More than 100 people have been able to attend the first edition of the «Artificial Intelligence Forum» which was held this morning in Madrid and more than 700 have followed our broadcast on streaming.
Held in the assembly hall of the School of Industrial Organization (EOI) and jointly organized by the Fundación Alianza Digital 2030, Atrevia and TPNET, the event has been inaugurated by Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence.
Throughout the morning, Foro IA has served as inspiration for professionals and companies who are currently wondering how they can integrate new AI capabilities into the digital transformation processes in their businesses.
In this sense, Artigas stressed that “Spain is in a process of intense transformation, at a time when European funds are an opportunity to make profound changes in our production model.” In this transformation, the Secretary of State has valued the great role that Artificial Intelligence can play, of which she has ensured in the medium term “it can increase European GDP by 14% and the productivity of companies by more than 40% ».
Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence
For this to be possible, however, Carme Artigas affirms that it is necessary for Spain to advance in the digitization of their SMEs and in the development of digital skills in citizenship, since we can reach a scenario in which we maintain a structural unemployment of 15% while thousands of positions related to technology still do not find suitable candidates (in Spain, 180,000 positions in cybersecurity have not been filled).
Carme Artigas has demanded that this digital transformation be “green” and fair, capable of closing the gaps that separate citizens and not enlarging their differences and, finally, has demanded that Spain “take advantage of its opportunity to” lead the development of AI in language Spanish”.
In the opening session of the event, the director of the EOI, Nieves Olivera, the executive director of the Fundación Alianza Digital 2030, David Cierco, and the president of Atrevia, Nuria Vilanova. The three have agreed when highlighting that we start from a reality: that as the volume of data continues to grow exponentially, the development of Artificial Intelligence has to become a lever of change for the future of our country, predicting a profound impact in areas such as administration management, public services and the competitiveness of companies.
Albert Triola, CEO of Oracle in Spain
AI and Digital Transformation
After the opening of the day, it has been Albert triola, CEO of Oracle in Spain, who in his keynote has shown how Artificial Intelligence lays the foundations for an agile digital transformation capable of providing positive results, both in financial terms, improving the income statement, as well as in other more intangible ones such as experience and end customer satisfaction.
In fact, Albert Triola has pointed out that “data is the backbone for AI to work efficiently. AI is going to become the center of a digital disruption in all sectors and although it will not be an end in itself, it will be key when developing smart cities, promoting tourism, making more accurate medical diagnoses, or even prevent diseases thanks to the information collected by the new devices wearables ”.
The second keynote of the event has been carried out by Javier Diaz, Vice President & Country Leader, Iberia & LATAM de Celonis, one of the most advanced companies in the field of data mining and Artificial Intelligence and that in a short time has managed to make a name for itself around the world thanks to a technology that allows them to identify the inefficiencies of companies in any of their processes and correct them using sophisticated algorithms.
Throughout his speech, Javier Díaz explained that “in an increasingly ungovernable universe of data, companies need tools that allow them to dissociate themselves from this complexity, so that more and more professionals who, indeed, have a real ability to make business decisions that are supported by the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence ».
Solutions and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence
In the framework of this first «Artificial Intelligence Forum», two round tables were also held. The first, «Artificial Intelligence Solutions», featured as protagonists representatives of some of the companies that have made the most progress in their digital transformation processes in the last two years, such as Renfe (Carlos Varela, Director of Digital Transformation and Technology), The league (Rafael Zambrano Lopez, Head of Data Science at LaLiga Tech), Ribera Health (Mieria Ladios Martín, Head of Quality) and the railway company that operates in our country Ouigo (Francisco Martin, Director of Technology and Human Resources).
For the attendees, it was an opportunity to see first-hand some of the most outstanding projects in the field of intelligent algorithms that are being carried out by some of the most important companies in our country.
And so we discover how La Liga has projects that allow it to monitor the sports betting market to prevent fraud, Ribera Salud has been able to reduce up to 20% the number of people suffering from pressure ulcers thanks to better monitoring based in algorithms, or Renfe is firmly betting on video systems capable of determining in real time the capacity of stations and trains, so that they can be prevented and act more effectively in the face of fires, riots or other events.
The second round table, “Challenges and Opportunities of AI” It was introduced by one of the most outstanding professionals in our country in this field: Nuria Oliver. Scientific director and co-founder of the ELLIS Alicante Foundation, she is one of the most cited computer science researchers in Spain and is one of the most recognized European professionals for her work in the development of computational models of human behavior and Artificial Intelligence.
In addition to the presence of Oliver, at this table the attendees had the participation of Javier Torres, vice president of applications Oracle, Jorge Ferrer Zarzuela, SVP Engineering & Site Leader de Celonis, Alberto de Torres, academic director at ESIC, and Jose Angel Higueras, business director of roads, mobility and intermodality of Ineco.
Javier Díaz, Vice President & Country Leader, Iberia & LATAM de Celonis
In this second round table, the participants demanded that public policies be put in place capable of retaining the best talent in a Europe that is unfortunately years away in AI compared to China or the United States. To do this, and everyone agreed on this, it is necessary to democratize access to data, while effectively investing in giving value to all that data collected by applications and sensors and that, in most cases, organizations do not know how to exploit properly.
In short, the first edition of this IA Forum has managed to fulfill its initial purpose, which is to become a platform for the exchange of ideas and experiences in which both the public sector, suppliers and companies that have adopted or they want to adopt AI as a differential element in their business.
