On 24th of March 2022 the Project Partners’ Meeting took place the. During the first meeting, the partners of consortium have discussed aspects of the Project Management and the preparation of the Gap Analysis – in order to understand the AI potential in each of the partner countries
AI4PPP – Artificial Intelligence for People, Planet and Profit
Project Focus
The AI4PPP project addresses the challenges of modern education and market demands by providing integrated and flexible training on the business aspects of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It focuses on popularizing AI within non-technical sectors, such as social sciences and humanities, by promoting an "AI-driven mindset" through piloting and process simulation.
Project description
AI4PPP is an interdisciplinary project designed to meet challenges of the modern educations system and challenging market needs, by providing an awareness-raising, holistic and flexible education in business aspects of AI. We expect that improved educational and training modules in AI together with guidelines, to be implemented and used by partner organizations and other relevant HEIs. This will help in adopting an AI-based mentality powered by piloting and simulating AI processes. By implementing scenarios of AI into selected industries, the project will elaborate guidelines for improvements in usage of AI methodologies and tools in business having backpropagation elements to be used in education and by doing so will popularize AI within a various and especially non-technical sector (i.e. social sciences and humanities).
Project main aim
The objective of AI4PPP is to provide to our target groups not only a basic understanding of AI, the language surrounding the technological and social aspects of AI, but also to show how it works and to show the potential of its future implementations in all professions and industries.
Results/Activities
Partners will carry out a wide range of activities in order to implement a well-rounded, high value transferable educational and training programme in AI through (i) comprehensive DACUM analysis in order to proof trends and skills used and needed among relevant AI professionals; (ii) development of educational modules, (iii) adaptation and creation of teaching contents and materials according to established needs of the target groups,(iv) piloting the newly developed modules and materials, (v) implementing scenarios of AI application in selected industries, and (vi) finally make all preparations for AI educational program to be certified using micro-credentials approach/concept
Project news
The AI4PPP project has launched Project Result 7 (PR7), the final phase of its initiative to develop innovative AI training programs. Running from September 1 to December 31, 2024, PR7 focuses on registering AI micro-credential programs with national agencies in Slovenia, Spain, and Croatia to ensure they meet quality and educational standards. Micro-credentials offer flexible, short-term learning opportunities tailored to modern workforce needs, especially in the rapidly evolving context of Industry 4.0. These programs help individuals quickly gain and validate skills, making them more competitive in the job market as economies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. PR7 aims to secure formal recognition of these micro-credentials across countries, enhancing their value for both learners and employers.
The AI4PPP team encourages continued engagement and will provide updates as the project progresses.
AI is now deeply integrated into various sectors, with companies rapidly adopting AI-based systems, to adjust to the increasing demands of digital environments. As AI becomes more prevalent, a divide is emerging between those who effectively utilize AI technologies and those who struggle to do so. This divide will likely widen, with business success being closely tied to the level of AI adoption. While AI is applied in almost every industry, certain fields stand out for their extensive use of AI on a global scale, including sectors like healthcare, finance, and manufacturing.
However, the rapid development of AI often leads to misunderstandings and overestimations. To separate the hype from reality, companies are now focusing on real-world applications of AI across various industries. For example, AI has made strides in tasks traditionally considered human, such as image and speech recognition. Innovations like Google’s image recognition or Siri’s voice understanding demonstrate how AI has become as good, if not better, than humans in specific tasks.
In the coming years, the intelligence of AI applications is expected to grow rapidly due to advancements in neural networks and increased computational power. These improvements present significant opportunities for businesses. For example, in the insurance industry, AI can read and categorize claims, offering recommendations to employees, which saves time and improves accuracy.
Complementing the Teaching Materials
To enhance the educational content, interviews were conducted with companies in Spain, Croatia, and Slovenia that have successfully implemented AI solutions. These interviews provided valuable insights into the practical applications of AI in different business contexts and helped shape the teaching materials to better reflect real-world scenarios. The feedback from these companies highlighted both the opportunities and challenges of integrating AI, offering useful case studies to be incorporated into future educational modules.
The educational modules, developed as part of Project Result 4, were successfully piloted by integrating them into the learning environments of project partners. This process was guided by the syllabi created in Project Result 3.
Main takeouts from the piloting process:
- Increased Interest: Students showed a significant rise in interest in applying AI solutions to their fields of expertise following the pilot.
- Practical Integration: Students recognized the advantages of AI in their respective fields and began considering its practical applications.
- Motivation Boost: Lecturers observed heightened motivation among students when interacting with AI solutions.
- Positive Perception of AI: The pilot successfully familiarized students with AI solutions, leading them to view AI as a tool to enhance business efficiency and organizational processes.
- Predictive Capabilities: Students identified AI’s potential for robust analysis and forecasting market trends.
