Daan Gebraad’s Post

Excited to share highlights from POLITICO’s 2025 AI & Tech Summit, where Salesforce was represented by Kendal Collins in the Executive Insights track. Some reflections from the event: - Kendal brought forward Salesforce’s vision for how government can partner with industry to lead in AI innovation, especially around policy, regulation, and operational readiness. - It’s clear that conversations on infrastructure, governance, and AI-powered public services aren’t just theoretical, they’re now central to how agencies plan for future competitiveness. - Representation matters: having voices like Kendal’s at the table means that insights from those building AI tools are part of shaping policy, not just responding to it. For public sector leaders and tech innovators alike, this summit underlined one how essential it is to be present, engaged, and proactive.

Excited to share highlights from POLITICO’s 2025 AI & Tech Summit, where Salesforce was represented by Kendal Collins in the Executive Insights track. Some reflections from the event: - Kendal brought forward Salesforce’s vision for how government can partner with industry to lead in AI innovation, especially around policy, regulation, and operational readiness. - It’s clear that conversations on infrastructure, governance, and AI-powered public services aren’t just theoretical, they’re now central to how agencies plan for future competitiveness. - Representation matters: having voices like Kendal’s at the table means that insights from those building AI tools are part of shaping policy, not just responding to it. For public sector leaders and tech innovators alike, this summit underlined one how essential it is to be present, engaged, and proactive.

Bridging Innovation and Regulation: Leading Europe’s Deep Tech Future - Together Solving the challenges of overregulation in Europe’s deep tech sector won’t happen if industry and government only talk about each other - we need to talk to each other. That’s why I highly appreciated the great opportunity to meet with Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus, Minister for Digital Strategy and Development of the State of Hesse, at #GDAcon25. Our conversation centered on a critical question for Europe’s industrial future: How can AI drive industrial growth - and what role can Hesse play in enabling it? We covered key topics: 🔹 Regulatory frameworks for building data centers 🔹 The impact of the EU AI Act on industrial innovation 🔹 The importance of regional initiatives to accelerate deep tech development One thing is clear: AI won’t become a game changer for industry without domain expertise, specialized software, and access to industrial data. That’s exactly what’s missing from today’s Silicon Valley playbook - and it’s where Europe, and Germany in particular, have a real opportunity to lead. The global market for industrial AI is still wide open. But companies can’t compete for deep tech leadership if regulatory frameworks do not support but hold them back. As a global player in IT infrastructure, we at Rittal GmbH & Co. KG see every day how essential a stable and forward-looking policy is to enable innovation - whether it’s powering data centers, securing energy supply, or deploying AI in industrial environments. Europe has the potential to become a real leader and global hub for #IndustrialAI. To get there, we need bold collaborations between industry and politics, openness to emerging technologies, and a shared understanding of the road ahead. Thank you to Prof. Sinemus for the open and insightful exchange. #DeepTech #EUAIAct #DataCenters #DigitalPolicy GERMAN DATACENTER ASSOCIATION e.V.

Lot of people have reached out to me asking for learning from it so here is the recap Microsoft AI Tour Recap Had an incredible time exploring the latest AI innovations at the Microsoft AI Tour! Here are my key takeaways: • Security & AI Challenges: Tackling data oversharing, agent sprawl, non-compliance, and emerging threats is Microsoft’s top priority. Their “Secure Future Initiative” emphasizes secure by design, default, and operations. • AI Threat Landscape: GenAI can be weaponized for malware generation, phishing, password cracking, and even deepfakes—highlighting the urgent need for robust defenses. • AI Readiness & Skills: Microsoft stressed continual AI upskilling, using tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot, Viva Learning, and AI-powered skilling paths to stay ahead. • Azure & AI Infrastructure: Azure AI Foundry enables building, scaling, and securing AI apps and agents. Their AI-first end-to-end security platform integrates Copilot, Microsoft Sentinel, Purview, Defender, and more. • AI Agents & Industry Impact: From finance to healthcare, agents are transforming operations. Expect 1.3B AI agents by 2028, powering everything from predictive maintenance to dynamic sales. • Business Transformation: Microsoft shared real metrics: 11.5% faster case resolutions, 9.4% higher revenue per seller, and 21.5% higher conversion rates using AI. This tour showcased how Microsoft is redefining productivity and security with AI—exciting times ahead for businesses and developers alike!

