The implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Valencian companies with more than 10 employees stands at an average of 14.1% and is much more consistent in large companies than in smaller ones, where only 3.4 apply it. %. Laura Olcina, managing director of ITI, the Technological Institute of Informatics, explains it, which yesterday organized the event "Softing Tik
Olcina, also president of the Spanish Federation of Technology Centers (Fedit), defended that there is a good level of implementation of AI in the Valencian business fabric, especially in sectors such as tourism or health. The implementation of AI stands at an average of 11.8% in Spanish companies with more than 10 employees, three points below Valencian companies, which are only ahead of Madrid companies, with a percentage of 16%. . According to Olcina, the ICT sector is the most advanced in the use and consumption of AI.
He also explained that in the greater implementation of this and other technologies, talent and greater technological training acquired by companies and management teams, mainly, are key. Olcina defended that currently "talent recruitment is a drama", and regretted that professionals trained in the Valencian Community end up working abroad because "they are better paid, that's clear".
And it is that if before the pandemic talent fled to Madrid or Barcelona, now it is foreign companies that attract these local professionals to accept better-paid international offers, "and on top of that working remotely," he adds. “There is no difference between the local and the global, and from the Valencian Community we must try to be productive enough to attract talent”, he added.
Olcina asked about this and other challenges as moderator during the last debate of the day, to which large and medium-sized companies from the Valencian Community were invited, such as the technological Nunsys or the Higher School of Art and Technology (ESAT), a benchmark in its sector .
Its director, Jaime Torres, recognized that the greatest concern of any technology company is the retention of talent and that the problem is that the professional "is capable of vibrating with the principles of a company, that the project becomes part of his life and its objectives.
For his part, Pako Giménez, founding partner and director of the technology consultancy Encamina, said that talent "is not specific to the Valencian Community or to the sector, but rather a recurring problem because we are in a historical moment marked by rapid changes."
In his opinion, it would be important to have more large companies in the Valencian Community because "they would be capable of acting as tractors of all this technology for the others".
All companies in which AI is beginning to be a traveling companion, not without some reluctance. In fact, in the auditorium of the Polytechnic City of Innovation, full of technological professionals, there were those who confessed their fears of the implementation of AI. Up to four people -out of a capacity of approximately 200- confessed that AI is “dangerous” and that “we are better off without it”.
They thus responded to a live survey prior to the intervention by Miguel Ángel Román, co-founder of the AI Institute from Alicante, who spoke about generative AI, the creator of original and unique content. Román pointed out misinformation, biases, explainability and ethics as one of the risks of this new technology; as well as the displacement of jobs that it can generate -"I am a 'technoptimist', we have to give it a vote of confidence"-; and the “extinction of humanity”, which he related to the loss of autonomy.
Other indirect risks that Román pointed out are the loss of privacy; the polarization of society or the effects on mental health. Here she was conscientiously alarmist when pointing out that "it is a risk to be dealt with in the coming years because we will see the youngest totally hooked on technology." Finally, the most severe indirect risk is, in his opinion, the contribution and concentration of power.
Yesterday's event will have an Alicante version this Thursday with a session in the Digital District on industry 5.0 challenges, with the participation of companies such as Odyssey Robotics, Calconut, eGAM BPM or Panama Jack, among others.
