How to scale industrial adoption of AI in

Belgium? Challenges & opportunities

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Impact of AI on

our daily life

Groeiendbelang van A.I. in dit ecosysteem

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Bron: Omar Mohout, Sirris, https://scaleups.sirris.be/

AI impact op

bedrijfsprocessen

AI impact op

aanbod van

bedrijven

AI impact op

business modellen

In manufacturing:

• Optimisatie van processen

• Automatisatie

• ..

In bedrijfsprocessen:

• Business analytics

• Interactiemet klanten

(e.g. chatbots)

• ..

• Andere :

• ..

Exploitatie van usage data

Nieuwe generaties van slimme

producten en diensten

• Autonome producten

• Gepersonaliseerde

producten

• Digitalisering van

diensten die vandaag

menselijk inzicht vereisen

• Andere :

• ..

Digitalemarktplaatsen:

• recommender systemen

• ….

Nieuwe diensten:

• Op basis van populaties bij

klanten

• Digitale servitisatie

• ….

• Andere :

• ..

I. SciFi or horror scenario’s in media

II. Access to relevant data

III. New business models + impact on organization

IV. Need of combined expertise: AI + domain knowledge

V. AI is dynamic : fast evolution

AI adoption nowadays scalable ?

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Lines of action to scale industrial AI adoption

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Strategic exercice

Organisation OfferingBusiness

model

1 – to – 1

journey

Collective

journey

Proof of Concept

Implementation

Itera

tive

mu

ltistag

e p

roce

ss

Long

term

vision

AI/D

ATA

Co

ach

AI/D

ATA

Exp

erts

Companies

need also

support on:

- Regulation

- IP rights

- Ethics

- (Re)skilling

Stimulate a vivid AI ecosystem in all regions (e.g. Digityser, The Beacon, …)

Leverage EU funds for Data Innovation Hubs

Stimulate a strong Belgian AI supply side to ensure scalability

Innovation calls should be accessible for startups/scale-ups (open & industry driven innovation calls)

At least one AI supplier should be involved in each subsidized innovation call

Assign a key role for AI industry in major research projects (e.g. imec)

Build on our strengths: focus expertise on B2B applications (e.g. production & manufacturing)

Support all companies in their strategic exercise by SME cheques or by any other means

Support all companies on legal & ethical issues (“AI Legal & Ethical Council”)

Support all companies in their search of talent (“AI Talent & Work Council”)

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Lines of action : Ecosystem

Vivid AI supply side:

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Lines of action : Talent Labour market for AI experts is very poor today

Start-ups, scale-ups, corporates, universities and knowledge institutions are fishing in the same little pool of AI experts

As demand is growing, this situationwill deteriorate if no extra talent is attractedor trained

Stimulate throughput of PhD’s in AI in companies

Stimulate industry oriented PhD’s in AI (e.g. Baekelandmandates)

Stimulate internships& collaboration between academics and private sector

Expand the AI Expert pool

Basic computational skills and AI in secondary school

Stimulate AI master & bachelor programmes

Stimulate lifelong learning initiatives

Stimulate migration of data/AI experts to Belgium

Thank youFor your attention

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