🇨🇦 All In on AI Conference 2025 We’re in for a big year ahead! Just wrapped up an incredible two days at the All In on AI conference in Montreal last week! The energy around Canada's AI ecosystem is palpable, with a clear focus on strengthening digital sovereignty and accelerating enterprise AI adoption. 🎉 A couple of highlights: Minister of Artificial Intelligence, Evan Solomon, championed the core theme of "digital sovereignty," emphasizing the need for Canada to develop and control its own AI, ensuring it reflects local values and maintains data residency. He stressed that we cannot afford to outsource our digital intelligence. A “refreshed" Canadian AI Strategy will be tabled later this year—ahead of schedule—to keep pace with rapid advancements. To drive this national strategy, a new AI Strategy Task Force is being created, uniting top minds from industry, academia, and civil society to chart the path forward. 🇨🇦 A major focus at the conference was on building sovereign capacity through powerful public-private collaborations. Excited to see the strong alliance between Bell and Cohere, whose enterprise-focused LLMs and "North" agentic AI platform are being integrated into Bell AI Fabric, providing secure, full-stack AI solutions for government and enterprise customers. Further cementing this effort, BUZZ HPC announced their partnership to provide the foundational hardware layer: large-scale, sovereign NVIDIA GPU clusters integrated with Bell AI Fabric to support AI model training and development entirely within Canadian facilities. 🌐 At Dell Canada, we are laser-focused on contributing to the enterprise and sovereign AI discussion. The critical need for a modern, scalable IT infrastructure to support the coming wave of AI adoption is inevitable, and we are strategically positioned to deliver end-to-end data center solutions required for businesses to move from pilot projects to production-scale AI. 💻 Of course, our commitment to Responsible AI Adoption is as strong as ever, aligning with the government plans to modernize privacy laws to include protections against deepfakes and scams, setting clear standards for data use to foster public trust alongside innovation. 🛡️ The message is clear: Canada is All In on building a secure, resilient, and AI-powered economy and we are here for it! #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #CanadaAI #DigitalSovereignty #AllIn2025 #MontrealTech #Innovation #iwork4Dell

From #WAVE2025 to #bits25 – it’s all about our AI-driven future 🚀 Last week at #WAVE2025 in Berlin I felt the energy of a new era of Agentic AI. This week, sitting in the audience of the first panel at #bits25 in Munich, the discussion shifts to: what does it actually take to build world-leading AI companies out of Europe? Having been lucky enough to witnees Parloa’s stellar growth from its very beginning - from startup to #unicorn - I felt particularly moved. It was one of those panels where every contribution stuck with me: 🔶 Malte Kosub (Parloa) set the tone with ambition. “Think crazily big” — that’s what Europe needs more of. With this ambition, we CAN use the opportunities in the #AgeOfAI to even build the next 100 billion, 500 billion companies out of Europe. And he didn’t sugarcoat it to all the excited founders listening - building a unicorn or beyond is one of the hardest jobs you can choose. An while seed money is there, when it comes to growth capital, Europe still has to catch-up. 🔶 Agnes Heftberger (Microsoft ) added a very important aspect: the real value isn’t just in foundational models, but in what we build on top of them — the applications, the solutions, the experiences that truly make a difference. 🔶 Mareike Hoffmann (Microsoft, our moderator) reminded us of the power of partnerships. The way Microsoft and Parloa work together shows what happens when two pioneers combine their strengths. 🔶 Gregor Haidl brought in another very important truth: with AI, trust is everything. Without it, no matter how advanced the tech, you won’t unlock its potential. 🔶 And for me, it always circles back to #vision. The ability to see a future that doesn’t yet exist — and then to help others see it too. First your own team, then your partners, and ultimately your customers. That’s how transformation spreads. Listening, sharing, reflecting — I felt the red thread connecting both events: WAVE was about the future of customer relationships; Bits & Pretzels is about Europe’s chance to scale its future champions. Put together, it’s a call to all of us: let’s dream bigger, build with trust, and never stop painting that vision of what’s possible. #AI #Europe #scaling

