To be honest, I was a bit concerned before this year’s Ambiente-Christmasworld-Creativeworld trade fair trio, as this was my third visit to Frankfurt for this global showcase of consumer goods, interior design, and creative hobby tools held in early February, and I wasn't sure what new information I could provide after two previous reports. Ultimately, circumstances, as often happens, came to my aid once again. This year, unlike previous ones, attendees and a few lucky representatives of the international press—including the author of these lines—were invited to a "Day 0" event before the official opening of the event. The lecture series, titled "Compass Talks," proved to be exceptionally interesting and enlightening. During the conference, which exceeded four hours of net airtime, exciting and thought-provoking topics were on the table: how the confidence of global economic players in the future shifts depending on geographical factors or in light of current geopolitical events, and it was also discussed how we should adapt and integrate artificial intelligence and technological progress, whether from a practical perspective or as a philosophy of life. In the following, I will attempt to briefly summarize all of this. Deep water, for swimmers only, but it’s worth taking the plunge into the subject!

Savage Seas Breed Real Sailors

The program, moderated by RTL and ntv editor-reporter Frauke Holzmeier, was opened by Detlef Braun, representing the Messe Frankfurt Board of Management, who summarized the motivations and objectives of Compass Talks in a brief but informative introduction. As was mentioned several times during the lecture series, he also pointed out that we are living in uncertain times, both economically and geopolitically, but that this also creates opportunities if we have the right attitude. From Messe Frankfurt's perspective, for example, given that around 4,700 companies and businesses from literally all over the world, with visitors from 170 countries gather at this trade fair in early February each year, it is possible to use this exceptional global network to conduct comprehensive research and analysis on key international processes and trends, seeking joint answers to the questions mentioned in the introduction that are of concern to many.

And while it is a cliché that only change is constant, if we consider how much has happened in the world in just the past few years, since the COVID-19 lockdown period, we can agree that such turbulent eras thoroughly test the adaptability and ingenuity of economic players, whether they are giant companies defining entire sectors or bedroom startups. Geopolitical fault lines, the often not fully understandable regulatory environment with difficult-to-reconcile perspectives regarding production or sustainability, vulnerable supply chains, trade conflicts, or seemingly unpredictable circumstances—none of these act in a direction that would allow economic players to breathe a sigh of relief. At the same time, as was stated, some light appeared at the end of the tunnel in 2025: after a few particularly difficult years, there were already signs last year pointing toward stabilization, and the mood of international market participants—though, as it turned out later, not necessarily to the same extent—is generally characterized by cautious optimism. If we turn challenges into opportunities and view changes as inspiration, any innovation can immediately become our ally, whether in the field of artificial intelligence, design, or the creative industry. And, as Detlef Braun said, the goal of Compass Talks is, among other things, to offer points of reference, to spark thoughts, and, stylistically, to serve as a kind of compass in this area, not only for the partners of the fair trio but also for those international economic players who wish to respond appropriately to these challenges.

S1M0NE Has Already Arrived

Next up was Sharon Gai, an internationally recognized expert in artificial intelligence, e-commerce, and digital transformation, and author of several books on a range of topics. Her presentation, like her latest book, was titled "How to Do More With Less Using AI". Without going into a point-by-point summary of what I heard, I will try to highlight the most memorable points: Sharon outlined a world, starting with a somewhat futuristic (seeming) example, which is essentially already here, even if we are not necessarily aware of it. If we take a self-reflective look at how much more we shop in online stores today than we did just a few years ago, we are already looking in the right place for one of the starting points of change. Sharon talked about how Chinese e-commerce companies and platforms such as Tmall, Alibaba, and Taobao have gained ground in recent years, generating a significant portion of their annual turnover during Double 11, the local equivalent of Black Friday. She also discussed how and why, in order to serve the growing number of customers and for reasons of time and energy efficiency, they switched from traditional product photos to AI-generated illustrations.

