[{"content":"Writing on AI, digital transformation, technology adoption, and organizational change – and whatever. I only write a few times a year.\n","date":null,"permalink":"https://kristian-stoffregen.dk/blog/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Blog"},{"content":" As conversational AI becomes embedded in customer service, healthcare, and digital platforms, a new phenomenon is emerging: synthetic empathy. AI systems do not feel emotions, yet they can simulate empathy, care, and encouragement in ways that many users experience as real. This creates powerful new opportunities for interaction, but also raises important ethical and strategic questions about persuasion, asymmetry, and the growing role of AI as the interface between organizations and the people they serve. Receiving the diploma from session chair Professor Hanlie Smuts.\nToday, I presented a paper on AI and synthetic empathy at the International Conference on Information Systems 2026 in Croatia.\nMy paper explores synthetic empathy: situations in which AI-based systems simulate emotions.\nLarge language models do not, of course, actually feel emotions, but they can simulate them quite convincingly. When an AI expresses empathy, care, or encouragement, these are not genuine feelings, yet users may still experience them as such.\nAI can employ adaptive strategies in which the system analyzes linguistic patterns and responds in ways that appear socially appropriate and emotionally attuned.\nThis form of synthetic empathy can be used strategically as a persuasive mechanism. AI systems can continuously adjust their responses based on the information users provide throughout the conversation.\nAs the AI learns more about your situation, your problem, or your uncertainties, it can modify its communication in ways that make it seem more persuasive.\nThis gives rise to a new form of persuasive design: AI systems that adapt their communication in real time to the psychological and informational signals that all of us continuously give off.\nThis raises new ethical questions, and we need a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms because they have major implications. There is also an asymmetry here: the AI can simulate emotions toward the user in order to achieve something, but the user cannot influence the AI through emotional appeals.\nThis also has major implications for business. Many organizations are already integrating AI chat into customer service, advisory services, and digital platforms. It is equally significant in the healthcare sector.\nAs conversational AI increasingly becomes the user interface between organizations and their users, it is clear that the use of synthetic empathy can significantly influence how services are developed, delivered, and used, but it can also be misused.\nA few photos from the conference:\n","date":"8 March 2026","permalink":"https://kristian-stoffregen.dk/blog/conference-on-information-systems-2026-zagreb/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Conference on Information Systems 2026 in Zagreb"},{"content":" kristian@kristian-stoffregen.dk Follow on Linkedin Follow on Orcid Follow on Github Working at the intersection of research, teaching, and practice. I enjoy turning complex ideas into practical tools and capabilities that organizations can use. I lead workshops, coach executives, and design training programmes aimed at creating real and lasting change. ","date":null,"permalink":"https://kristian-stoffregen.dk/","section":"Kristian Stoffregen — Research, Teaching \u0026 Practice","summary":"","title":"Kristian Stoffregen — Research, Teaching \u0026 Practice"},{"content":" Digital transformation is no longer optional for SMEs, yet far too many still struggle to turn ambition into results. At MobiWIS 2025 in Istanbul, I had the opportunity to present research developed in collaboration with Agnis Stibe that tackles this challenge head-on: how to move beyond theory and create practical, capability-driven support that helps SMEs succeed in their digital transformation journeys. Presenting the SMEDT framework at MobiWIS 2025.\nI had the opportunity to present work from my research collaboration with Agnis Stibe at MobiWIS 2025 in Istanbul.\nIn my presentation, I focused on one of the major challenges facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): digital transformation.\nThe practical problem is straightforward: too many digital transformation initiatives fail, and SMEs are often hit hardest because they have less slack, fewer specialist resources, and less room for expensive mistakes.\nSMEs are vital to Europe’s economy but continue lagging behind larger firms in digital transformation.\nI am researching how to bridge the gap between academic insight and practical, actionable support that helps SMEs succeed in their digital journeys.\nAt EK - Erhvervsakademi København I’m fortunate to work in an environment that allows me to combine creativity with industry-relevant research, tackling questions that truly matter for SMEs.\nThe first result is the conceptualization of an open-source SMEDT framework: a do-it-yourself, capability-driven framework for SMEs.\nIt still needs maturing and further validation, but it is explicitly designed around known SME constraints and is being developed with an AI-first approach.