Leadership Dialogue: Innovation, Accountability, and AI in Practice

This session replaces the traditional panel with a focused leadership dialogue between Mats Sundgren and Magnus Lundbäck, EVP at Getinge, examining how artificial intelligence is reshaping innovation, decision quality, organizational responsibility and the very meaning of competence in research-intensive organizations.

Built around a set of “burning questions,” the dialogue confronts uncomfortable realities: What can AI genuinely deliver today and where are we fooling ourselves? What truly prevents organizations from integrating AI into core innovation processes? And how must established innovation theory evolve when algorithms become active contributors rather than passive tools?

As AI systems increasingly assume analytical, repetitive, and even elements of creative work, long-standing assumptions about expertise and performance are eroding. For decades, competence has been measured by accumulated knowledge and individual experience. In AI-enabled environments, value creation shifts toward those who can frame the right questions, exercise judgment under uncertainty, think systemically, and orchestrate collaboration between human intelligence and machine capability.

The leadership question is no longer “How do we measure competence?” — but “What does human competence mean when machines participate in thinking?”

Positioned in the “Way Forward” segment of the Main Day, this session challenges leaders to reconsider how they define talent, responsibility, and innovation advantage — contributing directly to the evolving CLAIR Research Agenda.