In addition to all this, it was discussed how our searching habits have changed, how AI-based search is gaining more and more ground alongside traditional search engines, and parallel to this, how AEO, i.e., Answer Engine Optimization, is becoming increasingly important alongside SEO (Search Engine Optimization), with the help of which LLM-based (Large Language Model) tools—ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and so on—can provide as much information as possible about our business's products and services. It is becoming increasingly important to provide details about what we want to sell as thoroughly as possible, to place everything we do into context as much as possible.

And of course, it also matters who will sell this to us, since—and now I will give a different example from the one mentioned on-site—taking the factors of personal credibility and trust into account, we trust a piece of sports equipment less if a severely obese salesperson offers it to us. And here we have already arrived at the generative AI-created seller-avatars tailored to customers that operate webshops, who are capable of speaking for 24 hours during a livestream, whose voices do not get tired after 2-3 hours, and there are already service providers worldwide who employ them and for whom they generate sales. Viktor Taransky could not dream of anything better; we are probably really not far from a world of AI-based pop and film stars with fan bases!

The good news, however, especially for those for whom these perspectives are not clearly encouraging, is that we are likely not witnessing Skynet becoming self-aware. Sharon illustrated this very vividly with the image of an ongoing construction site, which artificial intelligence would never be able to finish. Thus, as she put it, beyond the world of internet memes, the emergence of companies where only the CEO is a flesh-and-blood human and every other work process is performed by machines and algorithms is not likely. Artificial intelligence, although developing extremely rapidly, is currently primarily suitable for performing mechanical, repetitive tasks; it is much harder to replace the human factor when long-term planning, strategy, managing relationship dynamics, or ambiguities are needed, not to mention obvious physical abilities. And the winners of technological progress, as Sharon put it, will be those who find the right balance and recognize when it is worth outsourcing a task to AI and which one is worth keeping for ourselves. And of course, those who are not afraid of the new and perhaps still remember what opinions we could encounter regarding the internet thirty years ago, before it became part of our daily lives.

This was followed by a panel discussion during which Sharon, as well as Leopold Grupp (Stölzle Lausitz), Jonathan Roxlau (Wurm), and Klaus Striebich (RaRE Advise consultant, former board member of the German Council of Shopping Places), discussed several questions raised regarding the presentation.

A Subdued Mood in the Global Economy

Following a coffee break, Dr. Ralf Deckers, head of the department responsible for strategic insights and analysis at IFH KÖLN—full name Institut für Handelsforschung / Institute for Trade Research, one of Germany's leading market research and consulting institutions specializing in trade and consumer behavior—shared some very instructive information with us about the mood and state of international economic players and the markets of different continents. The basis of his presentation was a large-sample market research study launched in the spring of 2025, consisting of a total of 950 interviews, in which participants were asked what economic trends they see, how secure they judge their future to be, how much they dare to take risks, and to what extent the political and regulatory environment helps or hinders the work of economic players.

Without going into every detail, the analytical results presented to us show the following: key players in the consumer goods and creative industry sectors currently consider factors such as price tension, decreasing margins, global uncertainty caused by wars and similar geopolitical conflicts, and increasing production costs as the biggest challenges; they also noted that households have become much more cautious regarding consumption and purchasing, and, although to a lesser extent, a portion of respondents also views the expansion of global e-commerce companies with concern.

The economic mood is therefore currently quite gloomy worldwide; the situation was overall rated as average at best by research participants, with certain negative trends. Market sentiment remains the most pessimistic in Europe—though we cannot be surprised by this if we read the daily news—yet it is instructive and thought-provoking that in America and Asia, the outlook for the present and the near future is somewhat more positive. However, the global economic mood is quite tense, and there is more or less a unified opinion worldwide that everyone only loses with unpredictable regulations related to various tariffs, and political changes currently mostly do not help the international economy to breathe, and for a predictable, optimistic future vision to develop long-term.

Unfortunately, these are not necessarily surprising results; however, it can definitely be mentioned as a positive that in the two following panel discussions—during which we could welcome representatives of long-standing companies and leaders of young, emerging businesses on stage—we heard about many interesting experiences regarding new opportunities for brand and business building, even relying on social media, or the slow but increasingly perceptible gain of ground for the demand for sustainability among both manufacturers and customers, alongside the obvious problem statements.