\nThe paper is published by Springer here: 10.1007/978-3-032-02060-4_3\nI left Istanbul inspired, grateful, and more determined to make a difference for SMEs. A big thank you to the MobiWIS organizing committee for hosting a valuable conference and for creating the space to share and exchange ideas.\nA few impressions from the conference:\n","date":"10 October 2025","permalink":"https://kristian-stoffregen.dk/blog/mobiwis-2025-istanbul/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"MobiWIS 2025 in Istanbul"},{"content":"Background #My career has unfolded along three parallel tracks — enterprise industry, academic research, and university teaching — held together by a single question: how do people and organizations actually change when new technology arrives?\nIndustry #I have spent years inside large, complex organizations — the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), Microsoft, Danfoss, PwC, and CGI — working on knowledge management, enterprise software, and the architecture of large-scale change. During my years at Microsoft, I contributed to seven patent filings across enterprise knowledge management, user-interface design, data visualisation, and mobile technology. Today I work as a Business and IT Architect.\nOn-site industry work — Istanbul.\nResearch #I hold a business PhD from Copenhagen Business School, with a dissertation on knowledge management systems in practice, and have been a visiting scholar at Stanford. My published work spans from early persuasive-technology frameworks — cited hundreds of times and foundational to the field — to recent writing on AI-first digital transformation for small and medium-sized enterprises. For the full record, see Research and Publications.\nVisiting scholar at Stanford\u0026rsquo;s H-STAR Institute.\nTeaching #Today I teach AI-assisted coding, enterprise architecture, project management, and philosophy of science at BA level.\nFor years I designed and delivered university courses, supervised graduate research, and trained executives and practitioners in organisations preparing for transformation — including internally at PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), where I taught digital transformation and user-centred design facilitation to consultants and client teams. Research earns its keep when it reaches the people who have to make decisions under uncertainty; I try to teach accordingly.\nLeading a Value Proposition Design session at PwC.\nA selection of slides from my training and speaking engagements.\nWhat connects these three tracks is a commitment to independent, evidence-based judgement: research that is useful, practice that is reflective, and teaching that prepares people to think clearly about technology rather than react to it.\nFor full credentials, see LinkedIn.\nDigital Transformation in the Age of AI #Digital transformation is often treated as a one-off project. In practice it rarely works that way, especially in organisations with hundreds of disconnected systems and weak data foundations.\nThe world is now digital-first, which means organisations need continuous transformation if they want to remain competitive — or even relevant.\nDigital transformation is one of the defining disruption trends and a major source of competitive advantage, yet most large-scale change programmes still fail. According to McKinsey, 70 percent of complex transformation efforts do not reach their stated goals.\nSo what mistakes should leaders avoid? What capabilities do organisations actually need? And what hard truths should be understood before spending millions on transformation?\nFun facts #A first-generation digital native #I have worked with computers since I was six — a first-generation digital native who started on a Commodore 64. That machine taught me that interesting systems reward patience and curiosity; very little has changed since.\nWhere it all started: the Commodore 64.\nI\u0026rsquo;m a cyborg #I\u0026rsquo;m a cyborg. Cyborg is a blend of the words cybernetic and organism — it refers to beings with both organic and biomechatronic body parts.\nI lost the hearing in my right ear in a scuba-diving accident. Now I have a bone-anchored hearing aid — a bone-conduction implant system. I currently use Oticon\u0026rsquo;s Ponto 5 mounted on a titanium implant drilled into my skull. It has changed my life for the better, but I don\u0026rsquo;t get stereo ;-)\nI like a good challenge.\n","date":null,"permalink":"https://kristian-stoffregen.dk/about/","section":"About Kristian Stoffregen","summary":"","title":"About Kristian Stoffregen"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;d love to hear from you \u0026ndash; whether you\u0026rsquo;re looking for AI training, digital transformation consulting, or just want to connect.\nPhone: (+45) 20 15 36 47\nEmail: kristian@kristian-stoffregen.dk\nLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kristian-stoffregen\nGitHub: github.com/kommuniker/worth-building\nORCID: 0009-0009-9965-4269\n","date":null,"permalink":"https://kristian-stoffregen.dk/contact/","section":"Contact Kristian Stoffregen","summary":"","title":"Contact Kristian Stoffregen"},{"content":"A chronological list of my peer-reviewed publications and patent filings. For research interests and current projects, see the Research page.\nThe complete record is also available on Google Scholar and ORCID 0009-0009-9965-4269.