ONCE A DAY
OAD MEETS

Yan Chételat - on Ai & Creativity

In a career built on bridging the physical and digital worlds, Yan Chételat is making the case for the right to step back. We sit down in an industrial building space to talk AI, his chapter in the book DiXmension and the wardrobe of a man who moves constantly between business hubs and quiet creative spaces.

FEATURED: YAN CHÉTELAT
ABOUT | INNOVATION LEAD, LOGITECH | Holder of global AI patents & Contributing author, DiXmension |
AUTHOR: KARIN LUNDHOLM | once a day

| THE CONVERSATION |
The first time Yan Chételat walked into once a day at 6 Elgin Street, it was for a coffee, and he stayed a while for a chat with our team. This time, in an industrial building on the outskirts of Hong Kong, we get into something bigger.
Yan Chételat is Innovation Lead at Logitech, the Swiss company behind everyday computer accessories, mice, keyboards, webcams.
When asked how he explains his work over coffee, he doesn't start with the technology. "At its core, my work isn't actually about the technology, it's about human connections. The real challenge is deeply understanding the user's true, unspoken needs and translating those insights into a unified product strategy."
When he talks about it, it seems simple, yet underneath it's clear he's working on a human and AI connection that feels obvious to him, still diffuse for most, and very much part of the future still to come.

"My job is to connect the physical and digital worlds."

His path runs through Swiss mechanical engineering and now AI hardware strategy in Hong Kong. He sees one thread through all of it: "Whether you are calculating mechanical systems, designing a physical asset, or architecting a digital user interface, the product fails if it ignores human behavior. My job is to connect the physical and digital worlds. When you place the human at the center, the engineering structure and the digital experience blend naturally to serve a real purpose."
Holder of global patents in multimodal AI, some of that work traces back to the Logi M380, a mouse built around voice input, where his team backed a hunch years before most of the industry caught up. "Long before the current rise of LLMs we observed that the future of digital interaction would be entirely multimodal. We anticipated that natural ways of communicating like voice, context, and intent would inevitably blend deeper into the digital space."
The satisfying part, he says, was realizing they had productized that future years ahead of the curve, watching complex AI architecture settle into something anyone could simply use.

ON STILLNESS:

"True creativity doesn't spark when your brain is constantly hit with notifications, it sparks in the quiet, empty gaps."
| THE ART OF DOING NOTHING |
Asked what excites and concerns him most at the edge of AI, his answer isn't about the technology at all. "What excites me is how technology liberates us from repetitive tasks so we can reclaim our time. What concerns me, however, is our growing intolerance for stillness, the constant digital saturation. We've conditioned ourselves to fear empty space."
He recently wrote a chapter exploring the theme for the book DiXmension. "This chapter focuses on how modern innovation is suffering because we've eliminated boredom. True creativity doesn't spark when your brain is constantly hit with notifications, it sparks in the quiet, empty gaps. In the book, I break down how intentional boredom creates the mental canvas required for breakthrough ideas, and why experiencing setbacks is actually a structural requirement to better innovate."
OUR TAKE: It's a curious tension, worth sitting with. A career spent building the tools that strip away friction, automate the noise, speed everything up, sitting right next to a genuine belief that the mind needs the opposite: unstructured emptiness, room to do nothing at all. In Yan's telling, AI isn't the enemy of that space. Done right, it's what hands it back to us, clearing out the repetitive so there's actually room left for boredom, and for whatever boredom makes possible.


"If we automate away all our friction, we risk automating away our deepest moments of creative problem-solving."

OFFLINE, ON PURPOSE He protects that stillness deliberately. A self-described technology maximalist, he keeps fiercely guarded boundaries. "If you don't control your tools, they control your workspace."
Leading global roadmaps across continents means the noise never naturally stops, so he treats deep focus blocks like non-negotiable appointments. "I completely close down communication channels for specific hours to let my mind wander into those 'focus' states I wrote about in DiXmension."
To make it sustainable, he leans on automated systems that keep momentum going on operational tasks while he's fully offline.

ON THE WARDROBE:

"You can't carry your whole closet with you."
| ON THE WARDROBE |
As a person moving between business hubs, home offices, and quiet creative spaces, and someone who clearly pays attention to a good outfit, we asked Yan how he approaches getting dressed for all of it. "Living between business hubs and quiet creative spaces means you can't carry your whole closet with you."
His approach is to rely on three to four high-quality, versatile pieces. "By selecting items with structural adaptability, you can easily adjust them into different styles to create unlimited fits, taking you from a global stakeholder meeting straight to a relaxed, remote work layout."
It's the same discipline he applies everywhere. Asked about a piece he refuses to part with, he reframes the question. There isn't one sentimental item. "For me, it's less about a single sentimental item and more about maintaining the right structural balance."
Instead, there's a rule: one fit in, one fit out. "Whenever I purchase a new item, I push myself to remove an existing one. This discipline forces me to keep a highly streamlined, flexible, and functional wardrobe. It prevents clutter and ensures that every single piece I own can be cross-matched to create as many diverse styles as possible."
| LIVING IN HONG KONG |
Today the conversation is between a Swiss AI strategist and a Swedish menswear founder and designer, both living in Hong Kong. Yan has been here for 7 years and we talk about life in the city.
On the city itself: "Hong Kong's raw energy is an incredible catalyst. The sheer proximity of brilliant, diverse minds packed into this vertical landscape creates a unique spark that accelerates ideas faster than almost anywhere else on earth."
The secret to keeping up, he says, is using the city as a launchpad, well located in Asia, and knowing when to step outside it to ground yourself and re-center.
| THE ONCE A DAY MOMENT |

"Coffee break is the intentional pause where creativity sparks. Stepping back is how I reset to better create."

YAN CHÉTELAT,
INNOVATION LEAD at LOGITECH, Holder of global AI patents & Contributing author, DiXmension
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