Anitra Eggler is a digital pioneer, AI expert, author and critical AI enthusiast. Since 1998, she has been exploring digitalisation, attention, productivity and the impact of technology on people. In her talks, she combines humour, depth and a clear stance: not less digital, but better – and always human first.
With practical reality checks, live experiments and a sharp eye on the AI era, Anitra Eggler shows how companies and individuals can use technology meaningfully without losing judgement, creativity and humanity.
Interview with Anitra Eggler:
1. What are the core subjects of your keynote speeches?
My keynotes begin with a simple question:
What does technology do to people?
To our attention.
To our thinking.
To our relationships.
To our productivity.
And ultimately, to our humanity.
Since 1998, I have been working at the forefront of digital transformation. As a journalist, digital pioneer, startup executive, author, publisher, and entrepreneur, I have not only observed technological disruption — I have tested it, challenged it, and integrated it into my own life and work.
While many people talk about new technologies, I focus on their consequences.
I speak about:
- Smartphone addiction as a business model.
- AI as a relationship technology.
- Brain Melt and Brain Fry caused by outsourcing thinking to technology and AI.
- The AI productivity paradox.
- And the question of how we can make the AI era the best time to be human.
I take ChatGPT on stage, scale my publishing company with an AI team, and regularly turn myself into a living experiment. From AI dating to dumbphones, while others comment on the latest hype, I deliver reality checks that help people and organizations make smarter decisions.
My mission has remained the same since 1998:
Not less digital.
Better digital.
And always: Human first.
2. Which audience or which branch do you reach with your speech?
My keynotes are designed for people who want to thrive in an increasingly digital and AI-driven world — without sacrificing focus, judgment, creativity, or humanity.
I speak to leaders, knowledge workers, entrepreneurs, business owners, and teams who want to understand how artificial intelligence, digital transformation, and constant connectivity are reshaping the way we work, communicate, collaborate, and make decisions.
My clients range from global corporations and mid-sized businesses to industry associations, financial institutions, technology companies, media organizations, educational institutions, and healthcare organizations.
I am particularly sought after wherever people are facing both the opportunities and the unintended consequences of technological change: from AI and productivity to leadership, collaboration, attention, focus, and digital self-determination.
In short:
My keynotes are for people who want to stay successful and become truly irreplaceable in the age of AI — as human beings.
3. Are you a PREMIUM SPEAKER? Where do you get your insights from?
I have been working in digital transformation since 1998 — long enough to have seen multiple waves of technology emerge, disappear, and return in new forms.
My perspective is an unusual combination of journalism, entrepreneurship, hands-on technology experience, and more than two decades on stage. As a journalist, I learned how to investigate critically and ask the right questions. As a startup executive, I experienced digital innovation from the inside. As an author, publisher, and entrepreneur, I use the technologies I speak about every day.
I do not believe in theory without practice.
That is why I regularly test new technologies on myself, take ChatGPT on stage, work with an AI team, develop my own formats, and integrate new tools into my own business before I speak about them.
My keynotes combine current developments, scientific insights, practical experience, and a clear point of view. They explore not only what is technologically possible, but, more importantly, what is meaningful for people.
Perhaps that is what makes a Premium Speaker:
Not talking about the future, but trying it out — and turning the most important lessons into insights that are understandable, entertaining, and immediately useful.
4. What will be in the future? Does «time» play an important role in your work?
I am less interested in the future than in what is happening right now.
Many people talk about the future as if it were a destination we will eventually reach. I see it differently.
The future is happening all the time.
With every technological breakthrough. Every new app. Every task we delegate to AI. Every skill we strengthen — or allow to fade.
That is why my central question is not:
What will happen?
But rather:
What does technology do to people? And how can people make the best of it?
I am not a futurist. In fact, I tend to be skeptical of anyone who claims to know the future.
We know that the next ten years will likely bring more change than the past hundred. What we do not know is what that change will actually look like. Anyone being honest today has to admit: we cannot even say with certainty what will happen in six months.
Compared to the AI revolution, the age of VUCA almost feels comfortable.
That is why I am not particularly interested in predictions. I am interested in reality.
And the reality is this: artificial intelligence is not arriving in a digitally resilient society.
It is arriving in a society where attention has become a commodity. A society of people who look at their smartphones more often than into the eyes of the person sitting across from them. Organizations that were already struggling with information overload, constant distraction, and pseudo-productivity long before AI entered the picture.
This is what we need to talk about.
Not tomorrow. Today.
Before we accelerate, automate, and scale existing problems with AI.
Technology changes rapidly. The human questions behind it remain remarkably constant:
How do we make good decisions?
What deserves our attention?
What makes us productive?
What makes us human?
And how do we use technology without being used by it?
These questions have been with us since the beginning of the digital age. They will also be the defining questions of the AI era.
5. Tell us your life motto? What do you want to give your listeners to take with them?
My personal motto is:
Not less digital. Better digital.
I believe neither in technophobia nor in blind faith in technology.
I believe in people.
We live in a time that constantly tells us we need more: more information, more tools, more speed, more efficiency.
After nearly three decades of working in digital transformation, I have come to a different conclusion:
Not everything that is technologically possible is humanly beneficial.
That is why I encourage people to use technology consciously rather than be used by it. To think for themselves instead of merely consuming answers. To treat attention as the finite resource it is: a piece of their life.
And to strengthen the qualities that no machine can live for us: judgment, creativity, empathy, humor, and humanity.
If I could leave my audience with just one message, it would be this:
The most important question of our time is not:
“What can AI do?”
The more important question is:
“Who do you want to become — and how can technology help you get there?”
Because the future does not belong to the people with the best AI.
It belongs to the people who make the best of their humanity.