Trends

How New Work is shaping the development of CONTACT Elements

You are probably familiar with this scenario from everyday work: an experienced engineer retires, taking decades of undocumented product knowledge with them. At the same time, the position remains unfilled for months. Meanwhile, young talents applying for the job expect modern work tools and a high degree of flexibility. The key challenges our customers face in engineering are skills shortages, employee turnover, and a lack of young talent. Digital transformation is a crucial step towards overcoming these challenges and ensuring long-term competitiveness. But technology alone is not enough:

“The introduction of new technologies is only the first step. What really matters is the ability to align technological innovation with human needs and the demands of a dynamic work environment.”

This is exactly where we at CONTACT Research come in. To actively address these challenges, we are exploring the trends shaping New Work. As a global megatrend, New Work is already influencing your teams on a daily basis. Since we develop the software your employees use every day, we need to understand the new demands New Work places on PLM systems.

Society is changing the world of work

Behind the shortage of skilled workers and the changing nature of work lie profound societal developments:

Demographic Change & Knowledge Loss: An aging workforce requires significant investment in occupational health, ergonomics and continuous training and reskilling. At the same time, growing competition for skilled workers is driving up recruitment and retention costs. As the baby boomer generation retires, the available workforce is also shrinking considerably. This puts valuable expertise, often undocumented and based on years of experience, at risk of being lost forever.

The Expectations of New Generations (Gen Z & Digital Natives): These generations expect flexibility, flat hierarchies, and psychological safety. For them, work is about more than simply earning a living; it needs to provide a sense of purpose. As a demographic shift, these digitally savvy generations are essential to securing the skilled workforce of the future. Companies therefore need to align their employer value proposition with the values and expectations of these potential employees.

Structural Gender Inequalities & Diversity: Unequal treatment based on gender in the labor market is not simply a matter of personal preferences. It is rooted in deeply ingrained structural barriers. This is particularly evident in STEM fields, where the term “leaky pipeline” describes how qualified women disproportionately leave technical professions as their careers progress. Factors such as the systemic gender pay gap, unpaid care work, and difficulties balancing family and career prevent companies from tapping into this valuable talent pool. By actively breaking down these barriers, companies can attract and retain key talent amid skills shortages while also demonstrably strengthening their own capacity for innovation.

Holistic Health & Resilience: Today, health is viewed holistically. Mental resilience and healthy integration of work and personal life are essential to employees. Excessive workloads and monotonous work environments reduce motivation and increase absenteeism.

How can New Work address these challenges?

The practical measures can be grouped into four key areas:

Work Models: Establishing hybrid, remote-capable structures and using modern communication technologies enable the flexible integration of global teams. Flexible working hours and locations, such as flexitime and working from home, as well as project-based work, help attract new talent and retain experienced professionals in the long term while maintaining their productivity.

Shared Values & Culture: An active cultural shift is driven primarily by leaders who set an example by fostering an open culture of feedback and acceptance of mistakes . Leadership is based on mutual respect and trust, with empowerment taking precedence over control. Diversity also acts as a driver of innovation, while a clearly defined corporate purpose strengthens employees’ sense of identification with the company.

Knowledge Culture: Digital skills needed for the future are systematically developed through innovative and creative learning formats. To break down information silos, business-critical knowledge is captured and structured on digital knowledge platforms. Agile microlearning formats also make continuous learning an integral part of everyday work.

Well-being & Working Environment: Preventive occupational health management lays the foundation for a healthy organization. Varied tasks that offer opportunities for development, consideration of employees’ individual life stages and a culture of appreciation all help strengthen their mental and physical resilience.

How CONTACT Elements can support New Work

Let’s be honest: No, CONTACT Elements cannot change your corporate culture on its own. Only you and your teams can do that. However, software that employees use for many hours every day can play a significant role in helping you tailor work tasks, workflows, and organizational structures to their individual needs.

That is why we at CONTACT Research are exploring practical concepts and developing demonstrators in the following areas:

Efficiency & resilience in engineering: When software makes it easy for employees to share personal feedback on their work environment, it can boost motivation and help optimize processes.

Increasing efficiency in the product development process: Designing tasks in software around people’s needs can make a tangible difference in employee satisfaction in everyday work.

Maintaining quality throughout projects: Software that allows work to be organized with individual needs in mind helps strengthen employee engagement.

Resilience on the shop floor: Flexible, workforce scheduling tailored to individual needs helps conserve resources and promotes the physical and mental well-being of your teams.

CONTACT Elements new work is an internal research project by CONTACT Research. Do you have questions, ideas, or even a healthy dose of skepticism? We’d love to hear from you! Get in touch and let’s work together to shape the future of PLM and create more sustainable, people-centered work environments.

Digital authenticity: how to spot AI-generated content

In today’s digital age, we often question whether we can trust images, videos, or texts. Tracing the source of information is becoming more and more difficult. Generative AI accelerates the creation of content at an incredible pace. Images and audio files that once required a skilled artist can now be generated by AI models in a matter of seconds. Models like OpenAI’s Sora can even produce high-quality videos!

