Do you want to make well-informed decisions about AI in your business, but feel you lack the foundation to do so with confidence? This two-day, hands-on workshop gives you a genuine understanding of how AI systems actually work under the hood, an essential knowledge for any business leader, manager, or professional who wants to evaluate, adopt, or oversee AI in a meaningful way.

You will go well beyond the generative AI buzz to explore a broad range of AI techniques, learn where data quality can make or break a project, and practice translating real business problems into concrete computational challenges. No superficial overview, but genuine depth, precisely what you need to engage with AI strategically and spot the pitfalls before they become costly mistakes.

What you will learn

The workshop is structured around three core themes.

Understanding AI. You will get a clear picture of the AI landscape, going well beyond generative AI to cover a wide range of techniques and how they work. You will learn to distinguish between different methodologies, understand their limitations and strengths, and set realistic expectations for what AI can and cannot do.

Evaluating opportunities in your organization. You will practice translating business problems into computational tasks and evaluate the data required to solve them, assess where AI can genuinely add value (and where it cannot), and map out the full lifecycle of an AI-project, from initial ideation through to deployment and maintenance.

Responsible adoption. You will learn to anticipate common project pitfalls, critically evaluate data quality, and apply responsible AI principles around ethics, privacy, and transparency. By the end, you will have a clear framework for approaching AI-adoption in your own context.

Hands-on sessions

The workshop is designed to be practical throughout. Across the two days, you will work through a set of applied exercises that are directly relevant to your business context.

• Demystifying AI: analyse real-world business challenges and categorize tasks according to whether they are best suited to traditional automation, generative AI, other AI techniques, or strictly human intervention.
• Problem decomposition: break down business tasks and translate them into specific computational problems.
• Risk assessment: review AI deployment scenarios to identify red flags around privacy, bias, and transparency.
• Data integrity: run hands-on data quality stress tests, uncover hidden biases in "high-quality" datasets, and explore feature engineering.
• Project lifecycle mapping: design a step-by-step roadmap for a realistic AI project.

Who is this workshop for?

This workshop is aimed at SMEs, startups, and independent professionals. No technical background is required. If you want a practical, no-nonsense deep-dive into what AI can realistically do for your organisation, this workshop is for you.

Price 

Thanks to the support of the European Commission and Innoviris in the framework of the EDIH sustAIn.brussels, SMEs and midcaps receive this training free of charge (0€)  in the context of de minimis aid.

Practical information

• Language: English (bilingual exchanges in French and English are welcome)
• Location: BeCentral, Cantersteen 12, 1000 Brussels
• Participants: maximum 5
• Duration: 8 hours across two days
• • Day 1: 18 september 9:00AM - 13:00PM
  • Day 2: 25 september 9:00AM - 13:00PM

Watch out! If you sign up for this workshop we expect you both days, so the 18th of september and the 25th!

Your trainer

Marjon Blondeel is an AI engineer and professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) AI Lab. She holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from VUB and Ghent University, as well as a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. At the lab, she develops and maintains AI demos in collaboration with researchers and leads workshops for audiences ranging from high school students to business professionals. These sessions cover a broad spectrum from introductory AI concepts to technical programming. She also lectures in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence bachelor programs at VUB.

Questions?

Contact Marco Houben at marco.houben@vub.be