ChangeNOW 2025, hosted at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris, marked a turning point in the global sustainability conversation. Coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, the summit welcomed over 40,000 participants, including 10,000 companies and 1,200 investors, all focused on one thing: turning systemic challenges into scalable, real-world solutions. 

For bluegain leading digital, sustainable, and business model transformation, this year’s summit offered more than inspiration – it delivered actionable signals from the frontier of innovation. This briefing distills five strategic signals for C-level leaders navigating transformation at the intersection of AI, sustainability, and new business models, each illustrated with specific cases from ChangeNOW 2025.

1. From AI Hype to AI for Human Augmentation

Artificial intelligence was woven into nearly every ChangeNOW track but not in the way it often dominates headlines. The emphasis was not on automation but on augmentation, access, and inclusion.

One standout example was Aquaphys, a French startup deploying AI and IoT to monitor municipal water infrastructure. Their leak detection system, piloted in Lyon, leverages real-time data to identify water loss far earlier than traditional monitoring methods. While long-term studies are still underway, early results indicate a significant improvement in water use efficiency, a promising example of AI enabling sustainable urban systems.

Microsoft led the conversation through its sessions on responsible AI, showcasing inclusive digital tools that bridge learning gaps. Their work under the AI for Accessibility initiative demonstrated how AI can personalize education for learners with disabilities, and scale climate literacy tools in underserved communities.

Leadership Insight: Build augmented AI ecosystems that create long-term value, which compounds far beyond automation. Augmentation scales human potential and lowers ethical exposure by keeping humans in the loop.

2. Trust is the New Growth KPI

ChangeNOW 2025 made one thing clear: growth and trust must evolve together. Investors and partners are no longer satisfied with generalized ESG statements or opaque algorithms. They want transparency, auditability, and inclusive governance.

Capgemini shared learnings from its work with energy sector clients experimenting with blockchain based ESG reporting. These systems allow companies to track emissions data in near real time, tying it directly to production events, a substantial improvement over quarterly, self-reported figures. While adoption remains at the early stage, the direction is evident: trustworthy data is now an operational asset.

Sopra Steria participated in a roundtable on ‘AI and Decarbonization,’ emphasizing the risks of greenwashing if digital transformation outpaces data transparency. They presented early case studies where AI supported carbon dashboards, incorporating IoT and geospatial data, helped organizations in managing carbon footprints more accurately and transparently.

Trust also extends to inclusive design. Microsoft also highlighted its Responsible AI Standard, emphasizing community engagement, model explainability, and post-deployment monitoring all crucial components for scaling AI in high stakes sectors like education, health, and finance.

Leadership Insight: Embed trust into your operating model. Deploy real-time ESG tracking linked to operations, audit AI systems for explainability, and align governance with the EU AI Act. Treat trust as infrastructure vital for securing capital, scaling innovation, and avoiding regulatory or reputational fallout.

3. Circularity Moves to the Inner Loop

The summit’s circular economy track emphasized a major shift: moving beyond recycling towards closing the inner loop value creation: repair, redesign, reuse, and outcome-based services.

French startup Revolty showcased its modular battery swap system for micro mobility fleets. The kiosks extend lithium-ion battery life through maintenance and rotation, supporting logistics providers like La Poste in reducing both costs and scope 3 emissions. The business model is subscription based, an example of circularity enabling recurring revenue.

Another highlight: PEEL Lab, a Japanese company producing plant-based leather alternatives from fruit waste. Unlike petrochemical based vegan leathers, PEEL’s materials are biodegradable under industrial composting conditions and generate substantially lower carbon emissions than animal hides. The company is now piloting partnerships with European fashion brands seeking to align with eco design regulations.

The circular conversation extended into industrial sectors as well. At the EIT Manufacturing workshop, corporate participants explored the use of digital twins to optimize maintenance cycles and extend equipment life, especially in aerospace and heavy industry. These approaches are reducing resource consumption by preventing over servicing or premature replacements.

