Ann Cathrin Riedel - Biography
Ann Cathrin Riedel is an expert and writer on state modernisation, digital sovereignty and geopolitics.
At the heart of her work lies a development that affects both politics and the economy in equal measure: technology has long since become more than just infrastructure or a tool. It is increasingly determining who sets standards, who reduces dependencies, and who remains capable of acting even in crisis situations. Ann Cathrin Riedel therefore explores how states and businesses can strengthen their digital sovereignty – and what consequences it has for trust in democratic institutions when the state itself lacks sufficient technological capacity to act.
As Managing Director of NExT e. V., she advocates for the modernisation of public administration. For her, a modern state with digital capabilities is far more than just a matter of efficient administrative processes: it is a key prerequisite for a strong business location, political sovereignty and a functioning democracy.
Ann Cathrin Riedel is in high demand as a speaker and panellist both nationally and internationally. In 2026, at the invitation of the United Nations, she spoke at UN Open Source Week at the UN headquarters in New York on digital public infrastructure, technological independence and international cooperation. At the 2023 Digital Summit, she was one of two experts who discussed artificial intelligence with the Federal Chancellor and members of the Federal Cabinet. At the GovTech Campus, she also exchanged views with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Estonian President Alar Karis on the digital policy challenges facing Germany, Estonia and Europe. As an expert, she is regularly invited to the German Bundestag and state parliaments.
Ann Cathrin Riedel Lecture Topics
What does technological dependency mean for an organisation’s own ability to act?
This question runs through Ann Cathrin Riedel’s keynotes: with a view to the state, to companies, and to a geopolitical order in which technology has long since become a factor of power. She speaks on three areas that belong together: the capacity of the state to act, the technological dependencies of companies and public administrations, and the geopolitical order in which both play out.
- In “The Capable State – Why the Pace of Public Administration Has Become a Competitiveness Issue”, she shows what happens when permit procedures take years, procurement stifles innovation and public registers cannot talk to one another. She looks at the structures behind these problems: at responsibilities, at procurement, at missing standards and at the question of why it is so difficult to scale successful digital solutions. She examines artificial intelligence from the same perspective: what would have to change for individual pilot projects to actually produce better public administration? For companies this is immediately relevant, because the speed of the state helps determine whether and where investment is possible.
- In “Sovereignty Is Not a Server Location”, she examines the dependencies that companies and public authorities have taken on over the past fifteen years: in cloud services, operating systems and, increasingly, AI models. She distinguishes between digital sovereignty as a strategic capability and as symbolic politics, identifying which dependencies genuinely become dangerous when it matters and which can be entered into deliberately. The keynote is aimed at organisations facing concrete technology decisions who want to know which of them are reversible.
- “Chips, Clouds and Cables” opens up the geopolitical dimension. Data centres, semiconductors, submarine cables and standards have become resources of power through which states exert influence: via export controls, sanctions and new alliances. The keynote traces how technological dependencies are reshaping relations between the United States, China and Europe, and why actors such as the Gulf states are gaining in importance. For companies, geopolitics becomes very tangible in this: in supply chains, in the choice of technology partners, and in the question of which dependencies may become tomorrow’s business risk.
Ann Cathrin Riedel speaks about technological dependencies and geopolitical risks without turning them into scenarios of doom. At the centre stands the question of where organisations actually retain room to act.