Drees & Sommer appoints Michael Konopka to Lead Business Development and Regional Sales in Poland

Drees & Sommer has appointed Michael Konopka as Leading Consultant for Business Development and Regional Sales in Poland, joining the leadership team alongside Jörg Wohlfarth, Jan Grymin, and Dimitrios Niros.

Konopka will focus on expanding strategic client relationships, developing service offerings for the Polish market, and applying the company’s expertise in sustainability, digitalization, and economic efficiency. He previously worked at Drees & Sommer from 2021 to 2023 as a Senior Consultant in Business Transformation and Network Management in Stuttgart, where he managed cross-border initiatives and industry events.

Most recently, Konopka served as Director at executive search firm Deininger, overseeing operations in Poland and the CEE region. His earlier experience includes work with the Steinbeis Center of Management and Technology in Germany, where he focused on project integration and human capital development.

The appointment is part of Drees & Sommer’s strategy to strengthen its position in Poland’s real estate, industry, and infrastructure sectors.

Schweng GmbH leases 4,600 sqm in Mintraching through Logivest

Logistics real estate consultancy Logivest has arranged the lease of a 4,600 sqm property in Mintraching, southeast of Regensburg, to Schweng GmbH. The deal includes approximately 1,500 sqm of warehouse and office space and more than 3,100 sqm of open space at Römerstraße 1, a site owned by a private individual.

Schweng GmbH, which operates 18 locations in Germany and Austria, specializes in the sale, assembly, and manufacture of roofing systems such as patio covers, carports, balcony roofs, and awnings. The company was seeking a representative office in the Regensburg area.

The property, located in the Rosenhof industrial park, will house a showroom occupying roughly half of the indoor space, with the remainder used for storage and around 100 sqm designated for offices. Renovation plans include fencing the site and using part of the open area for product exhibitions.

Facilities at the location include a ground-level gate, two docking ramps, and a side loading/unloading gate. The site offers direct access to the A3 motorway and is connected to public transport.

According to Logivest, the property’s transport links and large regional catchment area were key factors in the leasing decision. Schweng GmbH has already taken occupancy of the site.

Simba Toys Poland renews lease at MLP Pruszków II

Simba Toys Poland has extended its lease for approximately 8,550 sqm at the MLP Pruszków II logistics complex, including around 300 sqm of office space. The transaction was brokered by the Axi Immo agency.

The company, part of the German Simba Dickie Group, has operated at the facility since January 2021. The group is among the five largest toy manufacturers and distributors in Europe, producing a range of products including dolls, toy cars, and interactive toys.

According to MLP Group, the decision to renew the lease reflects the facility’s suitability for distribution and logistics operations. The park’s location near Warsaw was cited as a factor in retaining Simba Toys Poland’s workforce and ensuring commuting access from surrounding areas.

MLP Pruszków II, located in the Brwinów municipality about 5 km from Pruszków, is the largest logistics complex in the region, with a planned total leasable area of 427,000 sqm. Selected buildings hold BREEAM certification, and photovoltaic installations are being added as part of the developer’s ESG strategy.

The site offers road access via local route No. 760 and the A2 motorway, with the Pruszków-Żbików interchange located 3 km away. It is also connected to international railway lines and features on-site amenities such as a bus stop and a self-service bike rental station.

CTP expands in Pardubice region with acquisition of CTPark Pardubice Rosice

CTP has expanded its Czech portfolio with the acquisition of CTPark Pardubice Rosice, a 52,000 sqm site containing two detached CTSpace facilities for production and storage.

The acquisition, finalized on May 6, 2025, marks a strategic move by CTP to strengthen its presence in the Pardubice region, where it already operates CTPark Pardubice. Located on the outskirts of the city near the I/37 expressway and within minutes of the city centre and international airport, the park offers 14,739 sqm of space available for immediate lease. The upcoming completion of the D35 motorway corridor, linking Pardubice with Olomouc, is expected to further enhance connectivity.

Jakub Kodr, CTP’s Managing Director for the Czech Republic, said the decision to acquire the park was driven by the area’s strong transport links, industrial heritage, and skilled workforce. “Pardubice is a long-established location for high-tech manufacturing and logistics. A number of major companies already operate here, and we believe that the new park in Rosice will further enhance the attractiveness of this region,” he said.

