Judith Gerlach

Keynote Speech by the Minister for Health, Care and Prevention

Judith Gerlach’s core message was that Bavaria wants technology, especially AI, to advance in a way that serves people while strengthening the state’s startup and innovation ecosystem. After the host introduced her as Bavaria’s Minister for Health, Care and Prevention and former Minister for Digital Affairs, Gerlach opened with humor about appearing instead of Prime Minister Markus Söder’s avatar and framed Bits and Pretzels as a natural setting for Bavaria’s mix of tradition and technology. She described the conference as an example of Bavaria’s “laptops and lederhosen” identity: a place where dirndls, lederhosen, big beer tents, founders, investors, researchers and major companies coexist with artificial intelligence, quantum computing and space technology. She praised Bits and Pretzels’ evolution from a founders’ Weißwurst breakfast into one of Europe’s leading startup, innovation and technology events, arguing that good ideas do not need to be complicated, but they do need people brave enough to make them happen. The keynote then turned to the event theme, “human after all.” Gerlach said the key question is no longer whether AI will change lives, but how society shapes that change. She highlighted AI’s potential to make companies more productive, enable new business models, accelerate research and improve healthcare, including earlier disease detection and more precise treatments. At the same time, she emphasized that machines do not automatically produce good outcomes: people must decide what is right, safe and responsible. In healthcare especially, she argued, progress must be paired with responsibility, innovation with security, and rules that protect people without burying ideas in paperwork. Gerlach closed by presenting Bavaria’s concrete support structures: more than 11,000,000,000 euros through the High-Tech Agenda for AI and key technologies, infrastructure from quantum computing to the Blue Lion supercomputer, 134 new AI professorships, Biosphere, the University of Technology Nuremberg, and an AI Council addressing ethical questions. She stressed collaboration among startups, corporations and academia, then pointed to Gründerland Bayern, startup centers, VC4Startups funds worth 750,000,000 euros, and a goal of mobilizing up to 5,000,000,000 euros in additional growth capital. Her conclusion was that Bavaria should be a reliable partner, easier public-sector customer and open place for people who want to build the future.