Source:
- Sheerluxe, Published on January 29th, 2025.
What’s the most important thing business leaders or entrepreneurs need to be aware of?
“Leaders need to accept and understand what AI technology can do. I have lived through the internet boom and the initial AI comeback a decade ago in the form of machine learning. Both of these were waves of change in the IT industry that affected every aspect of our society and our lives. But I’ve never seen such a high speed of adoption as with generative AI. Even though the technology is young and not perfect, it is obvious that it fills a real need for most of us, individuals as well as businesses. Therefore, leaders must educate themselves in AI to learn the truth about its capabilities and risks. Use AI to solve a problem; do not invent a clever solution to a problem no one has. Be aware of the new risks that generative AI introduces, like hallucinations and toxicity, and allow use of AI accordingly for your own customers.” – Zorina Alliata, professor of responsible artificial intelligence, digital business & innovation at OPIT
Which industries do you predict will be most disrupted by AI in the next couple of years?
“The financial industry is always one of the first to adopt new technologies. Financial companies are already using generative AI for document processing, risk assessment, fraud prevention and algorithmic trading. Because of increased computing power, we also see AI growth in healthcare and life sciences for drug discovery and enhanced diagnostic procedures. Retail, education, logistics are also adopting AI at a high pace. Which industries will remain unaffected? None, really. Even in high-touch human professions like nursing, therapy, parenting, AI is a tool that can help. While not replacing the job entirely, the industry will change because the AI tools are changing the way the job is done.” – Zorina
Are there any new business models emerging due to AI advancements?
“I think we will see more AI-as-a-service (AIaaS) offerings, where AI tools are built on top of large language models and offer specific capabilities. This is an area where there is a lot of innovation, and I’m excited to see this develop further. I already use AIaaS on a daily basis for better writing, research, creating videos and presentations, and code debugging.” – Zorina
What are the biggest challenges for small businesses and start-ups in adopting AI technologies?
“A big risk is too much enthusiasm and optimism. Generative AI has been adopted at a great speed. When you first try it, it is amazing. It can write a whole paper in seconds. It can explain complex diagrams and concepts. It feels like the trusted assistant you always needed, but it’s important to remember that AI comes with risks. It’s one thing to write an AI service that recommends what movie you should watch next, and another thing to write an AI service that reads your X-ray and diagnoses if you have a tumour. These two applications of AI have very different risk thresholds. You need to plan your AI service or product to be appropriate for use and to minimise the risk for your customer. I’ve also seen start-ups that tried out an idea and are now planning to build a product out of it, without any understanding of what it takes to run AI services at scale. Having best practices implemented, a good operational foundation, governance and a clear operational model are all requisites for running any production systems, especially something as risky and fraught with unknowns as AI products are.” – Zorina
Which ethical considerations should entrepreneurs keep in mind when integrating AI into their businesses?
“Some considerations when creating your risk strategy for AI include data privacy and security (ensuring responsible collection and use of customer data); transparency (being clear about how AI is used in products or services); fairness and bias (addressing potential biases in AI algorithms); job displacement (considering the impact on employees and planning for transitions); accountability (establishing clear responsibility for AI-driven decisions); and environmental impact (considering the energy consumption of AI systems).” – Zorina
How is AI changing customer expectations?
“Customer expectations have gone up significantly since generative AI enabled better interactions. Customers expect omni-channel communications, immediate responses, and predictive service. For those companies that still have fragmented data in several platforms and lack a cohesive customer journey, the learning curve will be steeper. The good news is, there are a lot of innovations in this area.” – Zorina
What skills do you think entrepreneurs will need to succeed in an AI-dominated business world?
“Some skills that would be useful include:
- AI literacy: understanding the basics of AI, machine learning and data science.
- Data analysis & interpretation: ability to work with and derive insights from large datasets.
- Strategic thinking: identifying where AI can add value to business processes and products.
- Ethical decision-making: navigating the ethical implications of AI implementation.
- Adaptability & continuous learning: keeping up with rapidly evolving AI technologies.
- Human-AI collaboration: effectively working alongside AI systems.
