Grant Thornton, firmly implementing its vision of continuous development and bringing the future one step closer to the present, organized for the second consecutive year “Future Unfold”, with the theme “What unfolds when AI meets purpose?”, giving further life to ever-evolving dialogue it has created around innovation and digital transformation.
The first panel, on “AI in Focus: Shaping Tomorrow through Innovation”, was attended by Michalis Bletsas, Director of Computing Systems at the MIT Media Lab, and Stella Angelopoulou, Partner and Head of Technology at Grant Thornton. The speakers discussed the potential of artificial intelligence and how it can act as a catalyst for innovation and organizational evolution. They also addressed the ways in which businesses can creatively leverage artificial intelligence, enhancing their global competitiveness, with an emphasis on investments and cybersecurity. Bletsas stressed the importance of developing skills that will allow us to work with artificial intelligence and not for artificial intelligence, while Angelopoulou invoked Cavafy’s “Ithaca”, noting that “artificial intelligence is a journey, not a destination, so it is important to know where we are and where we want to go.”
The second panel, entitled “Business Challenges in an Era of Global Disruptive Technological Transformation”, included a discussion on the challenges faced by modern businesses in an ever-changing technological environment. The panel was attended by Dimitris Papastergiou, Minister of Digital Governance, and Spyros Theodoropoulos, CEO of Bespoke SGA Holdings and President of SEV, who highlighted the need for flexibility and adaptability in modern businesses. According to Papastergiou, the priority for the state should be stable infrastructures with an environmental footprint, expansion of broadband connections and actions for data management, which are “the fuel for artificial intelligence”. Theodoropoulos identified as the most important problem the mentality that prevails, combined with the lack of risk-taking culture, and asked for the facilitation of businesses, with more flexible procedures for utilizing financial tools.
The event concluded with the discussion of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with the President of Grant Thornton Consulting, Nikolaos Karamouzis, and Vassilis Kazas. The particularly interesting and constructive dialogue focused, among other things, on the strategies that need to be implemented to promote digital innovation and strengthen the competitiveness of the Greek economy. Mitsotakis said, among other things, that “Artificial intelligence is a technological revolution, the effects of which we still cannot predict. It is here, though. And because it is here, we as a country must not just adapt, but look at how we can make a leap in productivity by more quickly and more effectively integrating AI into many areas of policy. I have just received and we will soon present the Commission’s conclusions. I have only read the abstract, I will read in the next few days the whole research, which very clearly sets a framework in which Greece can really stand out in the field of artificial intelligence”.
