Interview with Susan-Stefanie Breitkopf, Chief Transformation Officer and Executive Board Member of the ZEISS Group

BREITKOPF Despite a strong first half of the fiscal year, ZEISS is not immune to the impact of today’s global challenges. Geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty are affecting our business segments in different ways. That’s why it’s more important than ever to strengthen our resilience while continuing to invest in the future.

Take trade policy, for example. We closely monitor developments in global trade and customs regulations. Our experts are focused on finding pragmatic, forward-looking solutions to geopolitical risk—solutions that go beyond short-term political shifts. This includes making strategic decisions about our global footprint, managing value streams, and protecting our intellectual property worldwide.

BREITKOPF We established the Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) function over three years ago to accelerate growth across the ZEISS Group. Our approach combines a strong focus on profitability with long-term strategic ambitions. That means optimizing both our top and bottom lines.

Key priorities include streamlining our process landscape, strengthening system reliability and security, and investing in the continuous development of our people. For example, clearly defined roles and responsibilities across global processes help us make faster, more consistent decisions—boosting both efficiency and resilience.

Standardizing processes also helps us speak a common language across the organization. One example is our People Development Dialogue, launched last year. It’s a globally standardized framework that supports employee growth and development. Ultimately, our people are our most valuable asset—and bringing them along on this journey is essential to our success.

BREITKOPF It’s simple: if a machine can do something better than a human, it should. And if a human can do it better, it should stay with the human. Our goal is to free up time for people to focus on meaningful, value-adding work. 

AI supports this on three levels: In our products, by integrating AI into medical and measuring devices to deliver better outcomes for customers. In customer interactions, through digital platforms that offer personalized, high-quality experiences. And internally, by automating routine administrative tasks so employees can focus on strategic priorities. 

This approach allows us to combine the efficiency of technology with the creativity of people. That’s how we meet customer expectations quickly and reliably—without compromising on quality or competitiveness. When we do our job right, our customers can do theirs even better. 

At ZEISS, we’re also deeply committed to ethical and responsible AI. We follow the EU AI Act and have established a Responsible AI Office to ensure we maintain the trust of both our customers and our employees. 

BREITKOPF We launched our transformation in 2022 during a period of rapid growth. ZEISS was achieving double-digit revenue increases and expanding its workforce significantly. To keep pace, we needed new systems, streamlined processes, and a cultural shift to support this evolution.

Since then, we’ve made substantial progress across all dimensions. Not only have we laid the foundation for sustained growth, but we’ve also built the capabilities to execute large-scale transformation programs quickly and efficiently—an essential advantage in today’s volatile environment.

For example, we successfully completed the pilot phase of our S/4HANA rollout and are now scaling it globally. Thanks to smart organizational adjustments and a robust governance structure, we were able to significantly reduce both the timeline and cost of implementation. We’ve also launched our new CRM platform in nearly half of our country organizations.

Just as important, we’ve aligned our cultural transformation with our technology initiatives. Earlier this year, we conducted our first global employee survey, with a strong 79% participation rate. The feedback we received is helping us shape the next phase of our transformation. Ultimately, success depends on integrating people and technology—one cannot succeed without the other.

BREITKOPF To us, cybersecurity means protecting not only our data and systems but also our customers and partners. We can only securely integrate new technologies and promote innovation without having security concerns by thinking about cyber security in all areas of the company. This approach strengthens the trust of our customers and partners, as well as our own innovative capabilities. In the long term, this increases our turnover.

Specifically, the current threat situation is a significant concern for us. There are external geopolitical threats as well as technological threats. For example, GenAI offers new opportunities to penetrate systems with brute force. Of course, there are also insider threats. Therefore, it is essential for us to have the right mindset, solutions, and tools to address this multifaceted threat landscape and protect the company effectively. Additionally, cybersecurity strengthens our company's ability to innovate. We are a MedTech supplier, part of a global semiconductor network, and we have our own network of suppliers and partners.

BREITKOPF At ZEISS, we believe artificial intelligence is a game-changing technology for virtually every industry. Its rapid evolution is reshaping entire value chains—and we’re playing a critical role in building the hardware foundation for AI, particularly through our advanced optical lithography systems like EUV. We continue to push the limits of optics and mechatronics.

Sustainability is also becoming a core focus across our value chain—from manufacturing to sales and service. Looking ahead, we see integrated optics opening up entirely new markets in photonics. And we expect automation in research, manufacturing, and healthcare to be increasingly driven by autonomous systems that combine AI with advanced robotics. Biomedical innovations, such as organoids and lab-grown tissues, are also creating exciting new opportunities and will drive the next wave of technological breakthroughs.