New guest article on Digitalization and the Hidden Costs for our Society published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

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In a new guest article on “Digitalization and the Hidden Costs for our Society”, published in the Sunday edition of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Prof. Dr. Ali Aslan Gümüşay argues that digitalization frequently shifts work rather than eliminating it.

We often become our own administrators—filling out forms, navigating portals, and solving problems that organizations once handled themselves. AI gives us a chance to move beyond this logic—but only if we redesign processes instead of simply automating them. Efficiency should not come at the expense of citizens, customers, or employees. The challenge is not more digitalization, but better digitalization.

Part of the solution is a broader cultural and structural shift. Digital technologies are inherently flexible, yet we often use them to create rigid systems. The problem is therefore not digitalization itself, but how we design and govern it. Culturally, this requires a stronger orientation toward the common good, trust, and responsibility. Structurally, it means accounting for the social costs our organizations impose on others—through simpler procedures, greater discretion, longer-term investment horizons, and more room for experimentation. As long as we measure only the costs within individual organizations, the costs borne by society remain invisible—and continue to grow.