Substantive discussions during expert panel sessions. Valuable speed meetings on business issues. Presentations of innovative solutions at manufacturers’ booths and numerous attractions.
Everything in an atmosphere conducive to building relationships, in the unique spaces of the Żnin Sugar Refinery. This is how the 19th edition of the Integration Academy – one of the most important events on the Polish IT market – can be summarized in a few words. It was organized by the Polish company AB S.A. – a leader in IT distribution in Central Europe. The topic of this year’s event was “Artificial intelligence, a new reality for businesses.”

AB Group once again invited key resellers, integrators, IT industry leaders, and manufacturers of Enterprise solutions to a joint discussion. The topics on which the discussions focused were: “the future of the industry,” “artificial intelligence,” and “modern IT solutions.” Importantly, the 19th edition of the event turned out to be record-breaking in many respects.

“The 19th edition of the Integration Academy saw a record number of nearly 300 participants: manufacturers, resellers, and integrators. The event is a great opportunity to share experiences and information on the direction in which the market will be heading in the near future,” explained Patrycja Gawarecka, the Director of Sales and Marketing of AB S.A. “In addition, the Integration Academy featured more than 100 fact-to-face business meetings and two panel discussions. We also had the opportunity to see more than 20 very interesting booths of IT manufacturers. All in all, this year’s AB Integration Academy was record-breaking in many respects,” added Patrycja Gawarecka.

The Integration Academy is a regular event that effectively addresses the needs of the IT industry.

The numerous participants stressed that they valued the AB Integration Academy for the opportunity to meet in one place with representatives of so many companies from different sectors of the market. These are face-to-face meetings in a casual atmosphere, with an almost unlimited time and the feeling of being part of a community centered around the Academy. As they participants said, this inspires them, helps build relationships, and allows for the exchange of experiences.

“Being able to meet in person is a huge value for us, for business development, and for relationships. This is invaluable in an era of constant online meetings,” explained Andrzej Gnyp, the Business Development Manager at Fujitsu. “However, the AB Integration Academy isn’t just about meetings. The agenda includes many items that require participants to act. What I mean is panel discussions, which are a very interesting form for conversation and mutual inspiration. We also have time – a whole day and more – to talk about everything, which fosters creativity, relationships, and business building.

The academy also allows to learn more about the partners’ point of view on various aspects of business and various topics.

“During the AB Integration Academy, which has become a permanent item in the calendar of events of the Polish IT industry, one can get a better idea of the outlook of IT manufacturers and companies on what the future may look like. This is a place to talk about business, technologies, and the projects we have to implement together and thus build a better digital future in Poland,” explained Kamil Jóźwiak, the Product and Solutions Specialist at Dell Technologies. “Being here opens up a lot of new opportunities. What I really like about events like this is one-on-one meetings, and I am very pleased that this proven formula includes plenty of time for networking and meetings like this.”

Artificial Intelligence takes many forms

As this year’s AB Integration Academy was held under the slogan “Artificial intelligence, a new reality for businesses,” the topic of AI dominated all discussions. This was felt at the vendors’ booths with IT solutions, during the expert panel discussions, and in the numerous conversations held during coffee breaks.

“It should be emphasized that artificial intelligence in business is nothing new. In innovative technological solutions, as well as in the banking industry, for example, it has been present for years. We are talking about a new reality due to the fact that artificial intelligence has moved into the so-called mainstream and is becoming more widely available to end customers. This will certainly benefit the entire industry, both technology and solution providers and the companies themselves, which can gain an advantage with AI,” said Michał Stochmal, the Commercial Business Development Executive at AMD.

In addition to the typically futuristic visions, the experts spoke very specifically about how artificial intelligence can be used in business today.

“Today, we have reached a point where, in fact, we unknowingly use artificial intelligence in many cases on personal devices such as phones. From a camera, to editing photos, to speaking into the phone. This all works thanks to algorithms based on artificial intelligence, made possible by the processors and memory chips we make,” added Maciej Kamiński, the Director of Memory Business (Poland & CEE) at Samsung.

A similar opinion was expressed by Andrzej Gnyp, the Business Development Manager of Fujitsu: “We support the work of doctors in X-ray imaging. The software verifies each photo, and the goal is for us to live longer. In addition, we monitor technical infrastructure on trains, on drones, and we do much more. We provide camera support solutions that are able to notice when theft or some other abuse or misconduct occurs. And we’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember.”

A huge dose of inspiring knowledge

During the panel discussions, the experts agreed that we should not fear AI, but instead should look for its good points and opportunities for its use. After all, it offers great opportunities for smaller and medium-sized companies as well. It is true that artificial intelligence will replace humans. However, it should perform simple, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks for us. By the way, new jobs will also be created for handling artificial intelligence and in the numerous fields around it, the experts admitted.

The booths of exhibitors, i.e. leading manufacturers of IT solutions, were equally interesting. There was a lot going on at the booth of AB Innovation Designer (AID), a project owned by AB S.A.

AID’s specialists, together with partners byteLAKE, EnterPrise, Scanway, and Queris, presented a demo of various solutions that, with the support of artificial intelligence, perform tasks that include the detection of manufacturing defects during production, the preparation of paint mixing simulations, aerial monitoring, and analysis of various areas: correctness of prints and barcodes, and analysis for the support of production facility maintenance. It was a unique opportunity to find out personally how artificial intelligence can be used in businesses in practice.

The event also featured a special guest speaker, Tomek Graszewicz, a trainer and the founder of the AI Wizards community focused on creative AI tools. He delivered a power speech entitled “AI in practice – 10 possibilities for creative application of artificial intelligence,” which was followed by a seemingly endless discussion.

The participants were also able to instantly make graphic art using the Midjourney image generator, all based on their own prompts and keywords.

In summary: The AB Integration Academy provides a unique opportunity to exchange views, present innovative solutions, and build relationships with other market participants: resellers, integrators, IT industry leaders, and solution manufacturers. At the same time, AB once again organized an exceptional event that meets the needs of all its participants. As usual, it was held in an exceptional setting: the wonderful atmosphere and nice interiors of the Żnin Sugar Refinery.

Other details can be found on the event’s website: https://ai.ab.pl/.

We would like to thank the Sponsors of the event for their participation:
Platinum: Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Aruba, and Samsung
Gold: AMD, Fujitsu, HP, IEIT Systems, and Lenovo,
Silver: AID – AB Innovation Designer, APC by Schneider Electric, Centrum Kompetencyjne AB S.A., DICOTA, Eaton, Intel, Lanberg, Legrand, Solution Provider, Microsoft, Targus, and Zyxel.