Straight to Business: a training event focused on demos and real-life challenges
AI is transforming business and work models. The project combined dissemination and experimentation to help companies and young people understand where and how to apply generative AI. Not just inspiration, but concrete cases showing benefits and areas for intervention throughout the processes. The initiative took place at the Venice School of Management at Ca' Foscari University.
Two complementary moments
The format included an informative event open to businesses, professionals, and students, and a development sprint with AI specialists, project managers, and university students in contact with real business challenges. Three workshops were held during the event:
The future and fundamentals of generative AI: evolution and applications.
Innovation, research, and regulation: experiments, spin-offs, and the European regulatory framework.
Impact on the economy and businesses: competitiveness, organization, and work with business experiences.
From sprint to demo
Twenty students, guided by Upskill 4.0 project managers and Ennova Research AI specialists, worked on challenges posed by 11 companies. Five use cases were developed with demos based on AI models, useful for assessing impacts, requirements, and expected returns. In addition to the prototypes, the main value was a new dialogue between business, academia, and technology.
What have we learned?
- AI generates value when it starts with processes, not technology. Effective solutions arise from observing real work and the quality of available data (data readiness and knowledge management).
- Hybrid skills beat isolated skills. The combination of technical and methodological skills and student energy accelerates learning and internal adoption.
- Companies are already in the field. During the round table discussion, four companies showcased AI applications that are already operational (digital healthcare, pharmaceutical research, thermotechnology, packaging), confirming the cross-sector impact.
- Demos are organizational catalysts. Rapid prototypes make benefits tangible and help manage change (processes, roles, compliance, metrics).
- Ecosystems, not individual events. Ongoing collaboration between universities, businesses, and developers is essential for scaling up from idea to result.
The Venice School of Management hosted the initiative to activate an ecosystem that connects young talent, companies, and experts, facilitating entry into generative AI through concrete applications and problem-oriented, challenge-based learning paths.
Implementing the results of StrAIght to Business means investing in a dynamic and inclusive training and production ecosystem capable of creating value for businesses and people, attracting talent, and strengthening the competitiveness of local areas.
StrAIght to Business is a project conceived by Upskill 4.0 and Ennova Research, with the support of Ca' Foscari University of Venice, UniCredit, and Google Cloud.
