Entrance

Between human and machine.

Clarity instead of hype. Five rooms.

Tech-Theologe für Digitale Ethik & AI-Sustainability.

Enter the rooms

Th.M. Princeton
2008–11

Konstanz · Region Zürich

Traces · Publications

Where my voice is heard.

A selection. From the latest AI feature to over fifteen years of journalism — as a doer and as a voice, from reportage to essay.

Reportage · Doer Hack & Harvest 2026 · Konstanz

AI doesn't always have to go to the cloud — the basement will do

Not just talking — building: at the hackathon in Konstanz I worked with my team on local AI for sensitive data — co-creation instead of PowerPoint. How real problems turn into prototypes leads straight into Room V — Workshop.

Read the reportage ↗

Jan Thomas Otte as a participant at Hack & Harvest 2026 in the Shedhalle Konstanz

Doer · Co-Creation

Photo · Hack & Harvest 2026 · Shedhalle Konstanz

Panel · Video cyberLAGO · AIXCHANGE 2024

On Stage with Sascha Lobo

Panel discussion on Responsible AI at the AIXCHANGE Conference of the cyberLAGO network. Together with Sascha Lobo (keynote), Ralf Walther (mindUp) and Prof. Dr. Oliver Dürr (HTWG Konstanz) — on how responsible automation works in practice.

Open on YouTube ↗

Click-to-Load · YouTube loads only on click · Details

SZ Reportage Generation D

Jan Otte and Cool Hilde

Portrait reportage in Süddeutsche Zeitung — about what early careers can learn from calmer life paths. An early publication from the journalist years.

Read in SZ ↗

DIE ZEIT 09 / 2011

Behind the Seven Mountains

Hommage an die Schweiz aus den ZEIT-Lebensart-Seiten — Reportage über Alpkäser Köbi Knaus auf der Toggenburger Trosen-Alp. Vorbote mehrjähriger Stationen in Basel und Zürich.

Read in ZEIT ↗

NZZ 01 / 2018

Reluctant Full Pension

Eingeschneit in Tirol — eine Reportage aus dem Kaunertal über drei Tage Lawinengefahr, Hotelbar-Soziologie und die feinen Verschiebungen, wenn Fremde zur Zufalls-Gemeinschaft werden.

Read in NZZ ↗

evangelisch.de 01 / 2024

"The Church Is Administering Itself to Death"

Klartext über Überlastung im Pfarramt: Gremien statt Verkündigung, Verordnungen statt Seelsorge. Über Thesenpapier, neue Formate und das Bild der Kirche im Wandel.

Bei evangelisch.de lesen ↗

zeitzeichen Essay

"I Struggle with the Image of the Pastor als öffentliche Person"

Persönliches Bekenntnis im Theologie-Magazin: Über das Halbgott-im-Talar-Klischee, die Last öffentlicher Erwartung und die Suche nach einer ehrlichen Form des Glaubens.

Read in zeitzeichen ↗

Buchprojekte als Mitautor

"Diversity Management" — Springer
"Successful as a Career Changer" — Springer Gabler
"Why Should I Work for You?" — Campus · Employer Branding
"Coworking: aufbrechen, anpacken, anders leben" — V&R

Clarity, a sample
Automated is not autonomous.
Your car keeps the lane — you still carry liability. Autonomy only begins where no one has to intervene. That difference decides responsibility, insurance, trust. Clarity like this is my craft.

Heard & read at DIE ZEITNZZSüddeutscheevangelisch.deAIXCHANGE — panel with Sascha Lobo

Manifesto · Juxtapositions

Both vocabularies.

What runs through the rooms: two languages, one human. Whoever lives between pulpit and console knows both.

Greek·Python
Cassock·T-Shirt
Eyelid·LED
Pulpit·Console
Sermon·Prompt
Holy Scripture·Source Code
Devotion·Algorithmus
Sunday·Standup

Before we build machines, we tell ourselves stories about them.

Room I · Curio

Myth·Marketing Salvation-Image·Hype-Cycle Pinocchio·Pretraining

"AI is just a tool — neutral."

"Tools carry the stories we tell about them — from the start."

