After the sustainability session at the TEFAF and the summer break, the topic of the Brightlands Business Club event on 22nd September shifted towards Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science (DS) with our event “ABC – AI in Business Challenges”. This time the venue was the ECI Cultuurfabriek in Roermond. The complex has an industrial feel to it and besides meeting rooms and startup collaboration spaces, it houses a number of leading restaurants was well.
The aim of this BBC event was threefold and to inform:
- why AI and DS, and awareness of AI and DS, is important
- how businesses can put AI and DS to use, in a variety of markets and types of business, and
- how to introduce, or enhance the use of, AI and DS within your own business.
Roy Lenders of Genzai informed us of his innovative concept to help startups fill in their knowledge and experience gaps, and inject Genzai’s AI and entrepreneurial skills ‘in kind’, in return for a certain benefits such as a degree of participation (shares etc.) in that startup or company. A new and interesting risk/reward collaboration construction, which is nicely filling in a gap that is left by various ‘regular’ investment categories and players such as venture capitalists. One important message Roy had to the BBC members; whether you are a startup or whether you are an established business, make sure you have thought about what AI can mean to your business, and that you have an AI strategy in place. Exemplary was his statement that venture capitalists will not invest anymore in a (startup) company that does not have a clear view and stance on how AI will impact their field of business and how the business can gain an advantage with this technology.
Albert of AethiQs informed us of how they transformed their previously ‘traditional’ firm (providing strategic consultancy for pension funds, amongst others) completely. This was done by stepping out of the existing firm with a small group of partners and setting up a completely new company, starting from scratch. As if that was not exciting enough, he then explained how AI and Data Science techniques are now successfully used and integrated within their ‘traditional’ line of business (strategic consultancy). For example, by providing data-based text analysis and visualizing this, so that a pension fund board can easily see and understand the underlying ‘structure’ of their client base. His colleague Aron explained to us the different solutions that they have produced in house (including the award-winning “Maat” search engine) as well as some basic background on data analysis (outlier detection etc.). Furthermore, he showed us examples of how the ‘translation’ of data takes place.
Finally, Prof. Frank Thuijsman of the Department of Advanced Computing Sciences of the University of Maastricht presented the structure of the KE@Work (Knowledge Engineering at work) program. This program is currently making full use of the space available to Dutch educational institutions, to deliver a combined ‘learn & work’ program. In a nutshell, students with high enough grades are eligible to work on average 2 days per week at a company, on an agreed-upon assisgnment, in their second and third year of their study. The monthly cost for the student is relatively cheap compared to finding experienced professionals. The KE@work program offers an accessible way for companies to get access to the skills of students that have been taught the latest techniques in the field of Data Science and AI. These students approach the company with a ‘fresh’ perspective and can identify ways of applying AI to improve the business and come up with solutions using the latest Data Science and AI techniques. As the program lasts 2 years, the challenge should carry enough weight (also for the academic challenge required) and be, well, challenging. If you are interested to see how KE@work could work for your company and get you started with DS/AI, or if you want to discuss a possible challenge for the students to solve, please contact Frank and his colleagues. Their contact information is also contained in the presentation PDF.
To round up the event, we enjoyed drinks and bites, followed by a tasty dinner in an enjoyable atmosphere at Mr. Sammi’s bistro, also located in the ECI Cultuurfabriek. At the dinner tables, useful and enjoyable business and private conversations alternated; the entrepreneurs were exchanging experiences and inspiring each other to improve businesses further. There were also several prospect members present and they indicated their interest in joining our club.
All in all it was an informative and enjoyable event. As usual, the presentations of all the speakers have been uploaded and available through the BBC website.