The Pardubice region, home to more than 500,000 residents and the University of Pardubice, offers a steady pipeline of technically trained workers. Current tenants at the Rosice site include 2VV and 4Camping.

CTP also plans sustainability upgrades at the park, including the installation of photovoltaic panels and other energy-saving features. The facilities are targeting a BREEAM Very Good certification, aligning with the company’s environmental standards.

With the acquisition, CTP continues its expansion strategy in high-demand regional markets, positioning itself to attract both manufacturing and logistics clients seeking ready-to-use, certified industrial space in the Czech Republic.

Poland: Interest rate cut spurs questions on apartment demand and buyer budgets

Following July’s interest rate cut, the property market is watching closely to see if cheaper borrowing is driving a surge in apartment sales. Developers are assessing whether reservation numbers are climbing and which segments are benefiting most. With the average home loan application now reaching a record PLN 477,000, attention is turning to what kind of apartments this budget can secure — and in which projects — as industry players share their latest market observations.

Zuzanna Należyta, commercial director at Eco Classic
Despite two interest rate cuts, Poles pay about 70% more for mortgages than citizens of most EU countries. It is difficult to say what is behind the MPC’s cautious approach to rate cuts. In June, inflation in Poland was 3.4%, and since July, the NBP reference rate has been 5%, while in the eurozone it is 2% and 2.15%, respectively. Perhaps the persistently high mortgage interest rates are intended to help banks offset losses caused by credit holidays and lost Swiss franc litigation.

In order for mortgage interest rates to enable more customers to purchase apartments, interest rates need to be reduced by at least 2%. The record mortgage values recorded this year are due to high apartment prices and not to increased sales.

Agnieszka Majkusiak, General Director of Sales and Marketing at Atal
It is too early for the July interest rate cut to have a significant impact. Mortgage loans, also taking into account high bank margins, are still very expensive compared to other European countries. Banks still prefer fixed-rate products, which affects the attractiveness of variable-rate products, which are now of interest to customers expecting further interest rate cuts.

The revival in lending is partly due to the fact that many people have decided to finalize the purchase of a home without waiting any longer for any subsidy program, which is now unlikely to be implemented. Their situation is also favored by several months of price stability and a greater willingness of developers to negotiate. The reported loan volume also includes refinancing of existing liabilities.

The record average value of the loan applied for is a direct result of current property prices in Poland. The amount of PLN 477,000 in our offer mainly includes one- and two-room apartments, although in smaller cities, such as Piotrków Trybunalski, customers can even buy three-room apartments. However, if even a minimal down payment is taken into account and the aforementioned amount is related solely to the liability towards the bank, the choice of available properties expands significantly and also includes three- and four-room apartments.

Janusz Miller, Sales and Marketing Director at Home Invest
The July interest rate cut, following the May cut, significantly increased interest in buying apartments, which translated into an increase in the number of reservations, especially in the Warszawski Świt and Enklawa Ursynów projects.

The record average value of loans applied for – PLN 477,000 in June 2025 – reflects the growing creditworthiness of customers, although apartments in Warsaw often cost more, which requires an additional down payment. Thanks to our wide range of products, customers can choose apartments tailored to their needs, at prices they can afford, or supplement their loans with savings.

Michał Witkowski, Sales Director, Lokum Deweloper
Our observations show that the increased interest in mortgages is due to applications submitted by customers who are finalizing previously contracted purchases, often under a 20/80 or 10/90 payment schedule. Nevertheless, the recent decisions of the Monetary Policy Council to lower interest rates are a slightly positive signal for the market. Once the indicators are updated by the banks and credit margins do not increase, we can expect more customers to visit developers’ sales offices. It is worth noting that loans in Poland remain at record high levels, which for many potential buyers is a barrier that causes them to postpone their decision to purchase a flat.

Katarzyna Kwiatkowska, Sales Office Manager Warsaw, Matexi Polska
In the context of the Warsaw market, we noticed increased interest in purchasing apartments after the first interest rate cut, and after the July correction, this trend has continued with a slight upward trend. Properties in the PLN 560,000-588,000 range are available, for example, in the XYZ Place project on Żwirki i Wigury Street in Warsaw. It is worth adding that many of our customers have a down payment exceeding 20%, which opens the way for them to purchase larger apartments in our investments in better locations.