- Soft skills: creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence and leadership will become even more valuable as AI handles more routine tasks.
As a leader, you are not required to write code or figure out the best way to deploy your model, but a high-level understanding of what AI can do will help you have meaningful conversations with your technical team and create AI products that are truly useful.” – Zorina
Finally, how will AI impact the workforce this year?
“There are several studies on this, such as the one the World Economic Forum (WEF) released this month about the status of work and the future of jobs. Some of the highlights are that AI and other technologies will continue to broaden digital access, with a first effect on increased demand for AI and data skills. The number of technology-related roles is the fastest growing, but frontline roles like farmworkers, delivery drivers and construction workers are predicted to see the largest growth. AI has evolved quickly to create images and videos, threatening the jobs of designers and movie producers. It was not what we would have predicted a few years ago. AI has a way of growing in unexpected ways, as we discover new paths of research and innovate ways to use it. I personally think it is hard to predict exactly where AI will go, and what will be the result of automating all routine tasks and behaving closer to humans. One thing we can be sure of is that people who understand AI and know how to use it will benefit from whatever new challenges are coming our way.” – Zorina
Read the full article below:
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From the same author
Read the articleSource:
- La Stampa, published on March 11th, 2025
By Francesco Profumo
Education must therefore change its paradigm: from a system based on the accumulation of knowledge to a process that teaches how to think.
We live in an era in which access to information has become immediate and unlimited. All it takes is an internet search or a question to a virtual assistant to get answers on any topic. Yet, precisely in a world so saturated with data, a crucial challenge for education emerges: it is no longer enough to teach what to know, but it becomes essential to educate in critical thinking, in the ability to discern, connect and, above all, ask the right questions. After Trump’s election as President of the United States, this need to be able to discern between true and false has become even more important and starting to educate the new generations and re-educate the more mature ones along these lines can no longer be postponed over time.
Until a few decades ago, the value of education was linked to the acquisition of knowledge. Studying meant accumulating notions, mastering facts and concepts and then applying them. Today, however, the context has completely changed. Information is available everywhere, often in real time. The problem is no longer finding it, but understanding which is reliable, which has value and which is, instead, the result of distortions or manipulations. This transformation leads us to radically rethink the educational model: school can no longer be a simple place for transmitting knowledge, but must become an environment in which one learns to reason.
To achieve this, we can look at an ancient and ever-present approach: the Socratic method. Socrates did not give answers, but guided his interlocutors in the search for truth through continuous dialogue. With pressing questions, he pushed them to reflect on their beliefs, to question apparent certainties and to build a more solid and profound understanding of reality. This method, based on maieutics, did not simply transmit notions, but developed a mental attitude: the ability to question, to doubt, to explore with a critical spirit. Today, more than ever, we need to recover this attitude. In a world where technology presents us with a continuous flow of information and artificial intelligence promises to answer all our doubts, what really matters is how we formulate our questions. Knowing how to question reality becomes more important than the simple act of receiving an answer. The advent of artificial intelligence is accelerating the need for an education based on reflection and not on the mere acquisition of data. AI systems can generate texts, solve problems, propose analyses. But those who learn to use them without developing critical thinking risk becoming passive users, unable to distinguish between what is true and what is manipulated, between what is useful and what is irrelevant.
For this reason, the school of the future should transform itself into a laboratory of thought, where students are no longer evaluated only on the basis of the answers they provide, but on the quality of the questions they are able to ask. An education based on the Socratic method could be expressed through lessons focused on comparison, on the critical analysis of sources, on discussions that push students to defend or question different positions. Let’s imagine a classroom in which students do not limit themselves to studying notions, but are guided to explore a topic through open and challenging questions. Instead of explaining a phenomenon, the teacher could start a discussion, encouraging students to think about its causes, its implications, and its connections with other disciplines. Artificial intelligence could also become an active learning tool: not as a simple provider of answers, but as an interlocutor to interact with, to whom to submit increasingly sophisticated questions, experimenting with how the quality of interaction depends on the ability to formulate complex and well-structured questions.
