From forklift truck to AI: Philipp's jump into the future of data

After working in business intelligence and supply chain analytics, his path eventually led him to the digitalization department at Zeiss. Today, he has technical responsibility for call center and service analytics, develops analytical products and uses NLP and GenAI methods - such as topic mining and sentiment analysis - to analyze global service processes. Where diagrams used to be created, AI models are now being created.

His conviction: "Traditional business intelligence no longer ends at the dashboard. The future belongs to systems that think ahead and automatically support decisions - or even trigger them."

STUDIES AS AN ACTIVATOR

So why study while working? For Philipp, the decision was logical:

• Understanding current technologies - not just applying them
• Gain methodological depth in machine learning and deep learning
• Not only operate complex models, but also be able to explain and take responsibility for them

"The Master's program gives me what I've always lacked in my job: the why behind the methods. When I talk about neural networks today, I do so with real understanding - not with buzzwords."

He particularly appreciates the high engineering component of the course: “In Kufstein, a project doesn't end with a presentation, but with a functioning cloud deployment.”

BETWEEN DRONES, SATELLITES AND COMMODITY EXCHANGES

Philipp's current focus extends far beyond traditional company data. His projects show how diverse data science can be today:

• Precision Forestry:
  Using Copernicus satellite data and vegetation indices, he analyzes forest areas and agricultural land in order to detect disease infestation at an early stage - a future topic between ecology and technology.
• Commodity forecasting:
  He builds trading models with futures and time series analysis to predict price developments - including a complete ML pipeline and test environment.
• Topic Mining & AI in customer service:
  At Zeiss, he develops systems that automatically evaluate thousands of free text comments and provide recommendations for action in real time - from the call center to product development.

STUDYING PART-TIME: CHALLENGE OR OPPORTUNITY?

Philipp works four days a week at Zeiss, with Friday evenings and Saturdays dedicated to his studies and - when there's time - his own freelance business. Stressful? Yes. Enriching? Even more so.

"Studying forces me to really get to grips with things. And I can use what I've learned directly in my job on Monday. Further training couldn't work better."

He sees the flexibility of the FH Kufstein Tirol and the exchange with fellow students from the field as a decisive success factor. "You don't just learn from the lecturers - you learn from each other. We are a team of data engineers, analysts and developers - everyone has a real business impact."

FROM FORKLIFT DRIVER TO DATA VISIONARY - A PATH WITH EXEMPLARY CHARACTER

Philipp Jäger is not a classic career changer - but an exemplary representative of a new generation: people who start with practical understanding, bring technical thinking and consciously move into the future field of data science. Not by chance, but through curiosity and drive.

His path shows: Data science is not an ivory tower - but a tool for anyone who wants to recognize problems, see patterns and create solutions.

Or, as Philipp puts it: "In the end, it's not about data. It's about enabling the right decisions. Everything else is just computing power."