I Raum · Eins

Images

Before the machine arrives, the image of it arrives.

Exponat

Career Insights ↗ — values-oriented business magazine, since 2010

How we speak about AI shapes how we live with it. In this room I examine the language, images and myths of technology — through journalism, publishing and cultural criticism.

Hauptexponat

Career Insights ↗

My own multimedia magazine at the intersection of career, ethics and technology. Fourteen years of documented observation of how we talk about work, meaning, and machines. Alongside publications in FAZ, ZEIT Online and CSR News.

More work in this room

FAZ-Kolumne "Mutig ist, wer entscheidet" · Podcast inottesohr.de · CIVIS-Medienpreis-Nominierung "Typisch deutsch?" · Essays zur Sprache der KI-Branche

Workshop on this room

R2-D2 vor Metropolis-Plakat im Vitra Design Museum

Vitra Design Museum · "Hello, Robot." R2-D2 vor dem Metropolis-Plakat — alte Bilder von neuer Technik.

Where to next?

„When the image overwrites reality — does work remain?"

II Work CONTINUE →

„Which image shapes companionship — in clinic, parish, chat?"

III Companionship CROSS-REF →

„And who is writing the shared image today?"

IV World CROSS-REF →

"AI is taking our jobs."

"AI changes work. Which work remains is an ethical question — not a technical one."

II Raum · Zwei

Work

When the robot writes manifestos, what is left of work?

Exponat

Digethic ↗ — Teaching for executives, since 2020

Automation changes not only professions but the meaning we give them. In this room hang my teaching and consulting — and the concept of an AI sustainability that begins with the human, not ends with electricity consumption.

Hauptexponat

Digethic ↗

Lectureship at Germany's first Business School for Digital Ethics, Nachhaltigkeit und Technologie. Module für Leader, die KI nicht an Compliance delegieren wollen. Davor zwölf Jahre IT-Transformation als Senior Manager bei Swisscom und Consultant bei Accenture, mit Schwerpunkt Banken, Pharma und medizinische Diagnostik.

More work in this room

"Nachhaltig agil" — SCRUM-Werte und Nachhaltigkeit · AI-Sustainability as a teaching field · Coaching reflections from consulting · Talks on responsibility in the IT engine room

Signature format · bookable

The Ethics Board Simulation

One day. Your own AI case. Four departmental perspectives — HR, marketing, strategy, sales — negotiate before the board. The day ends not with a gut feeling but with a documented go / go with conditions / no-go, reasoned along the five principles of digital ethics.

Duration1 day — or 2× half days, remote or on site

Group8–16 people, cross-departmental

MethodRole play & peer negotiation — no lectures

OutcomeC-level decision memo + reusable review matrix

For companies introducing an AI tool · universities & business schools · peer-learning coding schools — the format works without teachers, the group is the board · foundations & public sector.

Request a date →

Workshop on this room

Vitra Design Museum · "Hello, Robot." "The Waste" — was zurückbleibt, wenn die Automation weiterzieht.

Where to next?

„When work becomes autonomous — who still accompanies whom?"

III Companionship CONTINUE →

„Which images brought us here?"

I Images BACK →

„What does this mean for the commons?"

IV World CROSS-REF →

"A chatbot can't replace real pastoral care."

"True. The question is what it complements — not what it replaces."

III Raum · Drei

Companionship

A machine that listens is no longer just a tool.

Exponat

Pastorate Konstanz ↗ — Pastoral care in digital life transitions

AI moves closer to us — as companion, caregiver, conversation partner. In this room, as a theologian, I think about where help turns into replacement, and which boundary cannot be substituted by function.

Hauptexponat

Pastorate Konstanz ↗

Parish work as an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Regional Church in Baden — a practice that does not artificially separate the sanctuary from the smartphone. Concrete experience of what accompaniment can do where an app does not belong — and conversely, where digital tools carry what no one else can reach.

