Under the theme “Artificial Intelligence with Purpose”, the symposium, organised by the Chair in Management by Missions and Corporate Purpose at UIC Barcelona, addressed how this technology is transforming not only business productivity and efficiency but also identity, authenticity and the meaning of work within organisations.

Speakers included Pep Martorell, former director of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and current partner at InvivoAI; Inés Alegre, a lecturer at the IESE Business School and vice-president of Product at Shalion; and Andrés Sendagorta, president of the Sener Group. The conference was coordinated by Carlos Rey, lecturer in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences and co-director of the Chair.

In their presentations, the experts concurred that, while artificial intelligence holds tremendous potential, it requires careful evaluation and responsible leadership. In this regard, they stressed the importance of combining the analytical capacity of AI with human intuition, experience and ethics, the latter of which “cannot be automated”, they noted.

The debate also drew attention to how AI is reshaping the structure of work and the need to guide its use towards enhancing both quality of life and the meaningfulness of work within companies. In a prior interview published ahead of the Symposium, Carlos Rey pointed out that artificial intelligence only delivers real value when integrated into a purposeful business project. “AI with purpose engages all three dimensions of a person: what we think, what we feel and what we do,” he explained, underscoring the importance of using this technology from a human-centred and, first and foremost, ethical perspective.