🔥 What Really Ignited at ALL IN 2025 Last week in Montreal, ALL IN felt less like a conference and more like a launchpad. Five themes that resonated: 1. Infrastructure as the battleground The TELUS AI factory shifts expectations. Canadian enterprises are now being judged by where models run, not just what they produce. NVIDIA panelists reinforced that national AI cannot simply mean “cloud access,” it must include physical compute, edge, and data nodes. 2. Agents, not just prompts The move from simple generative models to agentic AI was a recurring theme. How do we chain agents, coordinate multi agent workflows, inject business logic, and ensure safety when actions go beyond text? Enterprise adoption is now hinged on that next step. 3. The “AI economy” narrative Speakers talked less about speculative AI and more about AI that pays: supply chains, healthcare, agriculture, financial services, and manufacturing. 4. Ecosystem and partnerships in real time Conversations were less about theory and more about “how do I partner with you tomorrow?” Governments, academia, venture capital, and scale ups were at the same tables. 5. Political theater with real stakes The federal government leaned in with Ministers Joly and Solomon visible throughout. Solomon used his keynote to unveil a 30-day AI Task Force. Many panels asked whether this is real structural change or just more talk from our government. ⸻ 🎯 What This Suggests for You and Me • The bar just got higher for anyone building or adopting AI in Canada. It is not enough to have a model. You will be evaluated by where you run it, how safely, and how you integrate into real business flows. • Agents are the frontier. If your roadmap does not consider orchestration, failure modes, and feedback loops, you will fall behind. • Partnerships will matter more than ever, not just with hyperscalers but with telecoms, data centers, edge providers, and domain experts. • Government promises will only matter if they turn into action. Execution will decide who wins.

Excited to share highlights from POLITICO’s 2025 AI & Tech Summit, where Salesforce was represented by Kendall Collins in the Executive Insights track. Some reflections from the event: - Kendall brought forward Salesforce’s vision for how government can partner with industry to lead in AI innovation, especially around policy, regulation, and operational readiness. - It’s clear that conversations on infrastructure, governance, and AI-powered public services aren’t just theoretical, they’re now central to how agencies plan for future competitiveness. - Representation matters: having voices like Kendall’s at the table means that insights from those building AI tools are part of shaping policy, not just responding to it. For public sector leaders and tech innovators alike, this summit underlined one how essential it is to be present, engaged, and proactive.

As CEO Ken Moreano laid out Scott Data’s collaboration with Silicon Valley innovator NVIDIA and other technology groups to build out the Aksarben Village-based center’s AI infrastructure to prepare for game-changing business applications, the seeds were sown for a Scott Data/Chamber partnership. This pairing is laying the groundwork for Omaha to become a Midwestern hub of AI innovation, adoption, and attraction. “From a philosophical perspective, AI is no longer optional for business when you realize it’s a $214 billion global market that’s going to top over $1 trillion dollars by the end of the decade,” said Omaha Chamber President and CEO Heath Mello. “We saw the scale and growth of what was happening in AI. We heard from our Chamber members and employers that it’s a tool we must take advantage of and deploy better for us to be more regionally competitive.

From silos to intelligent ecosystems - here’s what’s really driving the shift. Last month, I found myself in a quiet moment before filming for a recent video. The studio lights were warming up, and I was reflecting on how far we’ve come - from siloed partnerships to dynamic, multi-party ecosystems that are reshaping how we deliver value in the local market. What struck me most was the energy I see building in our sector teams. Whether it’s healthcare, public sector, or financial services, the appetite for collaborative AI is real. We’re not just talking about tech - we’re talking about trust, interoperability, and shared outcomes. The video captures a glimpse of that momentum, but the real story is what’s happening behind the scenes: industry teams leaning in, clients asking smarter questions, and our alliance teams building bridges across capabilities. It is incredibly rewarding to be part of a movement that’s not just transforming how we work, but why we work together. https://lnkd.in/gT_eH-sY #KPMGAustralia #AIAlliances #CollaborativeAI #TechTransformation