As part of the “AI Strategy, Management and Governance” lecture at the University of Liechtenstein, Karsten Neugebauer, former CEO of G2K, gave an inspiring guest lecture on “How a Germany-based company became Europe's biggest AI Exit”. The event was organized by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Benjamin van Giffen and offered students valuable insights into the world of AI start-ups and, in particular, their scaling potential.

Karsten Neugebauer shared the impressive story of how he and his co-founder developed the German AI start-up G2K into Europe's largest AI exit. G2K was acquired by American technology giant ServiceNow in 2023. The talk was rich in insights and provided many personal insights into building and scaling an AI-driven start-up and the challenges involved.

Three insights were particularly in focus:

1.  “Show, don't tell": In their customer presentations, G2K prevailed over well-known technology giants by making their AI offering tangible. Instead of just promising results, they showed practically how their solution works, demonstrating the value for potential customers.
2. External rather than internal competition: In contrast to large companies, where competition often takes place between departments, start-ups need to maintain a clear and strong focus on the common goal. G2K's success is due to the fact that the company functioned as a cohesive team, with teams directing their energy “outwards” to meet growth pressures and market challenges, rather than losing it to internal politics.
3. Thinking about the scalability of AI applications: Another important success factor is the focus on AI use cases with high scaling potential. G2K demonstrated early on how their AI solutions can deliver return on investment (ROI) across multiple applications - providing the critical link from data to positive business value. This is a fundamentally important prerequisite for the successful use of AI, especially in times of AI hype.

The event provided an excellent opportunity for students to learn first-hand how European AI start-ups can be successful on a global scale. The guest lecture complemented the theoretical foundations of the lecture and enabled all participants to gain practical insights into the challenges and opportunities of current developments in the AI environment.

The lecture “AI Strategy, Management and Governance” under the direction of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Benjamin van Giffen is part of the Master's degree program in Information Systems at the University of Liechtenstein and underlines the importance and commitment of the university to provide students with up-to-date and practice-relevant knowledge in the field of artificial intelligence.