AI entrepreneur and investor from Hamburg
I don't talk AI. I deploy it.
Most companies do not have an AI problem. They have an execution problem.
Daniel Szabo has built AI units, sold companies and delivered 76 AI projects across seven industries. Today he is Managing Partner of Generation Tech Partners, teaches at Frankfurt School and chairs the jury of the Capital Best of AI Awards.
Software revenue built at Körber Digital, up from €0.1m in four years
Board members trained in AI, from Fortune 500 to DAX
Executives trained in AI, at Frankfurt School and in companies
Exits as co-founder, plus angel exits such as Avtonomy to Helsing
AI transformation projects delivered
Industries, from pharma and logistics to private equity
In 2011 Daniel joined Merck. At its Innovation Center he held commercial responsibility for more than ten deep-tech ventures, from Japan to San Francisco. From 2015 he also built YOU MAWO in Konstanz with three partners, self-funded and without venture capital: 3D-printed glasses fitted to the wearer's face. With Siemens and ZEISS as partners, sold in more than 20 countries, later acquired by a growth investor.
As CEO at Körber, he grew the digital unit from €0.1m to €20m in revenue. Three AI companies were founded, two were sold. The unit was named Germany's best Digital Lab several times.
At some point he realised that everything he had built belonged to someone else. He carried the risk, but not the reward.
“I built Europe's largest corporate AI venture studio. For someone else.”
With Generation Tech Partners, Daniel now takes over companies from owners who are looking for a successor. He preserves what they have built and brings AI into the daily work of their employees.
Spoken at
Task Architect is Daniel's method for introducing AI. Every role is broken down into tasks, and for each task a decision is made whether a human or a machine takes it on. The method in detail
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The questions Daniel works on, drawn from his experience as founder, corporate CEO and investor.
Why AI is the biggest opportunity for mid-sized companies since the internet, and how autonomous agents will reshape industrial value creation by 2040.
Leadership is shifting from positions to tasks. The Task Architect gives managers a tool they can use the very next working day.
AI adoption is about 70 per cent change management. 95% of AI pilots deliver no return (MIT study, 2025). The successful ones rebuild their processes.
In private equity, operational value creation through AI is becoming more important than debt. From the experience of an investor who has built AI companies himself.
When work breaks down into tasks, HR becomes the architect of the organisation. How HR functions can lead AI adoption instead of merely administering it.
Fifteen years across corporations, start-ups and capital.
Group strategy and core team of the $17bn acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich, then Innovation Center. Head of Company Builder with commercial responsibility for more than ten deep-tech ventures from Japan to San Francisco.
Co-founder and investor, built alongside his role at Merck and without venture capital. 3D-printed glasses with Siemens and ZEISS, sold in more than 20 countries, one of Europe's fastest-growing companies in the FT 1000, exit to a growth investor.
CEO. From €0.1m to €20m in revenue in four years, 450 employees, named Germany's best Digital Lab several times.
Initiator and, since then, Jury Chair of the AI award for German companies.
Managing Partner. Takes over owner-managed service companies in succession and develops them further with AI.
Recognition for Daniel and the companies he has led.
More than 1,000 executives have learned from him how to bring AI into everyday work.
Essays and analysis on AI in business. New every week in DIE KI-Revolution, which is written in German. All 79 editions in the archive (in German) · Knowledge map (in German) · Articles (in German)
By topic (in German): AI agents · AI in the Mittelstand · Regulation · AI and private equity · Work and leadership · AI models
Latest edition · Week 40/2026 · 4 October 2026Also: Die US-Wettbewerbsbehörde ermittelt erstmals wegen ausbrechender KI-Agenten; Selbstverpflichtung ohne Strafe: Sechs Tech-Chefs unterschreiben im Weißen Haus.. Read the edition (German)
Why the biggest AI opportunity in the German Mittelstand is not the next pilot project but hundreds of small exceptions.
Read the essay AnalysisIf AI agents can change their own logs, management has no control, only a feeling of it.
Read the essay For buyersDoes a company earn from the AI wave, or does it just pay the bill? The most important question before any valuation.
Read the essay MethodWhich work goes away? What happens at the exception? Does the system learn? What do we do with the time gained?
Read the essayInterviews, profiles and podcasts from fifteen years.
We are prepared to make ourselves obsolete.2021
We have never slipped into the red.2019
In mid-sized companies, AI rarely fails because of the technology.2026
Understanding is still lacking at decision-maker level.2021, 2022
Hiring someone in a hoodie is not enough.2022
Conversations on AI, venture building and succession, mostly in German. To listen to and watch.
Read, follow or plan your succession.
Ten AI news items every week, each put into context, plus one concrete next step. Written in German, for decision-makers with no time for press releases.
More than 16,000 people follow Daniel for his take on AI, entrepreneurship and succession.
Your life's work deserves a buyer who keeps building it. Generation Tech Partners takes over owner-managed service companies, replies within 72 hours and develops them further with AI.
Daniel Szabo is a Hamburg-based AI entrepreneur and investor. He is Managing Partner of Generation Tech Partners, was CEO of Körber Digital from 2019 to 2024 and teaches as a Senior Lecturer at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.
No. Daniel Szabo from Hamburg is an AI entrepreneur and investor. The jazz pianist Dániel Szabó from Budapest is a different person.
The Task Architect is Daniel Szabo's method for introducing AI. Every role is broken down into individual tasks, and for each task a decision is made whether a human or an AI takes it on. The method (in German)
According to Daniel Szabo, most AI projects fail not because of the technology but because of execution. AI is placed on top of old processes instead of rebuilding them, so little of it reaches the P&L.
Daniel Szabo recommends four questions for every AI project: What work actually goes away afterwards? What happens with exceptions? Does the system learn from them? What do we do with the time saved?
Daniel Szabo argues that operational value creation through AI is becoming more important in private equity than debt. Buyers need to check whether a company earns money from AI or merely pays for it.
Daniel Szabo is a co-founder of YOU MAWO, FactoryPal, Vaibe, Quantineers, Transformation Leaders and Generation Tech Partners. FactoryPal was sold to Valmet, YOU MAWO to a growth investor.
DIE KI-Revolution is Daniel Szabo's weekly LinkedIn newsletter, written in German. Each edition puts ten AI news items of the week into context and names one concrete next step for decision-makers. Archive (in German)
Daniel Szabo is the author of “Corporate Rockstar”, a German-language book on how to build a career without losing your mind, published by Campus Verlag in 2020.
Daniel Szabo is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, the University of St. Gallen, CEMS and the Stiftung der Deutschen Wirtschaft (Foundation of German Business).
From 2011 to 2019 Daniel Szabo worked in Merck's group strategy. He was part of the core team for the $17bn acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich and, as Head of Company Builder at the Innovation Center, held commercial responsibility for more than ten deep-tech ventures from Japan to San Francisco.
YOU MAWO was named Growth Champion 2023 as the second-fastest-growing company in Germany and was listed in the FT 1000 of Europe's fastest-growing companies in 2021. Under his leadership Körber Digital won the 2021 Digital Lab Award from Capital and Infront and gold at the 2022 German Stevie Awards.
Through his family office Einhorn Capital, Daniel Szabo is a business angel in companies including Avtonomy (sold to Helsing), Edurino, GastroRocket and Stratos.
Yes. On 13 August 2025 he explained live on German news channel n-tv why Perplexity wants to buy Google's Chrome browser. He speaks regularly on podcasts about AI in companies and writes the weekly German newsletter DIE KI-Revolution.
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