Twan van Schie
Consultant
Twan is a consultant driven by sustainability and innovation. He approaches complex challenges as design problems: analyzing, experimenting, and realizing solutions. With his technical background as an industrial designer, he facilitates change in dynamic environments involving multiple stakeholders and ecosystems. Twan is experienced in working from strategy through to execution, with a track record of combining innovation, sustainability, and storytelling in his previous roles.
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At Create the Future, the expert session Man & Machine: from market scan to action plan was hosted by nlmtd and guided by Rahel de Vriend, Arno Nijhof, Erik Strooper and Twan van Schie. Leaders from construction, healthcare, infrastructure, logistics, aviation, retail and energy explored how robotics and AI are already reshaping work in practice.
The central idea was shared across all breakout rooms. The future of work is not about replacing people, but about redesigning tasks so humans and machines work together more effectively. Participants discussed how automation is moving beyond pilots into real operations, particularly in physically demanding, repetitive and safety critical work. Examples included robots in aircraft baggage handling, autonomous inspections, warehouse automation, bricklaying robots and early applications of self driving and drone technologies.
In shaping a vision for the next ten years, even fundamental design principles came into question. If operating a vehicle or object is no longer done by humans, should they still be designed in their current form at all? And what does that mean for our requirements for infrastructure and urban planning?
Dare to do
Several barriers stood out. Within organizations, key knowledge holders often sit in strategic positions with high influence, but also with caution toward disruptive innovation. As a result, valuable insights remain siloed. As discussed across sessions, “We need to dare to do,” and equally important, “we need to start doing.” Legislation and regulation were also recurring themes. While regulation can enable safer and better work conditions, it can also slow adoption, especially in public and shared environments.
Progress requires bringing people together
The main takeaway was clear. Progress requires connecting knowledge holders across organizations and sectors, and someone has to initiate that collaboration. Looking ahead, the future of work will be shaped by those willing to convene, experiment and move from insight to action together.