Education must therefore change its paradigm: from a system based on the accumulation of knowledge to a process that teaches how to think. We must train students who are capable of navigating knowledge, not just storing it. In a future where work itself will be increasingly based on the ability to innovate, connect ideas and solve complex problems, these skills will be essential. The great educational challenge of the coming years will no longer be to teach notions, but to cultivate the ability to question the world. The question we must ask ourselves today is not only what we must teach our children, but how we can educate them to think critically and creatively. If we want the new generations to be truly ready to face the era of artificial intelligence, we must offer them something that no machine will ever be able to replace: the ability to ask questions that matter.
Read the articleSource:
- Avvenire, published on March 20th, 2025
Diploma to the first 40 students of OPIT, Open Institute of Technology. Rector Profumo: “It is the first chapter of a path of continuous growth with new courses”
First graduates from OPIT (Open Institute of Technology), an exclusively online academic institution accredited at European level based in the Maltese capital Valletta. At the end of a study program that began in September 2023, 40 students from 6 continents have obtained a master’s degree in Applied Data Science & AI. The topics chosen for the theses are innovative: use of large language models for the creation of chatbots in the ed-tech field, digitalization of customer support processes in the paper and non-woven fabric industry, up to personal data protection systems and the use of Artificial Intelligence for environmental sustainability, predictive models for the prevention of disasters linked to climate change, fight against money laundering, new perspectives of generative AI in the legal field (with a focus on Italian startups such as Giurimatrix). The theses were also developed in collaboration with partner companies such as Neperia, Sintica, Cosmico, Dylog, Buffetti Finance and Hype.
“With these 40 graduates we celebrate the first chapter of a path that will continue to grow with a consolidation of the current educational offering, new courses, doctoral programs, applied research and increasingly advanced training opportunities”, underlines the rector of OPIT, Francesco Profumo.
OPIT currently offers six degree courses (a three-year degree in Modern Computer Science, a master’s degree in Applied Data Science & AI, a three-year degree in Digital Business and the master’s degrees in Enterprise Cybersecurity, Digital Business and Innovation and Responsible Artificial Intelligence), with a total catchment area of over 300 students from 78 countries and 6 continents, with an average age of 35. 80% of the enrolled population is represented by working students, destined to double based on projections on the number of students enrolled in degrees starting in 2025. This year, moreover, the research area will also develop, paving the way, in the coming years, for doctoral programs and aligning itself even more with what universities around the world already do.
“The success of this first class of graduates represents a significant milestone for OPIT and confirms our mission: to offer a high-level technological education, accessible globally and able to concretely respond to the needs of a constantly evolving job market”, recalls Riccardo Ocleppo, founder of OPIT.
-
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Related posts
Source:
- La Stampa, published on March 11th, 2025
By Francesco Profumo
Education must therefore change its paradigm: from a system based on the accumulation of knowledge to a process that teaches how to think.
We live in an era in which access to information has become immediate and unlimited. All it takes is an internet search or a question to a virtual assistant to get answers on any topic. Yet, precisely in a world so saturated with data, a crucial challenge for education emerges: it is no longer enough to teach what to know, but it becomes essential to educate in critical thinking, in the ability to discern, connect and, above all, ask the right questions. After Trump’s election as President of the United States, this need to be able to discern between true and false has become even more important and starting to educate the new generations and re-educate the more mature ones along these lines can no longer be postponed over time.
Until a few decades ago, the value of education was linked to the acquisition of knowledge. Studying meant accumulating notions, mastering facts and concepts and then applying them. Today, however, the context has completely changed. Information is available everywhere, often in real time. The problem is no longer finding it, but understanding which is reliable, which has value and which is, instead, the result of distortions or manipulations. This transformation leads us to radically rethink the educational model: school can no longer be a simple place for transmitting knowledge, but must become an environment in which one learns to reason.
