These are great times for startups, says tech expert Vivianne Bendermacher. Online services help you learn, outsource, scale up, test and pivot. Especially the rise of AI and speech will give unprecedented possibilities.

Vivianne Bendermacher was editor-in-chief of a few Dutch popular scientific magazines and is now tech expert at RTL Boulevard, one of the most popular Dutch TV programs. Together with her co-founder Tamira van Roeyen she forms Techionista: the platform that works on the empowerment of women through technology. And Bendermacher is host at Startup Delta Summit on 19 April.

For Techionista she looks for striking tech trends. Bendermacher expects the biggest breakthrough for the coming decades within Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and speech. “Technology is becoming personal. For example, the navigation system in your car will increasingly understand what kind of traveler you are. Add speech recognition, and technology really delivers a personal experience.”

Digital secretary

For example, Bendermacher used a digital secretary last year. She arranged appointments based on email contact that they had with customers. “The bot knew where I was at which time. She took that into account when making appointments.”

Unfortunately, the digital secretary made a mistake, and confused two customers with each other. “I had to let her go.” But Bendermacher is convinced: AI and machine learning will make our lives easier and more fun.

That means: great opportunities for startups. Not only as producers of such systems and devices, but also as users. Startups can focus on where they are good through smart systems. “If you are not good at marketing, you simply work with companies or systems that are good at it. This allows you to scale up yourself faster.”

Happy users

Thanks to technology, we are looking forward to a bright future, Bendermacher expects. “If we continue to ask the right, critical questions.” There are still some issues to be solved. The most important: privacy. “Do we want everything to be connected? That requires good legislation. I think the GDPR (in the Netherlands: AVG) is a good start for protecting the data of users.”

But also companies will increasingly take into account the interests of customers, Bendermacher expects. “A happy user spends more money. And when is a user happy? If he or she knows that privacy is guaranteed. Your business model will also benefit if you respect the privacy of your customers.”