At Jarná ITAPA 2024, the keynote speaker in the cybersecurity block will be an exclusive guest – Bruno Horta Soares from Portugal, founder of APRESSADUTOPIA. He is a top expert and respected speaker, president of ISACA Lisbon Chapter, and a sought-after IDC consultant in areas such as digital transformation, governance, strategy building, and security. To make the most of this opportunity and our collaboration, we asked Bruno for a short interview.

Are investments in artificial intelligence in Europe sufficient compared to the rest of the world? What is their impact on shaping future opportunities for organizations and individuals? Will they become a critical factor for differentiation and sometimes even survival?
Before answering, I find it necessary to clarify that when we talk about technologies, we always have to consider the issue of supply and demand. The USA is absolutely dominant in the third-generation technology platforms market, with China having a mostly regional presence and Europe being just a spectator. This assumption serves as a starting point for understanding that today’s economy is inherently dependent on digital platforms, and therefore it will always have a different pace in the USA and the rest of the world. Investments in AI in Western Europe currently represent about 20% of global investments. As for the impact of AI, we must take into account that technologies are highly democratized commodities that reduce the weight of the competitive advantage derived from proprietary technology and enhance the importance of companies and individuals focused on creating value. In the coming years, the competitive advantage will not lie in the technological adoption of AI but in the ability to use modern technologies to derive value from data.

In your presentation, you will address the use of generative AI, which can improve data analysis and facilitate decision-making. What is its role in the digital transformation of organizations and supporting a new era of innovation and operational efficiency?
GenAI currently represents about 15% of the AI market (up from 5% in 2022), but by 2027 it could cover nearly 30% of the market, so there’s no doubt that it is one of the fastest-growing technologies. One of the main explanations for this success is precisely the involvement of people in its use cases, as it is a technology ultimately aimed at creating content that enables human interaction. Many other AI technologies are embedded in the technological solutions we have been using for many years, but GenAI attracts attention because we finally see a technology we can “touch.”

Can you mention some areas where its use is beneficial?
Leading GenAI use cases in Europe are significantly transforming various industries. Among the best applications are Augmented Customer Service Agents, Augmented Fraud Analysis and Investigation, and Augmented Threat Intelligence and Prevention Systems. Many companies use GenAI to improve customer experiences by providing personalized and efficient support, reducing response times, and increasing customer satisfaction. In fraud analysis, GenAI revolutionizes the detection and prevention process by analyzing vast amounts of data to identify suspicious patterns, thus more effectively preventing fraudulent activities. Additionally, in cybersecurity, GenAI is used to predict and neutralize threats, ensuring the protection of sensitive data and the integrity of information systems. This all confirms that GenAI is shaping the future of technology in Europe and driving efficiency, security, and innovation across various sectors.

Given the increasing use of AI, it is important to consider the areas where it can gain significant influence. How can we correctly and timely estimate this, and where should we maintain a dominant position?
Organizations don’t need to predict the development of technologies; they need to transform to adapt to the changing context. In other words, rather than predicting and planning future scenarios, they must become increasingly agile to adapt to transformations. Maintaining a five-year strategy aligned with major market forecasts is important for maintaining vision, but this strategy cannot be a closed plan. It can and should be regularly reassessed. If not more often, at least every year, companies should reassess their multi-year strategies. These strategies are put into practice and frame business transformation cases. It is on the use cases that organizations should focus first; artificial intelligence and other technologies should come later to accelerate these transformations. However, this does not mean that technologies are not important, as digital platforms will form the core of the infrastructure of new business and operational models. But organizations cannot be tied down by technological constraints and must focus on transforming their business.

In one of your posts on LinkedIn, you wrote that having knowledge is not enough – the key is how we use and combine it. How can we achieve optimal use of the strengths and weaknesses of natural (human) and artificial intelligence to maximize value creation?
From the beginning, I have agreed that the fundamental question is “how will people collaborate with machines” rather than “will machines replace people.” To understand the importance of focusing on value creation, we need to understand how technologies influence development. In the first phase, it was mainly information technologies that served to help people transform data into information. In the second wave, it was so-called Business Intelligence, which helped people turn information into knowledge. The final step will be accelerated by artificial intelligence and will push us to a level where we finally abandon the question “what information do we need to make decisions” and start asking “what decisions do we need to make.” Decision support will be the main evolution in the role that technologies play. The main decisions organizations make regarding the collaboration between people and machines must primarily depend on the attributes of those decisions, which include variability, ambiguity, uncertainty, risk, frequency, collaboration, and delay.

Your commitment is to leave a positive mark on the world. What means do you choose to fulfill this? What is important to you in your professional life?
For many years, in all my social media posts, I have used the hashtag #ShareHarder. I believe it is the best way to leave the world better than we found it – learn, act, share, and repeat. I have the privilege of spending a significant part of my time learning and sharing, whether in an academic setting as a teacher or as a senior advisor supporting managers in making decisions about digital opportunities and threats in their organizations. At the end of the day, companies and their leaders must understand that while technologies drive the world forward, it is up to them to ensure the world is part of this progress.

Bruno Horta Soares will speak at the Jarná ITAPA 2024 conference in Bratislava on June 18, 2024, in the morning panel on New Tools in Cybersecurity.