This technology offers both opportunities and risks. On the one hand, it speeds up creative processes, but on the other hand, it can be misused for malicious purposes, such as phishing attacks or creating deceptively real deepfake videos. So how can we ensure that the content shared online is genuine?

Digital watermarks: invisible protection for content

Digital watermarks are one solution that helps verify the origin of images, videos, or audio files. These patterns are invisible to the human eye but can be detected by algorithms even after minor changes, like compressing or cropping an image, and are difficult to remove. They are primarily used to protect copyright.

However, applying watermarks to text is way more difficult because text has less redundancy than pixels in images. A related method is to insert small but visible errors into the original content. Google Maps, for instance, uses this method with fictional streets – if these streets appear in a copy, it signals copyright infringement.

Digital signatures: security through cryptography

Digital signatures are based on asymmetric cryptography. This means that the content is signed with a private key that only the creator possesses. Others can verify the authenticity of the content using a public key. Even the smallest alteration to the content invalidates the signature, making it nearly impossible to forge. Digital signatures already ensure transparency in online communication, for example through the HTTPS protocol for secure browsing.

In a world where all digital content would be protected by signatures, the origin and authenticity of any piece of media could be easily verified. For example, you could confirm who took a photo, when, and where. An initiative pushing this forward is the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), which is developing technical standards to apply digital signatures to media and document its origin. Unlike watermarks, signatures are not permanently embedded into the content itself and can be removed without altering the material. In an ideal scenario, everyone would use digital signatures – then, missing signatures would raise doubts about the trustworthiness of the content.

GenAI detectors: AI vs. AI

GenAI detectors provide another way to recognize generated content. AI models are algorithms that leave behind certain patterns, such as specific wording or sentence structures. Other AI models can detect these. Tools like GPTZero can already identify with high accuracy whether a text originates from a generative AI model like ChatGPT or Gemini. While these detectors are not perfect yet, they provide an initial indication.

What does this mean for users?

Of all the options, digital signatures offer the strongest protection because they work across all types of content and are based on cryptographic methods. It will be interesting to see if projects like C2PA can establish trusted standards. Still, different measures may be needed depending on the purpose of ensuring the trustworthiness of digital content.
In addition to technological solutions, critical thinking remains one of the best tools for navigating the information age. The amount of available information is constantly growing; therefore, it is important to critically question, verify, and be aware of the capabilities of generative AI models.

For a more comprehensive article, check out the CONTACT Research Blog.

UX in industrial settings: Intuitive design for enhanced efficiency

The city of Würzburg, situated charmingly on the River Main, is renowned not only for its historic old town and first-class wines but also for hosting the “Future of Industrial Usability“. The event gathered experts from all over Germany from October 23 to 24 to discuss the latest developments in user experience (UX) within the industrial environment. My colleague Vivien and I were also present and want to share some insights.

User-friendliness as a success factor

A central topic of the conference was the user experience of products in industrial applications. And for good reason: in an era in which technology and digital solutions are shaping everyday working life, designing products and applications that focus on the needs and expectations of users becomes increasingly crucial. Outstanding UX can not only enhance customer satisfaction but also boost employee productivity and efficiency.

The presentations and discussions emphasized the importance of a user-centric approach to product development. From the simplicity of user interfaces to the seamless integration of functions, companies must comprehend their users’ needs to create products and applications that can perform effectively in today’s complex working environment.

Focus on user needs: personas in the enterprise software context

Developing enterprise software is particularly challenging due to its complexity and diverse user groups. As described in our article “Personas for business software – a gimmick or sustainable added value?“, utilizing personas offers an effective approach to tackle this challenge. Personas are fictional characters representing typical users of a product or service. Working with them is an integral part of CONTACT’s software development process and plays a key role in getting a better understanding of users’ tasks and needs in their professional lives. With this understanding, companies can develop more user-centered products and software solutions. In Würzburg, we presented how to create personas, market them within the company, and utilize them across departments.

Integrating AI into interaction concepts: The path to the future

Another intensely debated topic was the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into interaction concepts. AI is increasingly being used in industry as a means of improving processes and supporting decision-making. It holds the potential to fundamentally change the way we interact with machines and technology. Attendees were presented with impressive examples and best practices illustrating how AI can increase efficiency and performance in the industry. For instance, a concept showed how AI integration into a Human Machine Inte r face (HMI) assists machine users in adjusting facilities to be more energy efficient.

Future of Industrial Usability: a resounding success

Overall, the “Future of Industrial Usability” was an inspiring event. Alongside current trends, it showed that user-centered product development in the industry is not merely a passing trend but has taken a pivotal role in the future of product development and corporate success. Companies investing in usability enhancements will distinguish themselves in an increasingly competitive market and better meet their customers’ needs.

We look forward to further exciting developments and innovations in this field and thank the organizers of the conference in Würzburg for this excellent event. See you next time.