Why humanistic thinking matters in the age of digital transformation

In today’s world, digital transformation touches every corner of our lives. Business and technology (BizTech) drive innovation, productivity, and new digital tools, with profit often as their main goal. Yet in pursuing efficiency and growth, BizTech can overlook a crucial ingredient: the human perspective. Critical thinking, ethical reflection, communication, and creativity—rooted in the humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS)—offer fresh ways to understand challenges and develop meaningful, sustainable solutions.

The gap between these two worlds is real. Scholars in the humanities often remain within their own circles, directing their attention toward broader intellectual and cultural questions that may seem unrelated to technology. BizTech professionals, on the other hand, are usually focused on practical outcomes and immediate results. Yet both sides need each other. Humanities experts can help BizTech professionals align their technological innovations, business operations, and vision with humanist values such as human worth and dignity, compassion, morality, pluralism, peace, and social and climate justice. Similarly, HASS professionals could develop a more informed opinion on dehumanizing trends in the BizTech world and voice their concerns by engaging in dialogue with the industry.”

How can HASS add value to BizTech?

➡️ Connection – Technology makes it easier than ever to connect, bridge distances and bring people together. Yet it is the humanities that help us understand why these connections matter and how they shape our lives. At the same time, HASS can point to the limits and potential dangers of human connections made via digital technologies, reminding us that not all connections are equally meaningful or without risk.

➡️ Creativity – Business and coding can become more innovative when enriched with perspectives from the humanities, arts, and social sciences. These approaches open new ways of thinking, challenge conventions, and spark breakthroughs that pure technical or commercial logic might miss.Empathy, storytelling, and cultural context transform digital interactions from simple exchanges of information into meaningful human experiences.

➡️ Care – As AI and automation reshape the future of work, ethical reflection is no longer optional—it is essential. Beyond efficiency and cost savings, we must ask harder questions: What happens when machines replace human labor? How do we balance productivity gains with the dignity and livelihood of workers? Who benefits from automation, and who is left behind? Ethical reflection pushes BizTech to consider justice, sustainability, and human well-being, ensuring that innovation serves society rather than undermines it.

Docentric’s role in bridging the gap between BizTech and Humanities

One inspiring example of this bridge-building is the DynamicsMinds conference, organized by Docentric. Although it is primarily a BizTech event, its program already includes artistic interventions, creative formats, and discussions on ethics, diversity, and sustainability. These elements show how a BizTech event can benefit from humanities perspectives, and how such spaces can spark dialogue between different professional cultures.

Another strong example is Docentric’s participation at the NT Conference. Last year, Docentric held a round table on gender equality. This year, Ivana Djilas, theatre director and creative director in the Docentric marketing team, will engage in an interdisciplinary dialogue with Rebeka Koprivšek Leskovar, winner of Inženirka leta 2024. This exchange between art, gender studies, and IT highlights how business and technology benefit from critical reflection on long-standing social stereotypes and fresh perspectives on equality.

What can we learn from each other?

➡️ Humanities scholars can learn from BizTech how to design engaging, playful, and accessible formats that bring ideas to life—moving beyond academic papers and traditional conferences to communicate with a broader audience. Instead of overly formal or narrow scientific gatherings, ideas can be shared in ways that are dynamic, inclusive, and easier to connect with.

➡️ BizTech professionals can learn from the humanities to look deeper—not only asking what they are building, but also why, for whom, and what impact it will have.

The way forward

If we want technology to serve society rather than the other way around, these two worlds must collaborate more closely. Conferences like DynamicsMinds and NT Conference demonstrate that such dialogue is possible — and even enjoyable. The more we integrate humanistic thinking into BizTech innovation, the closer we get to creating technologies that are not only efficient but also ethical, inclusive, and meaningful.