About Sten
AI Transformation Architect
Branding & Digital Intelligence Pioneer Platform and brand designer for the digital world
I founded ETHORITY and built it from scratch: the research method, the Good AI Prism, the products and the AI agents that research, design, build and check the work under my direction. I work between San Francisco and Hamburg, in English and German.
At a glance
The story
Now · 2023–2026
I lead ETHORITY as founder and CEO and built it from scratch: idea, name and brand system, the research method, the Good AI Prism, products, AI agents, the business model and AI governance. ETHORITY connects independent AI market research, its own AI systems and hands-on implementation, with a network that reaches from San Francisco and Silicon Valley to Canada, Germany, Europe and Asia.
November 2026
I set out the principles behind my work and ETHORITY’s: ten convictions on people and AI, from “People define the purpose” to “Good leadership revisits its decisions”.
October 2026
On 23 October the Good AI Prism opened with 961 AI offerings in 24 topic areas, each with its source and the date it was read. On 27 October the Market Study 2026/27 followed, covering more than 30 economies. At the end of the month the new ethority.ai went online, with fixed-price offers from the AI Decision Brief to the AI Trust Pilot.
2026
I designed the intelligence layer beneath the Prism: an AI Registry, Navigator and Explorer that track more than 100,000 observed models, tools, datasets, research objects and providers; a Research Factory that turns sources into verified claims; decision and trust records that keep owners, evidence and stop conditions attached to each AI decision; and the Value Conversion Method with eight calculators for cost and benefit. ETHORITY runs as an AI1st organisation: AI agents for research, engineering and independent review work under my authority, with audit trails and human acceptance.
2025
I wrote about AI compliance as a leadership discipline and about connecting AI across the business instead of keeping it in silos. The secure research platform of EpiTrace.AI started running behind the scenes, and the Social Media Prisma reached version 8.1.
2024
Six stages from first experiments to responsible AI leadership. Companies use the model in workshops to see where they stand and what comes next. Alongside it I developed readiness assessments, risk models and governance roadmaps, and ethority.net published on AI readiness and ethics.
8 Aug 2023
I founded ETHORITY & STEN.AI LLC in Delaware, with the ETHORITY Hamburg Hub for Germany and Europe. In November I was at brightonSEO in San Diego.
2021
After sixteen years the ethority chapter closed. As an independent strategy consultant I advised start-ups, companies and institutions on digital strategy, go-to-market and ethical AI, and ran executive training and workshops.
Since 2019
I advise the Dr. Rurainski Foundation, including its digital presence, and founded EpiTrace.AI: AI and DNA-methylation analysis for research into early cancer detection, with an agenda for cancer research, longevity and healing.
October 2018
At DFKI in Berlin, Germany’s research centre for artificial intelligence: digital tools for a better life, from AI and AR to robotics and data. From here on, AI has been at the centre of my work.
2017
The 2017/18 edition showed how fast the market moves: more than half of the 2014 ranking had gone. With ethority labs we ran social media workshops in Hamburg.
2015–2017
ethority in Los Angeles: customer-experience and social media strategy for BMW Financial Services, and digital marketing strategy for Disney.
2012–2014
The Prisma appeared as German version 4.0 and in a Chinese edition in March 2012, as 5.0 in September and as 6.0 in 2014, by then with 261 platforms and tools. I wrote on real-time research through social media analysis. From 2013 we worked from the Astraturm above the harbour, for clients such as Telefónica O2, Bayer and AIDA Cruises.
2009–2011
On 21 September 2009 I published the first Social Media Prisma: the social web on one page. Readers helped shape version 2.0 in 2010 and 3.0 followed in 2011; we showed teams how to use the map to choose audiences and channels. From 2009 to 2010 I chaired the Social Media Council of the BVDW, the German digital economy association.
2007–2008
I chaired the customer satisfaction working group of BITKOM, the German digital industry association, and wrote on brand management in user-generated media for the Marken-Management Jahrbuch 2008/09. Talks took me to the BITKOM CE Forum at the Sony Center Berlin and to MarKom in Munich.
2005
For sixteen years: social media intelligence, market research and brand strategy for consumer brands, DAX groups and start-ups, including stakeholder analysis for Bayer.
