Conversations about various faces of artificial intelligence

Made in Wroclaw is a unique event that has been organized for five years by the City of Wrocław and the Wrocław Agglomeration Development Agency. This year it was held under the slogan Driven by intelligence, in a hybrid formula - offline in the Wrocław Congress Center and online.

Driven by intelligence!

The Made in Wroclaw conference has become a permanent fixture in the calendar of Wrocław events and is a place to discuss the future of business, science and innovation.

- Every year, in these autumn days, I look forward to this event. Here we talk about what is most important for the city and the patterns we create together are later implemented in other cities and countries as well, which makes us very happy. Wrocław focuses on development, and artificial intelligence as a phenomenon, already affects us in many aspects of our life, influencing its quality - said Jakub Mazur, Vice Mayor of Wrocław, during the opening of the conference.

Made in Wroclaw is also an event that shows that despite the obstacles and challenges, such as those related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, Wrocław's business is not slowing down and is developing dynamically. The previous edition of the event focused on this strongly. This year was no different. Made in Wroclaw 2021 was devoted to the artificial intelligence that is increasingly present in our lives.

- Implementing innovations or making technological breakthroughs in companies takes not several years, but several months. We owe it to our openness to new technologies. A large part of them is related to artificial intelligence, which is more and more boldly entering every area of the economy and offers many opportunities for development. This is why we met at Made in Wroclaw 2021 under the slogan "Driven by intelligence". The report "AI Sector in the Wrocław agglomeration in 2021", published by us a few weeks ago, showed that it is AI that determines the opportunities and challenges for business in the coming years, that it is one of the key areas for the development of companies from Wrocław and the region - said Magdalena Okulowska, President of the Wrocław Agglomeration Development Agency.

It is also worth emphasizing that Made in Wroclaw is of great importance for the development of Wrocław's business ecosystem.

- Made in Wroclaw is an extremely important event that fits in 100% into the Entrepreneurship Development Strategy of the City of Wrocław, developed by the Entrepreneurship Council operating under the Mayor of Wrocław. As part of this strategy, we want to build a friendly environment for entrepreneurs in Wrocław. The element of cooperation and knowledge sharing is important here. It is such events as Made in Wroclaw, where, apart from these great companies and great ideas, we have various types of business support institutions, which allow us to talk to each other and transfer knowledge in various directions - entrepreneurs with entrepreneurs, but also entrepreneurs with the public sphere and science that is supposed to support them in creating these modern tools. I believe that Made in Wroclaw is the essence of our Strategy, explains Marcin Urban, Treasurer of the Wrocław City Hall, Chairman of the Entrepreneurship Council operating under the Mayor of Wrocław.

Four Panels, Four Faces of AI

The Made in Wroclaw conference, chaired by Jarosław Kuźniar, consisted of four discussion panels devoted to the role of a leader and management in the era of artificial intelligence, the e-commerce industry being the power of modern purchasing, the development of the MedTech sector driven by AI and Smart City, i.e. artificial intelligence in the city .

The first panel, moderated by Jarosław Kuźniar, was attended by experts from the University of Economics in Wrocław, 3M Superhub in Wrocław, Collins Aerospace Wrocław, Randstad, ASTEK Polska Sp. z o.o and MST Automation Sp. z o.o.

Their discussion focused on the challenges facing leaders and their teams in the era of artificial intelligence, which is no longer the future, but the present. Experts discussed, inter alia, the question of how to show employees that applying AI technologies can be good for them.

- A very important role of the leader, but also of the entire organization, is to convince employees that automation can help them. Using it in processes that are difficult, harmful to health, or tedious, may facilitate the work of people, not replace them - said Małgorzata Strzelbicka, President of the Management Board, MST Automation Sp. z o.o. - AI is a panacea for staff shortages, and also makes everyday work, activities and professional duties more attractive - the expert added.

Another discussion panel entitled "E-commerce - another dimension of shopping" was devoted to the conversation about the impact of AI technology on one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy, i.e. e-commerce. It was moderated by Dominik Łoś from CBRE, and it was attended by representatives of: Amazon, Pneumat System Sp. z o.o., IT Corner Cluster and Unity Group as well as eobuwie.pl and MODIVO. During the panel, we had the opportunity to learn about examples of solutions related to the use of AI in warehouse and logistics processes, or customer service in the e-commerce industry. It was also emphasized that the introduction of automation did not exclude the human factor from work, which is still extremely important, although the competences required of employees are changing.

