From Ideas to Impact: Turning AI Exploration into Customer-Centric Innovation

SPEAKERS

Lars Kierkegaard Global Business Product Owner - Sustainability data insights, Maersk

ABOUT THE SESSION

Lars Kierkegaard, the Global Market Innovation Lead for Supply Chains at Maersk, brings over two decades of product management expertise across supply chain, telecom, and IT—from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Specializing in the incubation and development of digitally-enabled products, his approach is grounded in thought leadership, commercial acumen, and deep technological insight. At the event, Lars will discuss how Maersk ensures its technology development is rooted in real customer and market needs. He will share practical case studies that highlight lessons learned in aligning innovation with business value and customer pain points. His session, From Ideas to Impact: Turning AI Exploration into Customer-Centric Innovation, will showcase how Maersk transforms AI potential into tangible solutions that resonate with customers.

He will delve into the evolving journey from experimental AI use cases toward meaningful, customer-centric product development—demonstrating how this shift drives more impactful innovation and business alignment. By highlighting a compelling case study, he will explain the rationale for moving beyond technology for technology’s sake and embedding customer needs at the core of product strategy. His session will emphasize the critical mindset shift from inside-out to outside-in thinking, bringing technology and business functions closer through integrated development practices. He will also discuss the importance of engaging the right customers early—those with a collaborative mindset and appropriate maturity—to co-create, prototype, and validate solutions. Listening actively to customer feedback, embracing discomfort, and resisting the urge to filter or overinterpret responses will be shown as essential practices to reduce bias. Finally, he will advocate for a culture that values "failing fast"—recognizing early when a project doesn’t solve a worthwhile problem and reallocating efforts where they can deliver real value.

Key Topics-

1. Moving from exploring and testing AI uses cases to customer centric product development – the rationale for the shift illustrated with a case
 

2. Shifting from inside-out to outside-in – embedding the shift into product development and linking technology and the business closer together
 

3. Engaging representative customers with the right mindset in product discovery and prototyping – and assessing customer maturity
 

4. Listening closely to customers – and fostering openness to customer responses to avoid bias
 

5. Celebrating failing fast early – stopping projects with problems not worth solving

For more on this conference or to access the session, reach out to us at [email protected]. 

This content is copyrighted by PTN Events Private Limited. Any recording and posting of this content is strictly prohibited.