Within the European project AI Entre4Youth and with the aim of further delving into the AI ecosystem and its implementation in the school curriculum, Junior Achievement Spain organized an Entrepreneurship School around the opportunities of AI. This brought together two of our flagship programs for this school year: AI + Entr4Youth and Company Programme, led by experts in the field. This event served to allow secondary school students in Madrid to discover how artificial intelligence can be a great ally in entrepreneurship.
The event gathered the entire AI ecosystem around a common theme: public institutions, represented by Ángel Niño, councilor of the Delegated Area of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the Madrid City Council, and Estrella Martín, General Director of Entrepreneurship of the Madrid City Council; the educational community, represented by students and teachers from Claret School in Madrid and IES Alfonso Moreno, Claudia Gallardo, a second-year International Baccalaureate student in the Technological branch, and Vera Prohaska, BA Computer Science and AI, Python Engineer at Swissblock, IE Robotics Club; and the business world, represented by Endeavor, LuzIA, Clicollege, and Plantae.
In the event, panelists, entrepreneurs, and AI experts talked about entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, innovation, soft skills, and future opportunities.
During the opening of the pannel, Ángel Niño, councilor of the Delegated Area of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the Madrid City Council, emphasized the importance of promoting dissemination and inspiration among teenagers with entrepreneurship and technology as focal points, fostering critical thinking among students to allow them to make the most of AI.
Javier Andrés, co-founder of LuzIA, a free chatbot based on artificial intelligence for WhatsApp, highlighted that “AI surpasses the barrier of executing ideas to streamline the creative process, and the value that people contribute remains fundamental.” Therefore, during his speech, he encouraged attendees to use artificial intelligence to their advantage, as it will bring about a change “on the level of the internet or smartphones.” He also pointed out that, although AI is useful, it is necessary to learn how to use it, as providing the best instructions is crucial for it to offer good responses. In his opinion, “AI can execute and viralize more quickly, but the creativity of the person generating the idea is still necessary.” He concluded that “the challenge is to differentiate passing trends from major structural changes.”.
For David Fernández, General Director of Clicollege, “the future is uncertain but optimistic.” In this regard, he encouraged young people to try things, to know what they like, to get to know themselves because “knowing yourself, AI will help you in your future.” And to accumulate experiences to have a life story, to travel, to take advantage of all the opportunities offered to learn, to live unique moments because that’s what will make them succeed. In his opinion, AI acts as an amplifier, so “AI skills will go in proportion with human skills.”
Vera Prohaska, BA Computer Science and AI, Python Engineer at Swissblock, IE Robotics Club, expressed a similar sentiment: “I think about how I want to be, and then I move pieces in my life” to achieve it.
The speakers also agreed that entrepreneurship is a service, “it’s doing things to fix things,” in Fernández’s words.
The pannel was moderated by Claudia Gallardo, a second-year International Baccalaureate student in the Technological branch, and by Samuel Sánchez, Junior Achievement Alumni and CEO and cofounder of Plantae, a company dedicated to creating IoT devices for precision agriculture and irrigation. For Sánchez, “entrepreneurship doesn’t necessarily have to go hand in hand with personal preferences; it’s enough to detect a need in the environment and create a solution for it.”
Lucía de Zavala, CEO of Junior Achievement, and Estrella Martín, General Director of Entrepreneurship of the Madrid City Council, closed the pannel. Both highlighted the unique opportunity young people have to lead the future. De Zavala encouraged them to maintain “the spirit, curiosity, and desire to build a better future for everyone.” And in this future, we asked the students what role they think AI plays. Want to know their opinion? Click on the link.
