AI as the key to solving business problems, not the sole purpose | Singularity Tech Day 2024 Summary

Last Thursday took place the fifth edition of Singularity Tech Day, the event of the year on innovation, business, news, and use cases in the field of artificial intelligence.

More than 200 representatives of the business sector joined us at this meeting to learn more about AI as a tool to generate value, from top-level firms such as Microsoft, Telefónica, Google, Intel, AstraZeneca, Nestlé, Repsol, Mitiga, BCN Supercomputing Center or Grup Mediapro.

The event focused on advances in generative AI, future forecasts of where this technology is heading, and the importance of having a clear business strategy to get the most out of it.

The importance of a business strategy

Quique Martínez, CEO of Plain Concepts, was once again in charge of welcoming the attendees to the event and gave an overview of the evolution of this technology, its potential, and how it has changed to become one of the central axes of companies.

One of the points he emphasized, and which many of the speakers also wanted to focus on, is the importance of understanding that AI alone is worthless, and that what is needed is: a company prepared to adopt it, data to feed it, a good structure to support it and a usable interface for users to take advantage of it.

He made it clear that it is essential to analyze the company’s weaknesses and decide what challenges to address, and at that point is when a solid AI strategy can be made with use cases that generate value and solve real problems for the company.

Generative AI in different sectors

The first block of the morning was led by Isabel Delgado (Senior Technical Specialist Azure Data & AI at Microsoft), Rafael Morales (Strategy & Business Transformation Office Lead at AstraZeneca) and Emilio Martín (Principal Data Scientist at Repsol).

Delgado shared her vision of how AI is transforming business processes, future prospects and how creativity and technology are intertwined to shape an exciting paradigm full of discoveries.

Morales focused his talk on how this technology is becoming a crucial pillar in the service of professionals, patients, and the health service. He gave specific examples of how this technology is being used (development of new drugs, speeding up diagnosis, improving disease management) and the challenges and opportunities that AI presents for the future of healthcare.

Martín closed the block with an overview of the adoption and development of GenAI at Repsol, from the foundations with the first wave to a phase of profound transformation where this technology is being strategically integrated into processes and operations.

After a coffee break, it was time for Luis Velasco (EMEA Data Analytics Principal Architect at Google), Eva Linares (Partner Sales Manager at Intel), Mauricio Hanzich (CTO at Mitiga), and Enrique Mora (Transveral Emerging Tech Lead at Nestlé).

Velasco sought to demystify the integration of generative AI with your existing data infrastructure, exploring practical strategies for preparing data, implementing models, and addressing AI challenges in production.

Linares emphasized how AI and business analytics are leveraging the latest capabilities built into processors to accelerate AI-based workloads everywhere.

Hanzich addressed the role of AI in combating climate change; and Mora closed the block by talking about the scaling of GenAI within the Nestlé ecosystem and how its integration strategy is being implemented, not only to optimize business processes but also to improve the daily lives of its employees.

After the lunch break, Sara Hernández (Innovation Business Developer at BCN Supercomputing Center), Mayte Hidalgo (Head of Center of AI at Grup Mediapro), Lander Trapaga (Head of Data & AI at Grup Mediapro), Álvaro Alegría (Digital Products & Solutions at Telefónica) and Javier Cantón (Head of Research at Plain Concepts) were the protagonists of the afternoon.

Hernández focused his talk on new innovation models to boost knowledge transfer, as well as strategic relationships to achieve benefits.

Grup Mediapro addressed the development and implementation of AI strategy from a center of excellence, and Telefónica Alegría explained how to implement solid strategies and what the future of this technology will be.

Cantón was in charge of closing the day talking about how Sora opens a new door to something more than just a video generator. He discussed how it could be used to generate a training dataset for the next big model to create 3D simulations of the physical world.

Another highlight was a new demo area, where the public could interact and try out some of our projects firsthand, which was a great success.

After the success of this fifth edition, we are already looking forward to the next one, where we will be delighted to welcome back the attendees of this edition and the new ones who want to join this incredible experience.
Until then, stay tuned because we will publish the talks of this edition very soon.