A Day in the Life of an Industry 5.0 Innovation Specialist (Augmented with chatgpt 5)

By Leke, Industry 5.0 Innovation Specialist

Wix Media

At 6:00 a.m., before most of the city stirs, I’m already in motion. Coffee in hand, music on, I scan through project dashboards and global news feeds. The question on my mind isn’t what happened yesterday—it’s what futures are unfolding today, and how do we prepare for them?

That’s the rhythm of Industry 5.0: where humans and machines don’t compete, but collaborate to create outcomes that matter for business, society, and the planet. My role as an Industry 5.0 Innovation Specialist is to make that collaboration real.

Morning: Starting with the End in Mind

My day begins with outcome-setting. I'm often tasked with a challenge: “We want to digitize our operations,”or “We’re exploring AI, but don’t know where to start.” My response is always the same: “What does success look like in three years?”

Here I rely on my designed methodology—a hybrid of Design Thinking, Sequential Backcasting, and principles like VUCA and FLUX. From the business side, this means aligning leaders on a shared vision and charting a path backward to today. From the technical side, it’s about translating that vision into tangible architectures: sustainable material sourcing, AI-driven forecasting, autonomous process flows.

By 10:00 a.m., I’m deep in whiteboard sessions—sometimes virtual, sometimes physical—sketching futures that are bold yet grounded.

Midday: Boardroom Meets Blueprint

By noon, my day shifts into translation mode. This is where I play the role of a one-man consulting firm.

• Business Lens: I help executives identify growth opportunities. That might be carving out a new market niche (a blue ocean), redesigning customer journeys for digital-native generations, or future-proofing against supply chain shocks.

• Technical Lens: I zoom into the details—testing digital twin simulations, refining AI ethics frameworks, or shaping cross-industry data-sharing models. My economics background helps me assess viability, while my innovation training gives me the agility to prototype and pivot quickly.

The duality is key: I bridge strategy with systems, ideas with execution.

Afternoon: Co-Creation in Flow

Afternoons are for immersion. With distractions tuned out, I sink into deep flow state—the place where real innovation happens.

At Wonda Designs, my venture design studio, we run projects that fuse Industry 4.0 technologies with Web 4.0 toolsto drive what I call “all-life flourishing.” One day it might be designing an AI-powered platform for regenerative agriculture; another, developing a global innovation sprint to tackle urban sustainability.

The common thread? Co-creation. Industry 5.0 isn’t about replacing humans with machines—it’s about elevating human potential through machines. My role is to design that collaboration.

Evening: Reflection and Reset

By the evening, I take a step back. I ask myself: Did today move us closer to the outcome? Did the systems we designed serve both business goals and societal needs? Did we create not just profit, but possibility?

That reflection is crucial because Industry 5.0 is more than a technological shift—it’s a mindset shift. It’s about designing futures where organizations are resilient, societies are thriving, and sustainability isn’t an afterthought but the default.

Why It Matters

I often describe myself as an “O to 1 guy”—I take ideas from zero to market, from spark to scale. My lived experiences across three continents taught me that innovation isn’t just about tools and systems; it’s about people, cultures, and rhythms. That’s why my work sits at the intersection of strategy, technology, and humanity.

Industry 5.0 is no longer a buzzword—it’s the future of business. And my day-to-day mission is simple: to make that future real, one project, one idea, one collaboration at a time.