To Be Present in the Future – Without the Legacy of the Past

The afternoon of the Compass Talks was concluded by Ben Hammersley—British strategic consultant, journalist, and futurist, creator of the term "podcast," whose main area of expertise is the relationship between technology and society, and who previously worked as an editor for Wired and as a consultant to the British government—with his presentation titled "The Wrong Ways to Think About Tomorrow ". The discourse, laced in places with real, biting English humor, put the crown on the already non-boring afternoon in many ways, as Hammersley put the history of technological development, condensed into a nutshell with a few well-chosen examples, into context in such a way that even a simple Hungarian journalist seemed to understand everything, despite the scant three and a half hours of sleep preceding the day. Due to space limitations, I will not go into detailing every connection mentioned during the presentation, for example, how the universal culture of humanity was changed by the metal tube patented in 1841 by John G. Rand—American painter and inventor, 1801-1873—but we received many similar oral illustrations of the principle that "everything is connected to everything," and how we have acquired almost god-like abilities today thanks to digital technology; it is enough just to think about how we can find out everything about the weather or road conditions of any city with a few clicks, or how we can basically get in touch with anyone worldwide.

For me, the most instructive parts followed when the three mistakes we most often make when thinking about the future were discussed: that we confuse technology with culture, that we try to slow down progress or perhaps ignore it, and that we cling to yesterday's ideas about tomorrow. For, as Hammersley explained in detail, it is important to be aware of things such as that we do not live in ChatGPT, for example, but in a world, a culture, where ChatGPT is a tool available to anyone. Just as the camera or digital camera became available to everyone a few decades ago, not everyone became a Robert Capa or a Martin Scorsese. Similarly, tools using artificial intelligence will be the best allies for those who already have greater expertise in the given field—even now, in a developer and user environment far superior to text and image generators—rather than for complete laypeople. And wishing to return to the times before artificial intelligence, social media, Brexit, the internet—and so on—is by no means a solution; in fact, it is a much more forward-looking choice if we make things better using the currently available tools and opportunities, preferably by independent ourselves from the legacy of the past and daring to change, adapt, adjust, while remaining a bit in the present day by day.

Epilogue

If anyone thinks that we have strayed a little into the realm of philosophy at the end of this report, they are not far wrong. And, of course, the question may arise as to what such a profound report, which verges on the realm of technology and economic policy, is doing on a website primarily devoted to creative hobbies. The answer is simply to follow the imaginary thread of thought that runs from the invention of the oil paint tube to the dilemmas that many creators face today, such as - to give a simplified example - when AI will take over the role of illustrators, and whether there will still be a need for art suppliers and specialty stores where someone who may be an artist themselves recommends raw materials and tools. illustrators, for example, by AI, is there a need for art suppliers and specialty stores where someone who may be an artist themselves recommends raw materials and tools, how will they find their way in the jungle of web stores supported by 24-hour livestreams by avatars? Is the visual aspect, the increasingly perfect imaging, enough, or is it the idea, the creator's experience, love, pain, and doubts that make an image or text a true work of art? While we're on the subject, how long will we still need journalists who get up at dawn to fly to Frankfurt, sit through a conference like this, and then write about it all, filtering it through their own lens, thereby amplifying certain impressions and glossing over others?

We leave it up to everyone's own taste and temperament whether to answer these questions - either immediately and decisively, or more subtly after some deliberation, allowing for the possibility of some mistakes - or simply, to reflect on them and perhaps find inspiration that can be translated and applied to their own circumstances based on the above. In any case, I am glad I was there, because I heard a lot of interesting points of view, opinions, and ideas. I hope this initiative will continue, because it has definitely added a new and exciting dimension to the Ambiente-Christmasworld-Creativeworld trade fair trio that we have come to know so far.

To be continued... because, of course, that's not all; the report on this year's Creativeworld is coming soon!

You can read our previous articles about Messe Frankfurt events here! More information about the international trade fairs Ambiente, Christmasworld, and Creativeworld can be found on the events’ social media platforms and on the Messe Frankfurt and BD-Expo websites!

A beszámoló magyar nyelvű változatát itt olvashatod!

Photos: Attila Kovács, Freepik.com