Fundación LAB Mediterráneo, in collaboration with Marina de Empresas, presents practical cases of AI in companies
Valencia, 28 June 2024.- Fundación LAB Mediterráneo, a project promoted by the Employers’ Association of Valencia (AVE), held its Board of Trustees with a subsequent Informative Session which took place at the headquarters of the Marina de Empresas.
During the Board meeting, the annual accounts for the 2023 financial year were approved, as was the incorporation of three new trustees: Deloitte, Exponentia and Ecija Abogados. These new additions brings the current number of companies in the Foundation to 25.
Following the Board meeting, and with the collaboration of Marina de Empresas, an informative session was held on Applied Artificial Intelligence.
Héctor Dominguis, president of Fundación LAB Mediterráneo, was in charge of opening the session. In his welcome speech, he underlined the importance of training and adapting to new technologies. “If so far we thought that the world was moving very fast, what’s coming with this fourth industrial revolution is truly dizzying”, he pointed out.
After that, Javier Cerverón, manager of Business Development at EDEM Escuela de Empresarios, presented the different initiatives which, from Marina de Empresas and EDEM, have been launched in the sphere of digitalization and technology, and stressed that “there is no talk of anything other than AI nowadays and the key lies in us knowing how to use it”.
In a first talk by Andrés Pedreño, professor in Applied Economy and founder of Torre Juana OST, the capabilities of the Valencian AI ecosystem were analysed. In his opinion, “we should work from Primary and Secondary school to help introduce AI from the start in all areas of knowledge to have good engineers, doctors, architects…”, as “AI is the only way to overcome humankind’s great challenges: the environment, natural regeneration, energy saving, complex illnesses like cancer, redefining the competitiveness of all production sectors must include AI”. As for the business world, he emphasized that “we need companies to avail of the research carried out by the magnificent human capital in our universities. Otherwise, we will be doing research for third parties”. “Of course AI entails risk, but we have to assume them”, he concluded.
Then, there was a discussion on how to apply AI in companies at a round table moderated by Jorge Reverte, delegate of the Nunsys Group in Madrid and manager of Digital Transformation, in which Ángel Alberich, Founder and CEO of QUIBIM, Aníbal Villalba, Chief of Strategy & Public Affairs Officer of PLD Space, and Fermín Leal, Data Leader of Aquaservice, took part.
Ángel Alberich-Bayarri, founder and CEO of QUIBIM, laid out how they use AI for diagnosing pathologies through medical images. “We want to create AI models that can interpret these images and detect illnesses earlier, for better patient treatment and so that the medication gets in earlier”, he explained. “Before, we depended solely on a radiologist. Now, AI interprets the images which means we are working with supra human abilities”, he concluded.
Aníbal Villalba, Chief of Strategy & Public Affairs Officer of PLD Space, pointed out that “the integration of Artificial Intelligence in the New Space sector opens up unprecedented opportunities for rocket launch companies such as PLD Space, improving efficiency and precision in their operations”. “PLD has positioned Spain as one of the top 10 countries in the world sending a rocket into space”, he underlined.
For his part, Fermín Leal, Data Leader of Aquaservice, stressed the importance of computing and highlighte the fact that the main challenges ahead in AI are “understanding real business problems and seeing what solutions you can bring”, “the management of expectations” in terms of what can or cannot be done, and the “training and education of people” to be able to get the most out of it.
Jorge Reverte, delegate of the Nunsys Group in Madrid and manager of Digital Transformation, emphasized the fact that Artificial Intelligence is the new great enabler to make companies not only more efficient and productive than ever, but also to get them to better exploit the data and knowledge generated in the organization. To this end, companies must properly understand what this technology consists of and reflect deeply on which parts of said company can generate impact and how it could be applied.
The person in charge of putting the finishing touches to the Informative Session was David Alayón, Cofounder & Chief Foresight Officer of Innuba and Chief Innovation Officer of Mindset who spoke of “Augmented organizations. The Future of Work and Generative AI”. In his talk, he gave examples of the use of AI for image and audiovisual generation, underlining the learning speed of this technology. “Everything is changing very quickly, and it is going to go on changing quickly”, he warned the audience, and, as to the question of whether AI is a bubble, he stated that “there are bubbles that explode and bubbles that deflate”.
AI is a bubble that will deflate a little because it is currently attracting maximum hype”. He then concluded with the presentation of the Augmented Organizations, such as “collaboration between people and AI, working together to improve the abilities of equipment and people”.
In general terms, the way in which Artificial Intelligence can optimise different business aspects was addressed. The speakers shared their experience, explaining specific cases and strategies for integrating AI into operational processes, improving efficiency and decision making. Success stories were highlighted and recommendations for implementing AI solutions effectively were offered, drawing particular attention to its potential for transforming and raising competitiveness in both sectors.
Fundación LAB Mediterráneo
Fundación LAB Mediterráneo is a project created by AVE with the mission of positioning the Region of Valencia as a national and European benchmark in entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and research.
To achieve this, it has set itself five objectives: to promote the creation and attraction of technology start-ups; to work to attract national and international technology companies to set up in the Region of Valencia and create a ‘tractor effect’; to promote support for companies in non-technological sectors to accelerate their digital transformation; to contribute to increasing private investment in R&D&I; and to help promote research.
The Foundation’s Board of Trustees is made up of the following entities: Aceitunas Cazorla, Aquaservice/Plug and Play, AVE, Baleària, Banco Sabadell, Boluda Corporación Marítima, CaixaBank, Dacsa Group, Embutidos Martínez/KMZERO, GDES, Grupo AZA, Grupo Bertolín, Grupo Gimeno, Helados Estiu, Importaco, Lanzadera, Logifruit, Nunsys, Royo/ Invext, S2 Grupo, SPB/Cleanity TIBA/Romeu, Verne Technology Group and Zeus/Sesame.
