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Imagine applying for a job in September 2025 with a title that promises great things for the future: Senior Consultant NextGen Retail Digitalisation. It’s all about AI, the transformation of brick-and-mortar retail, and the survival of city centres.
You don’t send a standard PDF, but a vision. You are transparent and mention in the P.S. that you used your own AI assistant for structuring – because in 2025/26, this is not ‘cheating’ for a digital expert, but state-of-the-art efficiency.
Here you can read the coverletter I have written, supported by my custom GPT, which I have developed:
Re: Your application for VRD Berlin – Senior Consultant NextGen Retail Digitalisation (m/f/d) dated 16 September 2025 at Volkswagen Retail Dienstleistungsgesellschaft mbH
Dear Ms XXX,
The future of brick-and-mortar retail will not be decided by competition between tools, but
by the question: How can we make city centres relevant again? This is precisely where I see
my strength – combining digital transformation, AI and customer-centric retail storytelling.
My experience ranges from implementing the first CRM systems to omnichannel
strategies that translate online impulses into offline experiences. In projects, I have
demonstrated how fun shopping and storytelling at the POS not only increase footfall,
but also create genuine loyalty.
I am implementing what Alibaba has pioneered with “New Retail” in a European context using agile methods and AI-driven personalisation. At the same time, I recognised trends early on that are now reality – such as the convergence of e-commerce and high street retail.
This foresight and my practical coaching expertise enable me to empower teams to work quickly with prototypes and bring innovative retail concepts to
market.
I look forward to discussing with you how we can transform today’s Volkswagen retail
locations into tomorrow’s worlds of experience – pragmatically, empathetically and with
digital support.
Relevant blog posts:
• Marketing Today: Social On- and Offline – No Need to Say That AI Will
Enhance the Process
• Why offline touchpoints are becoming increasingly important
• E-commerce trends: A 2018 snapshot and their continuing relevance
Kind regards, Rob van
Linda
Agile Transformation | Digital Transformation | AI Transformation
Blog: https://robvanlinda.digital
Certificates: https://curriculum-vitae.digital/
P.S.: I created this application with the help of an AI assistant I developed myself. The
assistant helps me with structure and efficiency, but the content is entirely my own.
Cut to January 2026.
Four months later, an email lands in my inbox. No interview appointment, no rejection. Instead, the digital declaration of bankruptcy of a system that blocks itself:
‘…we would like to inform you that the further processing of your application and the internal coordination process will take some more time.’
Application files (Änderungsdatum = Date of change):
Email:
Translation:
Dear Mr Rob van Linda,
We would like to inform you that further processing of your application and the internal coordination process will take some more time.
As soon as we have further information for you, we will get back to you immediately.
Kind regards,
The paradox of speed
While we discuss real-time personalisation, AI-driven omnichannel strategies and the merging of online and offline, a corporate apparatus needs four months to determine that it needs even more time to coordinate a single personnel decision.
This is not just an individual annoyance. It is a symptom of the current state of the German economy:
- Fear of decision-making: In times of crisis, transformation is often put on hold instead of being used as a lifeline.
- Culture clash: An applicant who wants to discuss things on an equal footing and understands AI as a tool encounters an HR logic that still thinks in terms of processes from the last decade.
- Time lag: While the world (and especially markets such as China with ‘New Retail’) thinks in weekly cycles, German corporatism calculates in quarters – or years.
AI is not the future, it is the present
I was deliberately open in my cover letter: ‘I created this application with the help of an AI assistant I developed myself.’. Some call that courageous. I call it honest. Anyone who claims to be shaping digitalisation today but is afraid of AI helping to structure texts has not understood the core of the change. The content, the strategy, the passion – that remains human. Efficiency is digital.
My conclusion: from applicant to designer
That email in January was the final wake-up call for me. If the structures are too rigid to drive internal transformation from within, then it must come from outside.
I will no longer wait for ‘internal coordination’. I am now taking the step into full self-employment as a freelancer. I am no longer looking for job descriptions. I am looking for effectiveness.
Brick-and-mortar retail is not decided by competition between tools. It is decided by the speed with which we are prepared to break with old traditions.
No need to say, that I have sent an abandonment:
Good evening Ms Bartels,
I am hereby withdrawing my application because four months in a world where everything is constantly changing is no longer appropriate. Four months is an eternity these days and too slow for me.
Thank you for your feedback, and I wish you every success in finding a suitable candidate.
Kind regards | Best regards | Bien cordialement | Met vriendelijke Groet
Rob van Linda
Agile Transformation | Digital Transformation | AI Transformation
