Under the title "How generative artificial intelligence will transform industrial productivity in the next two years", Dr Marta Mas, vice-rector for Teaching Staff and Academic Organisation at UIC Barcelona and the project’s principal investigator, opened the session with an overview of its objectives and highlighted the importance of producing applied knowledge for industry.

“The aim of this initiative is not only to generate theoretical knowledge, but also insights that can be effectively transferred to industry, with best practices and recommendations for executives and developers,” she explained.

Improvements and challenges

Meanwhile, Tetiana Klymchuk, a lecturer from the Lifelong Learning Master’s Degree in AI for Business, Big Data and Analytics and co-founder of Somia Solutions, moderated a roundtable discussion featuring Anna Comas, AI and analytics consultant at Accenture, and Mireia Garcia, specialist in innovation and business transformation at Hinojosa Packaging Group.

During the debate, the speakers agreed that generative AI is already delivering significant improvements in the efficiency of many tasks, while emphasising that its potential goes beyond automation. As they noted, this technology provides an opportunity to rethink processes, optimise decision-making and transform the way organisations work.

The participants also addressed some of the main challenges associated with its adoption, such as the need for a robust database, staff training and the resistance to change that still exists in certain business environments. In this context, they stressed that, despite the developments in artificial intelligence tools, human oversight remains necessary to ensure their appropriate and effective use.

The humanisation of AI

In the conclusions of the roundtable, Tetiana Klymchuk argued that “AI is a technology that will transform many business processes, and the challenge lies in learning how to integrate it responsibly.”

The researcher emphasised that this evolution should not detract from the value of people, who will continue to play a key role in decision-making within companies.

Doing new, different and better things

The session concluded with a presentation by full professor and director of the Observatory of Artificial Intelligence and New Technologies (OIANT) Frederic Marimon, who summarised some of the webinar’s key takeaways.

Marimon explained that the adoption of AI in industry is still in its early stages and that many companies are still working on consolidating a solid database before implementing advanced artificial intelligence solutions.

He also highlighted the importance of “refining data” and noted that, although gains in individual productivity are already visible, it is still difficult to measure their impact on the overall performance of organisations. In this respect, he explained that challenges related to reliability and trust remain central. He concluded by saying that “with AI, it is not about doing the same things faster, but about doing new, different and better things: starting to do things differently.”