Episode Overview

Podcast: Marketing Beyond with Alan B. Hart
Guest: Oliver Steil, CEO of TeamViewer
Episode Title: Increase productivity with a digital workforce: Insights from TeamViewer Chief Executive Officer, Oliver Steil
Date: November 12, 2025

In this episode, Alan B. Hart sits down with Oliver Steil, CEO of TeamViewer, to discuss how digital transformation, remote connectivity, automation, and AI are revolutionizing productivity across industries. They explore TeamViewer’s evolution, the impact of technological advancements on field and frontline workers, the shift to proactive IT management, building digital workforces with AI, and the role of partnerships in driving integrated solutions. Steil also offers personal reflections on career growth, networking, and navigating disruption in a rapidly changing world.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. First Impressions: Dreamforce and TeamViewer’s Origin (01:00–03:31)

• Both Hart and Steil share their first experiences attending Dreamforce, describing it as overwhelming, vibrant, and more show-like than typical B2B tradeshows.
• Steil recounts his career path:
  • Began as an electrical engineer, moved to McKinsey for a decade, entered private equity and IT/software, then took the helm at TeamViewer in 2018.
  • Led TeamViewer through its IPO in 2019 and navigated the business through the COVID pandemic, which uniquely impacted remote-first companies.

2. TeamViewer’s Evolution: From IT Support to Industry Connectivity (03:25–07:29)

• TeamViewer started 20 years ago in Germany, initially offering remote desktop and IT support.
• The platform evolved to support a wide variety of devices, machinery, and industrial equipment, expanding into the "Internet of Things" and industrial environments.
• Recent acquisitions have positioned TeamViewer for proactive IT management—deploying agents that monitor and resolve issues before users are affected.
• The scope now covers both knowledge workers (IT) and frontline/OT (Operations Technology) workers.

“So you can now still connect to a computer and provide IT help, but you can also connect to all kinds of other equipment, devices, machinery, and you can remote connect into it and remote control it… We want to connect humans to the same platform.”
— Oliver Steil (04:08)

3. Digital Transformation for the Frontline Workforce (07:29–09:42)

• Traditionally, office workers have seamless digital access, but field and frontline workers remain underserved, often using outdated tools or paper.
• TeamViewer is focused on democratizing digital information and workflows by bringing relevant data, AR, and easy-to-consume instructions directly to technicians and logistics workers.
• This addresses skilled labor shortages, supports upskilling, and maximizes employee satisfaction.

“If you bring [back office data] to the frontline, to a tablet or into AR glasses, and make it consumable within this context to that person… that is incredibly powerful.”
— Oliver Steil (08:43)

4. Integrating AI and Building the Digital Workforce (09:42–15:02)

• AI is used to enhance interactions between people, equipment, and systems.
• Opt-in telemetry from remote sessions is analyzed to extract common solutions, which are then codified into reusable scripts and automations.
• This enables proactive and automated IT remediation: common issues are detected and resolved automatically for thousands of users, reducing service tickets and boosting productivity.
• The concept extends to operational technology—analyzing technician work to support the next worker more effectively.
• Agentic solutions and AI automations are removing the need for human intervention in many scenarios, reserving specialists for high-value tasks.

“We inspect the session, we look at the telemetry data… and out of this, then create code using AI to script what has happened… and we put this automation library on devices and we call that proactive IT.”
— Oliver Steil (10:41)

“You build automations or agents… and you try to really push the boundary of when does a person need to get involved, a real person need to get involved.”
— Oliver Steil (13:19)

5. Impact and Scale: Productivity in Industrial & Global Systems (15:02–17:17)

• The scale and number of TeamViewer’s customer sessions—millions globally—allow for rapid learning and improvement.
• TeamViewer’s solutions are vital for industries that run the world’s logistics and manufacturing, enabling remote operations and massive efficiency gains.
• COVID-19 was a turning point: remote-first approaches became imperative for business continuity, especially in global equipment deployment.

