The 8th Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum was organised with great success on 28 November, under the theme “AI & Business: Creating value, minimizing risks”. The Forum that is designed to foster dialogue and collaboration among academics, industry professionals, policy-makers, and entrepreneurs, is part of the longstanding cooperation between PwC Cyprus and the University of Cyprus, which aims to promote youth entrepreneurship.

The forum serves as a vibrant platform to discuss the journey from research to business innovation, touching upon current debates and future trends. It aims to highlight promising research findings that could have commercial or societal impact. Within this specific scope, the finalists of this year Cyprus Entrepreneurship Competition, pitched their idea to the audience, and the winner team,   IQ3SOLAR was announced.

A Panel Discussion also took place during the Forum on the “AI & Business. Opportunities for Cyprus and policy implications”, with the participation of Mr Theodoros Evgeniou, Professor of Decision Sciences and Technology Management at INSEAD and Director of the INSEAD Executive Education program, Mr Dimitris Lottides, CEO of SPP Media, and Founder of Digital Agenda Cyprus Summit, Ms Anna Prodromou Researcher, DEI expert and entrepreneur and Ms Xenia Miscouridou, Researcher and Academic in Statistics and Machine Learning focused on explainable AI models.

Professor Evgeniou pointed out that both value creation and value distribution due to AI should be considered carefully and that government policies and regulations that do not successfully address both, are destined to fail. Mr Dimitris Lottides, mentioned the significant potential of AI in helping the country’s economy but cautioned that a coordinated effort between government agencies is imperative in this respect. Ms Anna Prodromou emphasized the significance of recognizing artificial intelligence as a tool rather than an autonomous force and Ms Xenia Miscouridou, clarified that generative AI has gone from a fascinating novelty to a business imperative in less than a year.

The panel was coordinated by Mr Philippos Soseilos CEO of PwC Cyprus & President of the PwC Foundation who underlined the importance of entrepreneurship and research as well as innovation and technology, in an economy that desires to both respond to current developments, and pioneer by detecting and creating future directions.

“PwC Cyprus’ cooperation with the University of Cyprus as part of the PwC Foundation’s activity creates the necessary conditions to connect the Cypriot research community with the international ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship, thus contributing substantively to the promotion of Cypriot innovation and patents in the international market,” Mr Soseilos said.

Mr Panos Markopoulos Director of the University of Cyprus’ Centre for Entrepreneurship & Associate Professor added: “This year’s forum was an important opportunity for the Cypriot research community to meet Cypriot, high-tech start-ups, entrepreneurs as well as prestigious investors.

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