Conference on the use of AI in practice was held at iQLANDIA

Artificial intelligence has rapidly evolved from a futuristic concept to a transformative technology that is reshaping various industries. Understanding its practical applications is becoming essential. That's why, under the auspices of EDIH Northeast, a conference on how to use AI in practice was held at iQLANDIA on May 23.  

"The spectrum of conference participants is really wide, not only from our region, but also from other regions of the Czech Republic. It is clear that the topic is at the top of the agenda," welcomed the participants, Councillor of the Liberec Region Jiří Ulvr. "I and my generation are a bit more cautious about artificial intelligence. It has big pluses, but also minuses. That is where our opinions differ and that is what this conference is about," he concluded.

EDIH Northeast

The lecture part was opened by Jan Kočí, a specialist in process modelling and artificial intelligence at the Technical University of Liberec (TUL). He introduced EDIH Northeast. "The project primarily presents Test before invest services. It is about helping small and medium-sized companies or public institutions. It is testing the effectiveness of the introduction of digital services. Namely, we can operate in areas such as sensor development, data processing, application development, cyber security, electronics testing and analysis, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, or image and language recognition. Within EDIH Northeast, we also work with augmented and virtual reality technologies or provide innovative technology services. All these areas can be tried and put into practice within the project," he explained, adding that companies are simply addressing the question of whether they should invest in digital technologies. "We do a pilot, a proof of concept, so the company can try it out and verify it and only on that basis make a final decision whether to implement or not. In addition, EDIH Northeast also holds educational events called the Digital Academy. In these training sessions, we will show you digital tools and help you in how to use them," concluded Jan Koci in introducing the project.

 

Use of AI

The next speaker, Jiří Vraný from the Institute of New Technologies and Applied Informatics at TUL, focused on language models. Pavel Tyl from the Institute of Mechatronics and Technical Informatics gave a lecture on 5G and its applications and modern trends and overlaps into AI. He showed the practical use of this network at TUL.

Regulation of artificial intelligence

Anna Hroudová from the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic contributed with the lecture Regulation of Artificial Intelligence: 'The European Union's goal was to establish a regulatory framework to prevent abuse and safety risks. However, it is very difficult to navigate, especially for medium and smaller companies," explained Anna Hroudová, who explained the issue during the lecture.

How to use AI in practice?

During the afternoon program, participants had the opportunity to gain knowledge from the successful use of artificial intelligence and meet with leading experts not only in the Liberec region.

The lectures were opened by IBM. The speakers were business technology leaders Alexandr Dobeš and Miloš Soukup. "We wanted to meet others and introduce them to our perspective and how IBM is deploying AI. We talked about how we should work with AI in general. The main thing is to think about why we should deploy it and why we might want to use it," said Miloš Soukup.

"It's not just about chatting with a chatbot. You need to open your eyes, to see individual cases. It's about finding the wider business and the added value behind it. And how to make money from it," added Alexandr Dobeš with a smile, concluding, "People talk about AI, but they don't think about what the benefits are. That's what we're trying to show."

The next speaker was Zdeněk Havel, who manages the AI hub within CzechInvest. He spoke about the support of AI startups. Pavlína Uchytilová spoke about the practical use of Microsoft Copilot and Petr Švarc talked about the use of AI in the automotive industry and real examples from Škoda Auto.

From idea to implementation

The next speaker was Peter Skrla, co-founder of Nullspaces. He talked about how they use artificial intelligence in their company. At Nullspaces, they are working on a technology solution in manufacturing to allow a human with no experience to collaborate with robots on the line and work alone. During the conference, there was a booth where the audience could visit to see what their solution looks like. A demonstration of the use of artificial intelligence was also given by the Textile Machinery Research Institute, which is a member of the EDIH Northeast consortium.

Lukáš Slovák, founder of SoftLi, talked about how the company helps manufacturing companies. "I was curious about the practical demonstrations at the end. I was interested to see how others would react to it." When asked if he himself uses AI, he replied that he probably uses it less than he could. "I use tools that are common. Like language models or ChatGPT. You could use it more," he said.

And how did he rate EDIH Northeast? "I can see it's here at the beginning. I know they are somewhere they are a little further along in the EDIH initiative. It's pretty early to evaluate. We ourselves at SoftLi are on both sides. First of all, the services we draw on. Secondly, we are a partner to EDIH and deliver services to its clients. It is a great achievement that the project has got here. But there is still a lot of work to be done. There is a lot of education needed. This conference has definitely helped with that," he concluded.

AI interests iQLANDIA visitors

"We are delighted to host this conference. We ourselves at the iQLANDIA Science Center are looking for ways we can be the ones to promote AI education. We see that also towards companies this is an important topic. On the other hand, we are also looking for companies that would be connectors for the science centre in terms of know-how. It is one thing to explain to our visitors the principles of AI. The second important topic is to show the real-life applications and benefits," outlined Václav Dostál, Director of iQLANDIA. The latter has had a mini-exposition of AI since the beginning of 2024. Four exhibits will show the workings of AI. "iQLANDIA brings the latest knowledge about AI to the general public. However, we are also including this topic in the programme for schools or the University of the Third Age," Václav Dostál recapped. "We can see that the topic of AI interests our visitors," he stated.

Opportunity to meet the industry

"This is an excellent opportunity to meet together with representatives of the industry. We have the opportunity to discuss topics that resonate throughout society and to look in particular at where AI can be applied in practice. It has also helped us to move forward together on professional topics and their application," said Jan kočí, who listed the importance of the conference.

Bohumil Cimbál, head of research and development at Atrea, first heard about the conference at a meeting of AMIA, the Advanced Materials Industry Association. "I wanted to see or hear the views of the experts presenting here and of course the discussion. I was also interested to see who was coming and what companies were interested in the topic. For example, I plan to approach experts from TUL."

And what did Bohumil Cimbál answer when asked whether Atrea uses artificial intelligence. "Not yet. We are thinking about it. And actually in two ways, either for the management of the company or in the management of the company in general. Or even our manufacturers," he spoke about the situation in the company. "I certainly count on us taking the opportunity to meet in the EDIH Northeast project. I'm curious to hear about some of the offerings so we can decide how that would be beneficial to us."

The event brought together industry experts, innovators and business leaders to explore how AI can support growth, efficiency and innovation in companies. There was so much interest in attending the conference that capacity was increased several times and the number of attendees approached one hundred.  Due to the positive response, another conference on this topic will be held next year. 

"The conference clearly showed that AI has much broader capabilities. Companies can use it for programming, IT activities, analysing company data and processes, improving quality and satisfaction or developing skills. AI is a huge opportunity, but companies in the Czech Republic are not yet making much use of it. It would be a shame to miss this train. We are therefore ready to discuss and explain all the benefits of AI to companies in order to allay their possible fears about AI as much as possible," summarised Milena Jabůrková, Vice President of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic.

 

Foto: Pavel Matoušek