When the AI asks the first question – not the audience

Frag-Maria has long since lived beyond the chat window. She also appears live on stage, most recently at the Germany AI Summit in January 2026.

On September 24, 2026, she stood in front of a vocational training audience for the first time: as a speaking, visible avatar at the 7th National Education Day in Lucerne, before 70 retail experts. And she didn't wait to be asked anything. She asked the questions herself.

The moment itself was easy to describe and hard to forget: Maria appeared on the large screen. An audible gasp went through the hall, not because of a video or animation, but because there was suddenly someone there who spoke, reacted, and asked questions. No demo in the background. A counterpart.

The stage dialogue

What really happened here

This was no party trick and no marketing demo. It was proof of the keynote's core thesis, delivered live in the room by the listeners themselves. Instructors, managing directors, and vocational training managers—all professionals in dealing with customers—hesitated for a moment when an AI asked them questions directly and without preparation.

That was exactly the point: If even experienced experts don't know how to react at first, how must it feel for trainees who face such digitally well-informed customers in the store?

The gap that Daniel Gwerder spoke about in his keynote became visible for two minutes, not as a slide, but as a genuine reaction in the room.

The six training areas that Maria summarizes in her response

• Digital sovereignty — confident use of digital tools in everyday retail
• Role in the team and company — understanding how individual actions affect the whole
• Problem-solving competence — analytical, solution-oriented thinking
• Business understanding — recognizing business contexts
• Decoding customer situations — hearing not just what is said, but why
• Utilizing omnichannel and technology — thinking of digital and physical as a single unit

What this means for companies

The appearance in Lucerne was an early, genuine practical deployment of the fourth development stage of Frag-Maria: Face AI, the visible avatar with facial expressions and gestures. The same Maria who stood here on stage in front of 70 people has long been working invisibly in everyday life, live in use since 2025 on websites and in online shops in direct customer contact, and internally as a tutor and support, making company-specific knowledge accessible at any time. The stage moment was not a prototype promise. It was a public audit of the technology that companies are already using productively today.

This program segment was made possible by Fabian Wyss, Head of Vocational Training at Swissavant:

He provided Daniel Gwerder with the stage slot at the National Education Day and thus also the bridge through which Daniel could weave his own experiences from inter-company courses in direct exchange with young learners as a common thread throughout the entire keynote.