptop. The upcoming seventh wave will correspond to the prefrontal cortex and focus on holographic computing, mixed reality, spatial interfaces, and immersive technology.

WHERE DO YOU SEE ORGANIZATIONS HANDLING THE NEXT TECHNOLOGICAL WAVE?

Today, 80%-90% of organizations are hierarchical, centralized organizations.

And I think all the problems that we have in our society are a result of that.

We need to move toward a different kind of mindset where we don’t use technology for profit but use technology to connect and align with a sense of purpose.

I believe that we will move away from the old, centralized structures—government as we know it, healthcare as we know it, education as we know it will change. These new organizations will evolve into swarm-like organizations, where we use artificial intelligence to create fluid swarms of communities, which are aligned around a common purpose. That purpose can be overall well-being or clean water or renewable energy—whatever you want. That’s how I think technology should be used.

In this type of organization, we will use AI to ask: What is our purpose? What are our strengths? What are our weaknesses? And then the algorithm will look for people around you who are complementary to you.

What kind of human values do we prioritize, and how do we protect our values? If you have these rules of engagement in place, then your organization will better react to problems and utilize AI in a way that’s consistent with your values.

HOW DO YOU SEE TECHNOLOGY ENHANCING RATHER THAN REPLACING THESE THAN HUMAN ELEMENTS?

I see the human body as a roadmap for the future of society. So all the answers that we are looking for in the outside world are inside of us. The purpose of biology is connecting and empowering cells so they can do what they were here for. Technology has the same kind of purpose: it should unite people and empower people so that they can collaborate in larger wholes.

The big problem is that a lot of companies use technology for a different kind of purpose. They try to make us addicted to our social media because it’s very profitable. I think the challenge that we are in right now is finding a balance between the human part of the story and the digital part.

HOW SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS APPROACH ETHICS AND IMPLEMENTATION?

AI ethics is a complex topic that is mostly uncharted territory because we are now starting to put ethics into programming code. I recommend that organizations start to make someone responsible for ethics and morality in AI.

I believe the future CEO is not a chief executive officer but a chief ethical officer who is responsible for the ethical implications of employees, customers, and the supply chain.

The second part is to create rules of engagement for your organization. How do we want to engage with AI? What is important for us? What kind of human values do we prioritize, and how do we protect our values? If you have these rules of engagement in place, then your organization will better react to problems and utilize AI in a way that’s consistent with your values.

LARGE FITNESS CHAINS OFTEN STRUGGLE WITH INNOVATION. HOW CAN THEY DISRUPT THEMSELVES BEFORE BEING DISRUPTED?

That’s a difficult issue because a company is like an organism that maintains its behavior until it dies. It’s very hard to change the culture of large organizations on a cellular level, on the employee level, so large organizations are often disrupted by new ones.

My opinion is that a dinosaur cannot change its own culture and become a mammal, but it can create offspring that looks more mammal-like and behaves more mammal-like. Large organizations should create offspring, startups, with younger people who are more adaptable and visionary.

They disrupt the mothership and come up with new solutions using the latest technology and a new culture created at the startup.

Unfortunately, when these startups become successful, the organization tries to incorporate it into the mothership, and too often the culture of the mothership kills the startup, and they’re back where they started.

So it’s very hard for organizations to disrupt themselves because that means that they have to change the cellular culture of their organization. You have to change humans on an individual level, and if they change, then the organization will change as well.

HOW DO YOU PERSONALLY BALANCE TECHNOLOGY WITH STAYING HUMAN?

That’s a challenging one because I like gadgets, so I understand the struggle. I have three young kids, and it’s difficult to limit screen time. The smartest people in the world are hired by Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, to keep eyeballs looking at our timelines as much as possible. It’s very hard to fight against that. For myself, I like to go out, walk a lot, climb mountains, try to do yoga, meditate every day. I’ve turned off all notifications on my smartphone—all the sounds, all the badges—so it’s my choice to receive these things, not the choice of the smartphone. You have to find a way to be more focused on what you’re doing in the here and now.

WHAT’S YOUR ULTIMATE VISION FOR HOW TECHNOLOGY SHOULD SERVE HUMANITY?

Humans are smarter than zebras, smarter than penguins. We were able to build society as we know it. But this has come to an end. AI has already surpassed our cognitive level on many skills. So the big question becomes: What defines humans, moving forward?

I believe that we should move toward soft skills. So think of ethics, compassion, emotional intelligence, creativity, flexibility—all these kinds of things will become much more important in the future. And that means that we have to become more human.

When machines take the robot outside of us, what will be left? That will be the big question for the next decade.

For more, visit christiankromme.com.

A Vision for Decentralized Organizations

Christian Kromme envisions a radical shift from today’s hierarchical structures to what he calls “swarm-like organizations.” Drawing inspiration from biological systems, he sees a future where artificial intelligence helps create fluid communities aligned around common purposes.

His startup, SymbioSys, is working to make this vision a reality through an AI- powered “organization as a service” platform. In this model, individuals would have conversations with AI to identify their purpose, strengths, and weaknesses.

The algorithm would then connect them with complementary people, creating networks where everyone is positioned at the center of their own ecosystem.

“What you have then is basically what we have in our body, a swarm of cells that collaborate in harmony in one big system,” he says.

This represents a fundamental shift from profit-driven to purpose-driven organizations that prioritize sustainability, human well-being, and alignment with natural principles.

AT A GLANCE

Career Background

› 15 years as a tech entrepreneur based in the Netherlands

› Bestselling author, Humanification—Go Digital, Stay Human

Awards

› SHELL LiveWIRE Young BusinessAward, SAN Award, and Broos van Erp Prize, among others

Current Venture

› Co-founder of SymbioSys, a new AI tech platform

› Senior research fellow at The Conference Board, a global think tank