- The main protagonists of AI have met in Palmas Altas: Google, Microsoft, AWS, Telefónica SAP, Salesforce, Accenture, Minsait or OGA, which have been accompanied by companies of the stature of Endesa or Renfe or institutions such as the University of Seville or the School of Industrial Organization
- The Closing of the Conference was carried out by the Minister of the Presidency, Interior, Social Dialogue and Administrative Simplification of the Junta de Andalucía, Antonio Sanz, accompanied by the Executive President of Cox, Enrique Riquelme.
Seville, 03 October 2014.- Cox, a global leader in water and energy solutions, welcomes representatives of the main technology companies to its headquarters in Seville, Campus Palmas Altas, to focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a reality that is already part of our business environment and to contribute to improving efficiency, the productivity and competitiveness of companies. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Endesa, Telefónica and Salesforce are some of the companies that were represented at the meeting, which was closed by our Executive Chairman, Enrique Riquelme, and the Minister of the Presidency of the Regional Government of Andalusia, Antonio Sanz.
The conference consisted of three panels-colloquium and four thematic presentations. Álvaro Polo, Country Manager Spain and General Manager of the Cabinet of the Presidency of Cox, oversaw welcoming the attendees and giving way to the first speaker, Javier Martínez, Head of Customer Engineering at Google Cloud in Spain and Portugal. Martínez had a live conversation with Google about what he himself had done in the morning. To which Google, thanks to AI, was able to respond by providing data of interest. And he can do it, according to Martínez, on any subject, at any time of the day and in any language. The key, he stressed, lies in the ability to analyze the data.
(from left to right) Alberto Ariza, VP Partnerships & Strategic Alliances BigML and professor at the School of Industrial Organization (EOI), moderator of the panel, Eugenio Roldán, Director of AI Architecture at Salesforce, Natalia Clavero, Global Director of Artificial Intelligence at Minsait (Indra), and David de Frutos, Director of Innovation at Telefónica.
In Panel 1, representatives of Telefónica, Salesforce and Minsait (Indra), moderated by Alberto Ariza, VP Partnerships & Strategic Alliances BigML and professor at the School of Industrial Organization (EOI), highlighted that the integration of AI in the business environment is, above all, a challenge. David de Frutos, Director of Innovation at Telefónica, stressed that safety in AI should not be overlooked and that the process of applying AI in every company must start from a use case, that is, from a real need. Eugenio Roldán, Director of AI Architecture at Salesforce, stressed training and outreach, which is essential to identify where the need for the use case lies, set objectives and measure customer satisfaction and employee experience. For her part, Natalia Clavero, Global Director of Artificial Intelligence at Minsait (Indra), identified the greatest challenge of AI: the people who, in turn, she defined as the true architects of the AI process. Its application in processes makes it possible to move from reskilling to upskilling, thus empowering the employee, who will go from performing more mechanical tasks to supervising AI processes.
Jorge Pérez, SAP’s Regional Business Technology Platform Director for Southern Europe, introduced us to “Joule”, a virtual co-pilot created by SAP through AI, which understands the current reality of the business and which, like the rest of the AI tools, well applied, incurs in increasing productivity, always under supervision, security and management.
Panel 2, on transformation and optimization of business processes, had Antonio de la Prieta, general director of the Advanced Technology Center of Accenture in Spain and Portugal, Juan Carlos Rubio, CEO of OGA, and Joaquín Peña, director of the Master of Computer Engineering at the University of Seville, as moderator. De la Prieta wanted to emphasize that AI must be co-piloted because it results from an interaction between human beings and machines. Rubio stressed that, in companies, AI must begin to be applied at the basics, to progressively gain confidence and thus generate value at all levels. Very correctly, Peña came to define AI as a tsunami that must be looked at head-on and that we cannot wait for it to fall on us.
Intelligent transformation: how Generative AI redefines business success, was the central theme of the presentation by Santiago Oller, Microsoft Business Director. In Oller’s words, it is not just about increasing the productivity of companies, but about a paradigm shift.
(from left to right) Rafael Sánchez, general manager of Endesa in Andalusia and Extremadura, and of Renfe, through Sonia Araujo, general director of Innovation, Sustainability and Digital Transformation.
Panel 3 included practical cases in applied AI companies, such as Endesa, by Rafael Sánchez, general manager of Endesa in Andalusia and Extremadura, and Renfe, through Sonia Araujo, general director of Innovation, Sustainability and Digital Transformation. Both entities are already working hand in hand with AI on applications that allow them to predict the demand for train tickets, for example, in the case of Renfe, or protect natural environments such as the Doñana Natural Park, by analysing particles in the air to detect fires, as Rafael Sánchez explained.
The last presentation was about Generative AI: the art of the possible. Diego Rodríguez, Sales Director for Spain and Portugal at Amazon Web Services, stressed that when we are able to put all our data at the service of AI, then we will be ready to use it.
Antonio Sanz, Minister of the Presidency, Interior, Social Dialogue and Administrative Simplification of the Junta de Andalucía, at the lectern, and Enrique Riquelme, Executive Chairman of Cox
The Conference was closed by Enrique Riquelme, Executive Chairman of Cox: “AI will represent a paradigm shift, it will be a new revolution in the way of doing and understanding in the business world”. After recalling his commitment, when he assumed the presidency of the group, to promote and take advantage of new technologies and in particular advances in Artificial Intelligence, Riquelme said: “At Cox we walk the path ahead of us with humility and with the commitment to listen, learn and improve every day. Believe me, humility will help us more than self-confidence. We are going to take advantage of AI with the help of experts and I am sure that this will make us more efficient, productive and competitive.”
He was followed by Antonio Sanz, Minister of the Presidency, Interior, Social Dialogue and Administrative Simplification of the Junta de Andalucía, who, after thanking for the invitation to this top-level meeting, insisted on making Andalusia a reference in Europe in the implementation of AI. “We have an unrivalled ecosystem for AI management in Andalusia. Thanks to the application of AI we will be able to make administrations more agile and put them even more at the service of the citizen”. The Minister also mentioned the initiatives that the government of Andalusia already has underway, such as the Digital Agency of Andalusia, the center for cybersecurity and the law of digital Andalusia, ALADI, which will make us a pioneering community in the regularization of digital security.
Success of the second conference on Cox Sustainable Technologies focused on AI applied to business processes, which, with a large audience, both in person and in streaming, has brought together the main protagonists of AI both in product and implementation, leading companies that have shared their vision and academic institutions and Administration in a morning of incredible transformation.