- Automation does not eliminate people from warehouse processes. They are still needed, but the specificity of their work begins to change - it requires acquiring new qualifications. It's not everything. Along with the introduction of intelligent solutions to our industry, there are also new jobs related to robotic maintenance, problem solving or flow management. New technologies and artificial intelligence affect how our warehouses will function in the future and although they change the role that employees play in them, they will undoubtedly continue to be their main link - explained Sławomir Płonka, General Manager from Amazon.

We have also learned examples that online shopping is the domain not only of the B2C sector, and e-commerce is also increasingly successful in B2B relations, e.g. in the sale of pneumatic cylinders, which is carried out by Pneumat Systems, defined during the panel as a "pharmacy for industry" , shipping 400-500 packages a day.

The third discussion panel touched upon the topic of solutions for smart cities. The representatives of EIT Urban Mobility Innovation Hub East, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Spyrosoft and Share.P Smart Mobility Solution discussed the idea of smart city and how artificial intelligence is connected with it. The moderator was Tomasz Sikora, head of the Communication Department of the University of Wrocław, journalist of MDR Radio Sachsen.

Experts wondered not only why cities should be smart, but also introduced examples of implementing the smart city idea, e.g. in managing public transport. It was also emphasized that the implementation of artificial intelligence in the city requires openness to innovations related to the use of data, but also cooperation with the scientific and business community.

The last discussion panel was devoted to the AI-driven MedTech industry. The interview with experts from NeuroSYS, ancerCenter.ai and Stermedia.ai, Wroclaw Medical University, Infermedica and S3 Connected Health was led by Przemysław Ozga, editor-in-chief of Production Manager.

It is worth recalling here that according to the latest report prepared by the Wrocław Agglomeration Development Agency entitled "The AI sector in the Wrocław agglomeration 2021", it is this area that is one of the most important applications of AI technologies developed in Wrocław - as many as 39% of the surveyed companies indicated that it is in the area of MedTech that they offer their clients solutions related to artificial intelligence. During the panel, experts talked about the use of artificial intelligence in the MedTech industry, which is associated with many opportunities, but also challenges.

- Personalized medicine is the holy grail of the healthcare system. For it to be implemented by the MedTech sector, it is necessary to use artificial intelligence, machine learning and new technologies in general. Importantly, only such solutions are able to deliver personalized medicine on a global level - said Szymon Zyśko, VP R&D from S3 Connected Health during the panel.

Each of the panels was devoted to a different area of using artificial intelligence, but they were linked by the fact that its development in Wrocław is related to cooperation with the local IT sector.

- The IT industry is already talking with the authorities of Wrocław about creating a city strategy in the field of AI. We need a vision ahead, and the future is MedTech, Smart City and e-commerce. We already have technology companies that successfully operate in these areas and these can be strategic areas for the future of Wrocław - summarized Grzegorz Rudno-Rudzinski, ITCorner, Unity Group.

Studio Made in Wroclaw

A novelty in this year's edition was Studio Made in Wroclaw. It was an opportunity to find out what was going on, among others in Wrocław startups and check what international companies operating in Wrocław are working on developing various innovations! We were able to meet 15 innovative companies and institutions that are developing their activities in Wrocław. Among them were Coventry University and the University of Wrocław, who talked about their educational offer, as well as JP Weber, CUX, PayEye, Luxon Led, Trassee, Giant Lazer, SatRevolution, Collins Aerospace, MPWiK in Wrocław, Scanway, Laparo and the Wrocław Academic Center.

As always, Made in Wroclaw was also an opportunity for networking, establishing new business contacts and integrating the Wrocław startup ecosystem, which had the opportunity to meet during the conference accompanying the event, organized in cooperation with IT Corner.

Made in Wroclaw 2021 was organized by the Wrocław Agglomeration Development Agency and the City of Wrocław. The honorary patronage over the conference was taken by: Coventry University, the National Center for Research and Development, Wrocław University of Technology, WSB University, University of Wrocław, Wrocław University of Economics, Wałbrzych Special Economic Zone, Wrocław University of Applied Informatics Horyzont, AHK Polish-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce , American Chamber of Commerce in Poland and British Polish Chamber of Commerce. The event is organized in cooperation with ITCorner, SoDA and ABSL and cooperation with Wolves Summit, an event for the global technology community, which took place in Wrocław on October 19-21, 2021.