To achieve this, we can look at an ancient and ever-present approach: the Socratic method. Socrates did not give answers, but guided his interlocutors in the search for truth through continuous dialogue. With pressing questions, he pushed them to reflect on their beliefs, to question apparent certainties and to build a more solid and profound understanding of reality. This method, based on maieutics, did not simply transmit notions, but developed a mental attitude: the ability to question, to doubt, to explore with a critical spirit. Today, more than ever, we need to recover this attitude. In a world where technology presents us with a continuous flow of information and artificial intelligence promises to answer all our doubts, what really matters is how we formulate our questions. Knowing how to question reality becomes more important than the simple act of receiving an answer. The advent of artificial intelligence is accelerating the need for an education based on reflection and not on the mere acquisition of data. AI systems can generate texts, solve problems, propose analyses. But those who learn to use them without developing critical thinking risk becoming passive users, unable to distinguish between what is true and what is manipulated, between what is useful and what is irrelevant.
For this reason, the school of the future should transform itself into a laboratory of thought, where students are no longer evaluated only on the basis of the answers they provide, but on the quality of the questions they are able to ask. An education based on the Socratic method could be expressed through lessons focused on comparison, on the critical analysis of sources, on discussions that push students to defend or question different positions. Let’s imagine a classroom in which students do not limit themselves to studying notions, but are guided to explore a topic through open and challenging questions. Instead of explaining a phenomenon, the teacher could start a discussion, encouraging students to think about its causes, its implications, and its connections with other disciplines. Artificial intelligence could also become an active learning tool: not as a simple provider of answers, but as an interlocutor to interact with, to whom to submit increasingly sophisticated questions, experimenting with how the quality of interaction depends on the ability to formulate complex and well-structured questions.
Education must therefore change its paradigm: from a system based on the accumulation of knowledge to a process that teaches how to think. We must train students who are capable of navigating knowledge, not just storing it. In a future where work itself will be increasingly based on the ability to innovate, connect ideas and solve complex problems, these skills will be essential. The great educational challenge of the coming years will no longer be to teach notions, but to cultivate the ability to question the world. The question we must ask ourselves today is not only what we must teach our children, but how we can educate them to think critically and creatively. If we want the new generations to be truly ready to face the era of artificial intelligence, we must offer them something that no machine will ever be able to replace: the ability to ask questions that matter.
Source:
- Avvenire, published on March 20th, 2025
Diploma to the first 40 students of OPIT, Open Institute of Technology. Rector Profumo: “It is the first chapter of a path of continuous growth with new courses”
First graduates from OPIT (Open Institute of Technology), an exclusively online academic institution accredited at European level based in the Maltese capital Valletta. At the end of a study program that began in September 2023, 40 students from 6 continents have obtained a master’s degree in Applied Data Science & AI. The topics chosen for the theses are innovative: use of large language models for the creation of chatbots in the ed-tech field, digitalization of customer support processes in the paper and non-woven fabric industry, up to personal data protection systems and the use of Artificial Intelligence for environmental sustainability, predictive models for the prevention of disasters linked to climate change, fight against money laundering, new perspectives of generative AI in the legal field (with a focus on Italian startups such as Giurimatrix). The theses were also developed in collaboration with partner companies such as Neperia, Sintica, Cosmico, Dylog, Buffetti Finance and Hype.
“With these 40 graduates we celebrate the first chapter of a path that will continue to grow with a consolidation of the current educational offering, new courses, doctoral programs, applied research and increasingly advanced training opportunities”, underlines the rector of OPIT, Francesco Profumo.
OPIT currently offers six degree courses (a three-year degree in Modern Computer Science, a master’s degree in Applied Data Science & AI, a three-year degree in Digital Business and the master’s degrees in Enterprise Cybersecurity, Digital Business and Innovation and Responsible Artificial Intelligence), with a total catchment area of over 300 students from 78 countries and 6 continents, with an average age of 35. 80% of the enrolled population is represented by working students, destined to double based on projections on the number of students enrolled in degrees starting in 2025. This year, moreover, the research area will also develop, paving the way, in the coming years, for doctoral programs and aligning itself even more with what universities around the world already do.
“The success of this first class of graduates represents a significant milestone for OPIT and confirms our mission: to offer a high-level technological education, accessible globally and able to concretely respond to the needs of a constantly evolving job market”, recalls Riccardo Ocleppo, founder of OPIT.
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