2001
I co-founded an early internet monitoring service built on machine learning, including work for Aldi, AOL, the ECB and Daimler. In 2003 heise reported on its ranking of brand images on the web.
2000–2003
I managed TINfactory, Hamburg’s network for new media: software companies, digital agencies and technology providers under one brand, working on joint projects.
1997
My first company: media-time.de, a directory for the young German web, then international search marketing for T-Mobile, Kraft Foods and Lufthansa, and 1a-Suchmaschinen.de, a paid SEO software service.
1992–1996
I studied business administration in Siegen. Alongside my studies I worked in the STEIN Marketing promotion team on campaigns for Apple, Braun and Media-Saturn (1993–1995).
1991–1992
Field service and technology for vending machines.
Roots
I qualified as an electronics technician in semiconductor technology, with university entrance qualification, in a three-year dual programme in Teltow. At 19 I was a service engineer for industrial robots: commissioning, troubleshooting and maintenance at customer sites.
Principles
Ten principles
For me, keeping the whole in view means judging value, people and the ability to act together. That is where these ten convictions on people and AI come from. I want to develop them further with others.
Sten Franke · Founder & CEO · AI Transformation Architect · November 2026
AI should help people achieve something that matters to them. Before we invest, we agree with the people affected what should improve and why that goal comes first. It may be a new service or more dependable access to an existing one.
Whoever changes a task with AI needs a clear mandate and must be able to answer for the result. That includes the necessary resources, expert support and an effective way to limit or stop a problematic use. Responsibility must never land with someone who cannot decide anything.
People who do the daily work see improvements and harm that a metric alone cannot explain. We combine their experience with data and test both. A contradiction is a reason to look more closely and, where needed, adjust the roll-out.
People should be able to see how to ask questions and have consequential errors corrected. Decisions that significantly affect their interests need a responsible person they can reach. We design that access so that it works in everyday life.
AI should extend what we can do and make knowledge easier to reach. We invest in the capabilities we need to judge for ourselves, develop new things and choose partners well. Whatever we deliberately buy in, we must still be able to assess with expertise.
When AI makes work easier, we decide what the freed-up capacity should improve. We check the effect on services, quality and costs, including rework. We explain openly how benefits and burdens are shared.
We make relevant decisions understandable and show which evidence supports them and where uncertainty remains. What counts is what the people affected need in order to judge the consequences. We disclose conflicts of interest wherever they matter for that judgement.
We want to use the strengths of good partners and stay able to act when things change. So we clarify which tasks must keep running and which alternatives are realistic. We weigh the cost of this precaution against the consequences of a disruption.
The value of AI and the resources it needs belong in the same decision. We compare appropriate solutions and take energy and environmental effects into account where they can be reliably determined. We make missing information visible rather than reading an environmental benefit into it.
We make room for limited trials and learn from results that change our expectations. If value, costs or consequences change, we review our course. I also want my public position to be measured against new insights.
Which of these statements would you support publicly? Where would you disagree? And who is affected by our decision but is not at the table today?
For the new era
AI is changing goals, work, services and business models. Budgets are growing, rules are taking effect and the range of offerings is hard to follow. With ETHORITY I help you find the right AI, build a sound business case and put it to work responsibly: from a free first conversation to a six-week pilot.
Why now
Free
By video with Sten Franke, about your question
€195 net · one-time
The right AI offering, with source and check date
€495 net · one-time
One objective, a 30/60/90-day roadmap
€4,500 net · one-time
One AI system, ten working days
€25,000 net · one-time
Six weeks, one use case
Priced after scoping
A business case before you invest
A machine only works as part of a system. That is still where I start: with the whole process, the people who run it and the point where it can fail.
Selected work
Global edition and Germany & US focus edition, v2.6, published on 27 Oct 2026, in English and German.
961 AI offerings in 24 topic areas, each with a source and a date.
The social web on one page, first published in 2009.
Media and contact
For journalists, the ETHORITY newsroom has the press release, fact sheet, biography and images.
Through the years
Stages, offices and the people along the way, from the early 2000s to today.
Read the full story
