“What leadership really needs now” – A look back at our PANDA Future Mobility & AI Lab by Volkswagen 2026
How do you lead when AI is rewriting the rules of the working world? This question brought together around 70 female leaders at the Autostadt Wolfsburg on September 25th. They left with new perspectives, honest conversations, and contacts that extend far beyond the PANDA Lab Future Mobility & AI 2026 presented by Volkswagen.
A strong start: Welcome & Keynote
The event kicked off with a joint welcome from Tina Hasper-Vandrey (Head of Recruiting and Employer Branding at Volkswagen) and Isabelle Hoyer (CEO & Founder of PANDA).
The event was framed by Sophie Vassarotti, Head of Group Data & AI at Volkswagen. In her keynote address, "How AI is changing our working world and what leadership really needs now," she demonstrated how profoundly AI is already changing processes, roles, and decisions, and why leadership is not less, but more, important in this context. For many participants, the keynote was one of the highlights, and its central question served as a common thread throughout the entire day.
Our Leadership Experiment: Right into the heart of today's challenges
The best way to find out what leadership needs right now is to try it out, and that's exactly what happened in the Leadership Experiment. Working in small teams, participants tackled tasks deliberately designed to closely reflect reality. The scenarios mirrored situations many leaders are currently experiencing: uncertainty, pressure to change, limited resources, and the question of how to guide teams through turbulent times.
The groups were faced with real challenges, had to coordinate quickly, define roles, and develop solutions together. In the subsequent feedback session, participants openly and positively reflected on which attitudes and skills truly made the difference, gaining insights that many could directly apply to their own daily leadership practice.
Networking & exchange
What made this day special were the conversations. Whether at the networking lunch, between sessions, or during the meet-the-companies phase, there was hardly any small talk. Instead, the discussions almost always went straight to the heart of the matter, addressing real questions from everyday leadership, experiences with AI in their own companies, and what's truly on their minds right now.
A particular impetus for this was Volkswagen's "Hold The Door" initiative. Upon check-in, each participant completed the sentence "A door I can open for another woman is…" with a personal offer such as sparring, feedback, networking, or sharing experiences. Throughout the morning, more and more offers from the community accumulated behind small doors on a wall. During the networking phase in the afternoon, the message was: Now a door is open to you. Each participant could take a card, giving her an immediate reason to approach the woman behind it.
What did our participants particularly enjoy?
"The atmosphere and the energy. Everyone was super nice."
"The profound learnings, professional discussions, and the openness
"The agenda was a perfect mix of interaction and lectures, and the participants were all open and inspiring."
"The low-threshold exchange with women from many other industries and companies."
Inspiration Sessions & Meet the Companies
In the afternoon, participants attended four parallel Inspiration Sessions, which were held in two rounds:
Ai-ming for Equity & Inclusion (Katharina Stark and Sebastian Schiebe, Communications & Events, Volkswagen Group IT)
Living in harmony: Why courage and attitude are more important than perfection (Jacob Schmidt, Head of Financial Planning & Reporting MAN Group & Teja Rebholz, Module Manager Assembly MAN TRUCK & BUS SE)
Beyond Prompting: How autonomous systems challenge management and why AI needs new protective frameworks (Nora von Harten, Senior IT Innovation Manager, DB Fernverkehr AG)
Bidirectional charging: How the electric vehicle becomes an energy storage device instead of an electricity consumer (Dr. Stefanie Wolff, Charging Infrastructure Expert, German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA))
During the subsequent company pitches, our partner companies and cooperation partners introduced themselves, before the networking phase with the companies began.
A big thank you goes to our host Volkswagen AG and all the speakers who made this lab a very special event with great perspectives, personal experiences and a lot of openness:
Tina Hasper-Vandrey (Head of Recruiting and Employer Branding, Volkswagen) for the warm welcome at the start of the lab.
Isabelle Hoyer (CEO & Founder, PANDA GmbH) and Jessica Fröhlich-Förstermann (COO, PANDA GmbH) for the great tandem moderation throughout the day
Sophie Vassrotti (Head of Group Data & AI, Volkswagen AG) for her exciting keynote “How AI is changing our working world – and what leadership really needs now”
Katharina Stark and Sebastian Schiebe (Communications & Events, Volkswagen Group IT) for their refreshing, honest inspiration session "Ai-ming for Equity & Inclusion"
Jacob Schmidt (Head of Financial Planning & Reporting MAN Group) & Teja Rebholz (Module Manager Assembly MAN TRUCK & BUS SE) for their personal insights in their session “Living in Harmony: Why Courage and Attitude Are More Important Than Perfection”
The inspiration session “Beyond Prompting: How autonomous systems challenge management and why AI needs new protective frameworks” in which Nora von Harten (Senior IT Innovation Manager, DB Fernverkehr AG) shared her expertise
The inspiration session by Dr. Stefanie Wolff (Speaker Charging Infrastructure | Expert Charging Infrastructure, German Association of the Automotive Industry eV I VDA) on “ Bidirectional Charging: How the electric vehicle becomes an electricity storage device”
...and of course also to the Volkswagen team Lea-Sophie Brandstätter and Julia Weber (both Employer Branding, Volkswagen AG) for the great implementation & coordination
Thanks also to our partner companies, cooperation partners and ambassadors for their support!
Deutsche Bahn
MAN Truck & Bus SE
shiftschool
Women in Mobility
42 Berlin / 42 Wolfsburg
Ambassador group Braunschweig / Wolfsburg
Photo album ( GABRIELE DI STEFANO Photography ) Video: coming ASAP