\nPublications #Book Chapters # SMEDT: AI-First Discovery of a Digital Transformation Framework for Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises (2026). DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-02060-4_3 Journal Articles # A Review of Four Persuasive Design Models (2013). International Journal of Conceptual Structures and Smart Applications (IJCSSA). DOI: 10.4018/ijcssa.2013070103 PhD Dissertation # Knowledge Management Systems in Practice: A Work Place Study (2010). Copenhagen Business School (CBS). CBS Research Portal Conference Proceedings # Current Challenges in Social Media Management (2015). Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Social Media \u0026amp; Society. Co-authors: Z. Jaffari, R. Vatrapu. DOI: 10.1145/2789187.2789191 Analyzing Non-Textual Arguments with Toulmin (2014). Persuasive Technology: 9th International Conference, PERSUASIVE 2014, Padua, Italy. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-07127-5_20 Persuasive Design of TEL — Models and Challenges (2013). International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching. Leeds Beckett Repository Persuasive System Design: State of the Art and Future Directions (2009). Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Persuasive Technology. Co-author: H. Oinas-Kukkonen. DOI: 10.1145/1541948.1541989 Persuasive Technology Design — A Rhetorical Approach (2008). Persuasive Technology: 3rd International Conference, PERSUASIVE 2008, Oulu, Finland. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-68504-3_8 Adapting Web 2.0 to Corporate Reality (2008). ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). The Rhetorical Situation for Knowledge Sharing of Best Practices in Corporate Online Environments (2008). International Conference on Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities (OLKC). PDF CSCW and the Web 2.0 (2007). Workshop of the 10th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW). Gaze Typing Compared with Input by Head and Hand (2004). Proceedings of the 2004 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research \u0026amp; Applications (ETRA). Co-authors: J.P. Hansen, A.S. Johansen, K. Itoh, H. Aoki. DOI: 10.1145/968363.968389 Patents and Inventions #During my time at Microsoft, I contributed to seven patent filings spanning enterprise knowledge management, user-interface innovation, data visualization, and mobile technology.\nEnterprise Resource Tracking of Knowledge (2018). US Patent App. 15/666,470. With A. Renz, B. Schön. Enterprise Resource Tracking of Knowledge (2017). US Patent 9,754,273. With A. Renz, B. Schön. Object Detection Framework for Set of Related Objects (2010). US Patent 7,817,038. Direct Customer ERP Access (2010). US Patent 7,748,622. With B. Schon, E.D. Röser, H. Gufler, P. Holm, T. Rath. Mobile Data and Handwriting Screen Capture and Forwarding (2008). WO Patent WO/2008/063739. With A.A. Nielsen, R. Olsen, M.G. Munck, C.B. Jensen. Displaying Data Sensitive Targets (2008). WO Patent WO/2008/109275. With T. Rath. Natural Interaction by Flower-Like Navigation (2008). WO Patent WO/2008/115842. With E.R. Dibbern, B. Schon, H. Gufler. ","date":null,"permalink":"https://kristian-stoffregen.dk/publications/","section":"Publications","summary":"","title":"Publications"},{"content":"Research interests #My research is centered on information technologies and examines how digital and AI technologies are transforming organizations and human behavior. It is organized around two central areas of inquiry: the digital and AI transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, and persuasive technology in generative AI, anthropomorphism and synthetic emotions.\nIn the first area, I focus on how SMEs can be empowered to adopt and shape transformation despite constraints such as limited resources, low digital maturity, and strategic uncertainty. I am interested in developing practical, accessible approaches that help organizations build capabilities and navigate transformation in ways that are both effective and sustainable.\nIn the second area, I study persuasive technology in generative AI, with a particular interest in anthropomorphism, synthetic emotions, and the ethical challenges of AI-driven influence. This research explores how emotionally responsive systems affect trust, persuasion, and user autonomy, and what this means for the responsible design of future information systems.\nTogether, these two research streams reflect my broader interest in the relationship between technological innovation, organizational change, and human agency.\nCurrent projects #AI transformation for SMEs #My SME research is developed as an ongoing open-source project focused on helping small and medium-sized enterprises work with digital and AI transformation in ways that are realistic, practical, and sustainable. SMEs often face constraints such as limited resources, limited digital maturity, and uncertainty about where to begin.\nThrough this project, I study how SMEs can be empowered to build capabilities, make better use of technology, and approach digital and AI transformation in a way that is manageable, useful, and grounded in real organizational needs.\nPublications \u0026amp; patents #For the complete list of published papers, book chapters, and patents, see the Publications page.\nYou can also browse my full record on Google Scholar or ORCID 0009-0009-9965-4269.\n","date":null,"permalink":"https://kristian-stoffregen.dk/research/","section":"Research","summary":"","title":"Research"}]