“All the goods in the world move on industrial systems… If you think about all of those manual, historical, manual touch points, I mean, this is a huge efficiency, productivity gain.”
— Alan B. Hart (15:32)

6. The Importance of Partnership and Integration (17:17–21:30)

• True digital transformation and end-to-end workflow integration require strong partnerships.
• TeamViewer connects with other platforms (PLM, CRM, ERP, etc.) to deliver total solutions for customers, ensuring data and workflows are shared and harmonized.
• Modern solutions must be outward-focused—open, integrative, and able to meet customer and ecosystem needs.
• Vertical expertise and domain specialization are required to meet the needs of different industries (manufacturing, logistics, warehousing).

“Digitalizing a workflow only makes sense if it’s end to end… you can only solve through partnership.”
— Oliver Steil (17:56)

“One of the things you learn is if you engage [in the industrial world], it’s a different buying persona, different processes, different challenges…” — Oliver Steil (21:09)

7. Personal Reflections: Lessons from Career and Life (22:29–25:35)

• Steil credits moving from technical study into consulting as his most formative experience, exposing him to the breadth of business issues.
• Advice to his younger self: “Network even more, be more outward focused even more from the start.”
• He advocates for curiosity, open-mindedness, and learning from diverse environments.

8. Navigating Today’s World: AI, Innovation, and Societal Trends (25:43–28:38)

• Steil is keenly interested in the ongoing development of AI, seeing enormous untapped potential and urging others to embrace, not fear, the disruption it brings.
• He also follows political and societal shifts, noting the interconnectedness and historical patterns in global events, and the challenges presented by demographic, economic, and technological change.

“We’re only scratching the surface [with AI]… Again I’m seeing in many places hesitation, skepticism, more negativity around it than actually seeing the opportunity.”
— Oliver Steil (25:43)

9. Biggest Opportunities and Threats for Business & Marketers (28:47–30:46)

• Opportunity: Dramatically increased productivity and speed of innovation through data and AI, especially benefiting engineers, scientists, and business operations.
• Threat: The accelerating pace of change and disruption makes it much harder for companies to stay competitive—legacy businesses must continually adapt or risk obsolescence.

“The constant of, well, if I have been a company that has been around for 100 years, I will also be successful the next hundred years, which I think is gone.”
— Oliver Steil (30:39)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “It’s a zoo, right?”
  “That’s a good description. Yes.” (01:06) — Opening banter on Dreamforce
• “We want to connect humans to the same platform and we want to do it in the IT environment for knowledge workers and OT environment all the way to technicians and logistics workers.” (05:22) — Steil on TeamViewer’s mission
• “If you bring all the data that is available in the back office… to the frontline… make it consumable… that is incredibly powerful.” (08:43) — Empowering field workers
• “The more I can do automatically, the more I can do proactively, the more I can do remotely, the more I limit the number of cases where actually somebody has to go.” (13:43) — On the power of automation and AI
• “COVID also changed the understanding of companies to think about remote… A remote first would be a good concept because it’s so much more productive and faster and drives customer satisfaction.” (16:00) — On the pandemic’s impact
• “You need to be quite outward oriented… The answer has to be yes, we do [integrate]. If you say no, then you’re already in a disadvantage.” (20:03) — On ecosystem partnerships
• “Network even more, be more outward focused even more from the start. I think the world has changed so much now.” (25:08) — Advice for young Oliver
• “The threat is really that there’s so much change so rapidly that it will be much harder for companies to survive… If you’re not alert you will stay behind.” (29:36) — On navigating disruption

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:00 – First impressions of Dreamforce; Oliver Steil’s background
• 03:25 – TeamViewer’s founding, evolution, and technology
• 07:29 – Digital transformation for frontline/field workers
• 09:42 – AI-powered automation, proactive IT, and building a digital workforce
• 15:02 – Scale, impact, and COVID acceleration
• 17:17 – The critical role of partnerships and integration
• 22:29 – Personal experiences shaping career outlook
• 25:43 – Enthusiasm for AI, innovation, and navigating societal change
• 28:47 – Biggest opportunities and threats for business

Summary Takeaways

This episode provides a deep dive into how TeamViewer, under Oliver Steil’s leadership, is changing the way the world connects, maintains, and automates work—on the factory floor, in the field, and across IT and OT environments. Listeners gain insights on building digital workforces, leveraging AI for proactive productivity, and the necessity of partnership in a rapidly changing ecosystem. Steil’s candid reflections and practical advice offer inspiration and a roadmap for leaders navigating the future of digital business.