Leadership Insight: Shift focus from end-of-life recycling to closing the inner loop strategies like modular design, predictive maintenance, and outcome-based services. These approaches generate recurring revenue, reduce material dependency, and future proof offerings against tightening eco regulations.

4. Youth Are No Longer the Future, They’re the Now

ChangeNOW gave unprecedented platform space to young ecopreneurs, scientists, and policy shapers, proving that youth engagement is now integral to innovation, not a symbolic gesture.

One of the most prominent was Kidus Asfaw, co-founder of Kubik, which converts plastic waste into durable, low carbon construction materials. Already operational in parts of East Africa, Kubik’s model addresses three challenges at once: waste, housing, and emissions. Kubik attracted strong investor interest during the summit.

Rather than just pitching, youth participants took part in policy-cancellation workshops and investment panels. The summit’s Impact Job Fair brought together thousands of mission driven professionals with startups, NGOs, and corporations offering roles in sustainability, regenerative agriculture, and ethical AI.

Leadership Insight: Formalize reverse mentoring and invite early career innovators into strategic discussions. Youth aren’t just future leaders; they’re essential for sensing emerging societal expectations and market shifts today.

5. Science Driven Optimism Is Fueling Action

Despite dire planetary trends, the prevailing tone at ChangeNOW was one of realistic optimism grounded in science and backed by viable solutions.

IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] Vice Chair Diána Ürge Vorsatz laid out evidence-based mitigation pathways showing how energy efficiency, behavioral shifts, and distributed innovation could reduce global emissions by up to 40% within this decade without requiring future technologies or geoengineering.

NGOs like Justdiggit showed how low-tech solutions, amplified by digital platforms, can restore ecosystems at scale. In Kenya, they’ve regreened (restoring natural vegetation) over 300,000 hectares using community training, AI powered monitoring, and remote funding tools. This model combines satellite imaging, SMS campaigns, and grassroots engagement to regenerate degraded landscapes and double local agricultural yields.

In cleantech space, HelioRec presented its floating solar installations, which can be deployed in harbors and industrial water bodies turning underused space into clean energy sources. Their systems are already powering ports in the Netherlands and Indonesia, showing how solar can grow without land use conflict.

Leadership Insight: Ground your transformation in science backed solutions that are already viable. Demonstrate progress through visible action and tell that story with clarity. In a crowded ESG landscape, data-driven optimism is your most credible message to investors, employees, and regulators.

Leading in the Age of Interdependence

ChangeNOW 2025 did not just showcase innovations, it reframed leadership itself. In a world defined by cascading crises and converging systems, the role of the C-Suite is evolving from commanding control to navigating complexity.

The signals emerging from this summit AI that amplifies rather than replaces, trust as a growth engine, circularity as strategy, youth as cocreators, and science as north star point toward a new operating reality. One where leadership is not about scaling faster but scaling wisely.

What separates the pioneers from the laggards today is not access to technology, but the clarity to act on what already works, the courage to rethink outdated models, and the discipline to align metrics with long term resilience.

This is not a pivot, but a progression toward a more deliberate phase of transformation – one where digital, sustainability, and business model innovation do not converge but must be steered individually. The value lies not in forcing convergence, but in understanding the cause-and-effect dynamics between them and, above all, in identifying the bridging points that unlock trust, resilience, and innovation at scale.

 / About the Author

• Dr. Carsten Linz is the CEO and Founder of bluegain. Formerly Group Digital Officer at BASF and Business Development Officer at SAP, he is known for building €100 million businesses and leading large-scale transformations affecting 60,000+ employees. He is represented on various boards including Shareability’s Technology & Innovation Committee and Social Impact. A member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network, Dr. Linz is also author of renowned books and articles who shares his expertise in executive programs at top business schools around the world.
• Arjun Aditya is a Digital Marketing Associate at bluegain, where he focuses on digital branding and communications. Before joining bluegain, Arjun worked at Adidas AG on a global transformation project, leading user-centric change initiatives that impacted over 1,000 employees. He also gained experience at Pollup Data Services and A2A Digital Transformation Consulting. Arjun holds a Master’s degree in Digital Business Innovation from Politecnico di Milano.