More work in this room

"Hilft, oder ersetzt?" — Autonomie in Companion-AI · "Wenn die App zuhört" — digitale Seelsorge zwischen Wohltun und Schaden · "Generative Nähe" — KI-Beziehungen aus theologischer Sicht

Workshop on this room

Jan Thomas Otte vor dem Vitra-Pavillon mit der Frage

Vitra Design Museum · "Hello, Robot." "Do you trust robots?" — vor der Frage stehen, statt sie zu beantworten.

Where to next?

„When companionship scales — who still carries world?"

IV World CONTINUE →

„What is the work being accompanied here?"

II Work BACK →

„Which image makes companionship visible?"

I Images BACK →

"Whoever builds the algorithm is responsible."

"And who deploys it? Who funds it? Who follows it?"

IV Raum · Vier

World

Who acts when the room thinks along?

Exponat

University of Lucerne ↗ — Theological Ethics

Smart cities, learning buildings, automated infrastructures — technology has become environment. In this room I ask: who still bears responsibility in this environment, and how can a concept of responsibility be sustained when decision-making is distributed?

Hauptexponat

University of Lucerne ↗

Academic work on responsibility in technically saturated environments. Fundamental questions that feed back into consulting practice — and are grounded in practice in return. Connected to Princeton (business ethics) and Heidelberg (theology).

More work in this room

"Die lesbare Stadt" — Transparenz als Bürgerrecht · "Wer trägt die Lasten der Optimierung?" — justice in algorithmic infrastructures · "Responsibility without addressee" — when the system decides · "Four out of five" — die theologische Vorgeschichte des Merck-Codes

Workshop on this room

Jan Thomas Otte vor einer Datenvisualisierung — Stimmen-Cluster als Lichtpunkte

Vitra Design Museum · "Hello, Robot." Stimmen-Visualisierung — die Daten als Umgebung, in der wir mitdenken.

Where to next?

„When the space thinks along — where does the human learn to build it?"

V Workshop CONTINUE →

„Who accompanies in the world-room?"

III Companionship BACK →

„Back to the first image — does it still look the same?"

I Images BACK →

„AI has to go to the cloud."

„Sometimes it has to go where the data is allowed to stay."

V Room · Five

Workshop

How does the human stay able to decide when machines prepare the work?

Exhibit

Hack & Harvest 2026 ↗ — Open Innovation at the Shedhalle Konstanz

After Images, Work, Companionship and World, a fifth place: the workshop. Not a seminar room in the old sense, but a training ground for digital judgement. Here AI is not admired — it is used, questioned and translated into concrete work. The starting points are real use cases, sensitive data and actual processes. Ethics is not a brake but a tool for innovation: it makes trust plannable and AI fit to connect.

Main exhibit

Hack & Harvest 2026 ↗ — Local AI for sensitive data

Hottest day of the year, 34.7°C in the Shedhalle: laptops, whiteboards, pallet furniture, foosball. With my group I worked on a use case that will occupy many organisations — AI for medical practices, law firms, public administration and companies, without sensitive files drifting uncontrolled into the cloud. The thesis: local AI, own servers, clear processes. The machine prepares — the human decides.

Jan Thomas Otte as a participant in the Shedhalle Konstanz — Hack & Harvest 2026

Team at the work table with laptop, fan and whiteboard — Hack & Harvest 2026

Official heat warning for Konstanz on a smartwatch, paper fans on the table — the hottest day

Group at laptops in front of a pinboard with sketches for local AI

Jan Thomas Otte between two printed project sheets — „Goals of the project“

Energy bike made from recycled plastic at the stand „strengthening the regional economy“

Table tennis on a mini table „I can handle setbacks“, KI-LAB Bodensee boxes behind

Hack & Harvest 2026 · Shedhalle Konstanz, former Siemens site · FARM Gründung & Innovation

Formats from this room

AI workshops — teams develop their own use cases instead of PowerPoint about the future.
Responsible-AI sprints — sensitive data, processes and responsibility thought through together.
Co-creation workshops — different perspectives lead to concrete prototypes.
Use-case labs — diffuse ideas become robust applications.
Open-innovation hackdays — organisations learn to experiment faster and more wisely.

For companies, practices, law firms, schools, universities, administrations and networks. · „The basement will do" — the full report on the hackathon → read

Request a workshop