- Industry Benefits: AI education has the potential to benefit a wide range of industries, underscoring the importance of integrating AI into academic curricula.
- Strategic Curriculum Design: Educational programs should be designed to align with specific sectors where AI provides the greatest advantages, tailoring learning paths to students’ technical competencies.
- Practical Focus: The modules should focus on providing students with practical tools for applying and interpreting AI insights rather than mastering all AI skills.
- Future-Ready Learners: This approach prepares students to leverage AI in shaping business strategies, predicting trends, and adapting accordingly.
As part of the outcome of Project 4, the project partners have developed educational materials that represent an additional step towards achieving the main goal of the project – to provide an innovative and transferable AI training programme for non-C level technology leaders and those who will become one.
The learning materials present useful business examples that show the practical introduction of artificial intelligence in specific industries, which will lead students to understand theoretical aspects focused on understanding artificial intelligence technology and its potential to introduce innovations and improvements into everyday business environment. Educational materials are developed for adoption during lectures with MBA students and MA business students.
As the end result, 9 comprehensive training modules have been developed, each of which represents one business case and covers 20 school hours. In this way, the educational modules represent a ready-to-use open educational material that will provide professors and students with all the materials necessary for the successful implementation of the teaching/learning process – the following types of learning materials are developed within each module:
- Teaching scenarios – provide professors/lecturers with detailed information on school progress, student assignments and duration, as well as provide guidance on their implementation and valuable comments
- Teaching materials – intended for professors/lecturers in order to improve the learning process and facilitate the implementation of the modules
- Learning materials – designed for students to enrich the learning process and make the lesson more practical and project-oriented
Educational materials are prepared as “standard” materials that could be used to create new or improve existing study programmes in higher education or adult training. Within the framework of the AI4PPP project, we have developed three modules at our faculty:
The use of AI in tourism:
The future of drivers in autonomous vehicles:
Supply Chain Management and AI:
As part of this project result, the project partners have developed a curriculum that offers ideas that can improve the way current teaching in higher education takes place in the MBA and MA Business student population, which are extremely value-oriented.
This project will include three main curriculum tasks: the curriculum, which serves as a contract, the curriculum, the permanent document, and the curriculum as a curriculum. The curriculum serves as a contract between the instructor and the students, clearly describing the details of the program. It is designed to communicate content, purpose and goals. A learning-focused curriculum is one that focuses on students and what they need to make learning effective. Such a curriculum will provide students with more useful information in addition to the aforementioned contractual and documentary material. It will provide students with information on task planning, performance evaluation, and time and resource scheduling. This will help students develop organizing skills that are useful even outside of an individual subject. In addition, the plan will provide guidance for learning in the course, assessing readiness to work in the course, and opportunities for assistance. It will also help to understand the course content in the context of the student’s study program. Finally, the curriculum will serve students as a model of professional thinking and writing. Our special attention and the separate result of the curriculum project represent the importance of this task in terms of both academic and advisory value. Since AI is a very vague topic for most, curricula will be the first point of contact on the road to effective AI education.
DACUM (Developing A Curriculum) is a fast but well-established job analysis technique. The DACUM procedure is used to determine the competences to be addressed in the training curriculum for a particular profession. DACUM is used to develop job profiles for all types of occupations, including top managers and specialized jobs. This cost-effective technique has been validated by research and compares very positively with other methods of workplace analysis.
DACUM is based on three premisses:
- Professionals can better describe their work than anyone else.
- each workplace can be effectively described by the competences or tasks performed by successful workers in that profession,
- The specific knowledge, skills, attitudes and tools necessary for workers to perform their tasks properly may also be described.
Therefore, AI4PPP project partners conducted DACUM analysis with non-ICT high-level managers from various industries in Croatia, Slovenia and Spain. On this basis, a final document on the DACUM analysis was drawn up, which will largely serve partners in the next phases of the project, especially for curricula and the development of educational materials.
In order to ensure a comprehensive, high-quality educational curriculum in AI, it was necessary to explore what educational curricula in higher education institutions (in particular MBAs) and other educational providers in partner countries already offer, and on the other hand to analyse current market needs in terms of competences and experiences required for professions using AI.
Project output 1 therefore focused on producing a detailed report reviewing the challenges different stakeholders face in approaching AI, with the aim of describing the potential of AI and the steps needed to successfully implement curricula in higher education institutions and the business sector and identify educational needs, with the aim of filling the gap.
For organizations to be successful and competent, they need to create a competitive advantage, and this project will offer training for professionals among MBA candidates or decision makers already at the C level to gain an advantage by transforming business processes to achieve real, tangible results.
This result provides a background for designing and structuring curricula, educational materials and pilot cases, which are envisaged in the next steps.