Welcome to the fourth edition of Schibsted Future Report. This is our outlook on trends within tech, people, society and business. It’s a report from Schibsted people, from our different companies all over the world, who are sharing their knowledge and thoughts. We have also invited some of our friends, who we’ve worked closely with, to participate. We believe in openness, sharing ideas and starting conversations. I hope we will enjoy it! This is the highlights of this year’s report:

As machines know more and more about us, the need to express our humanity and responsibility increases, whether it is taking a stand for independent journalism, riding a bike into the future or shopping ­secondhand and speed up circular economy. It is more important than ever to have and to tell a true, genuine and consistent story. That’s how you succeed as a business – whether you’re a newspaper created by war heroes, or a global digital brand. A strong purpose, a truly good life is what we are looking for. In this year’s report, we present some of our own brands and their stories.

“Is it OK to be mean to a robot?”

2018 is also the year when we are entering the world of artificial intelligence on a broader scale. AI is now powering our everyday life. It’s part of almost all the technological solutions and services we’re using, and it’s getting more advanced by the minute: we learn to talk to machines, machines learn not only to understand but to interpret humans – even though chatting with your favorite bot still leaves room for improvement. Future Report takes on AI in a tech story comparing the progress of AI to the arrival of electricity, a change so big we can’t see the full effect yet. It will bring fundamental changes and create new industries and new solutions that we can’t even imagine. AI software is already used in such disparate areas as improving customer service, predicting disease or detecting faults in equipment. And soon our homes will be equipped with voice AI devices facilitating our daily life, voice might even be the new over all interface – and it will provide unseen new business opportunities.

This will also be the year when we see more and more robots. But with humanlike robots come existential questions like: what does it really mean to be human? And how do we behave towards them? Is it OK to be mean to a robot? The answer is no for most people.

As tech and science evolve, these questions will be high on the agenda.

So. Reality is real. Intelligence is artificial. Robots are like people. And The Future is now. Welcome to our world.