Barbara Marona, Sales Office Manager Kraków, Matexi Polska
As for the Kraków market, the July interest rate cut did not cause a sudden surge in interest. Customers had been expecting declines for months, so credit demand has been growing for a long time and remains high. In Krakow, we are seeing a steady influx of customers financing their purchases with loans, who, with the right down payment, can choose apartments of various sizes, e.g., in the Do Wilgi or Takt Lirników developments. We expect this trend to continue in the coming months.

Joanna Chojecka, Sales and Marketing Director for Warsaw and Wrocław at Robyg Group
The July interest rate cut, although expected and relatively small, is part of a trend towards monetary policy easing, which is affecting consumer sentiment. We can see that lower rates increase customers’ creditworthiness and translate into greater interest in apartments, especially among those planning to purchase with a mortgage. In recent weeks, we have seen an increase in the number of inquiries and reservations, although this is not yet a sharp impulse. Customers remain cautious about their purchasing decisions, but the improvement in financing conditions is a clear factor motivating them to act.

In Warsaw, we have 14 apartments ranging in size from 25 sq. m. to 27 sq. m. priced below PLN 500,000. In Wrocław, there are 32 apartments ranging in size from 25 sq. m. to 31 sq. m. available at this price. In Gdańsk, you can choose from 164 units ranging in size from 27 to 45 sq. m., priced from approximately PLN 299,000 to PLN 491,000. In Poznań, the offer includes 39 apartments ranging in price from PLN 339,000 to PLN 515,000, with floor space of 27 sq. m. to 42 sq. m.

Agnieszka Gajdzik-Wilgos, Sales Manager, Ronson Development
With this amount, buyers can afford different types of apartments depending on the location. The Miasto Moje development offers four studio apartments ranging from 26 to 27 sqm. Assuming a 20% down payment and a loan of approximately PLN 480,000, it is possible to purchase a small two-room apartment with an area of approximately 37 sqm. Currently, there are three such apartments available.

In the Nowa Północ development, for up to PLN 477,000, customers can choose from six one-room apartments and fifteen two-room apartments. In Osiedle Startowe, with a minimum down payment of 10%, which gives a maximum apartment price of approximately PLN 530,000, as many as 27 apartments meeting these criteria are currently available for sale.

Tomasz Czuchra, Vice-President of the Management Board of Waryński S.A. Holding Group
The July interest rate cut is still too recent to clearly assess its impact on the market. At the moment, we are not seeing a significant increase in interest in purchasing apartments or an increase in the number of reservations. It should also be remembered that the holiday season is naturally associated with slightly lower customer activity.
At the same time, there is a high level of interest in loans. Our new investment, Stacja Ligocka, located in Katowice, consists mainly of spacious three- and four-room apartments, including duplexes, ranging in size from 45 sqm to 111 sqm. Due to their size, the price of most of these apartments exceeds PLN 477,000.
Within this price range, there are about 20 two-room apartments available, ranging in size from 30 sqm to 41 sqm. These are functional, compact units, well suited to the financial capabilities of many borrowers and attractive from an investment perspective.

Mariusz Gajżewski, Head of Sales, Marketing and Communication, BPI Real Estate Poland
The July interest rate cut has translated into a clear revival of the market. We are seeing an increase in the number of enquiries and reservations. Customers are more willing to make purchasing decisions and are also more likely to take out loans, with the average value of financing requested actually reaching record highs.

Damian Tomasik, President of the Management Board, Alter Investment
The July interest rate cut and record interest in housing loans are having a positive impact on the market, including the land segment. The increased number of inquiries and reservations from developers confirms that cheaper credit is increasing the propensity to invest.

For PLN 477,000, our customers can purchase plots of land for the construction of single-family houses in Pomlewie.

Photo: Home Invest-Przystan Żerań
Source: dompress.pl

Romania: Sema Real Estate partners with Finqware to digitize treasury operations

Sema Real Estate has partnered with Romanian fintech company Finqware to implement its FinqTreasury platform, aiming to streamline the developer’s financial operations through automation and real-time data integration.

The move comes as real estate developers face growing operational complexity, with multiple banking relationships, faster payment systems, and heightened governance requirements. Sema says the integration will centralize banking data across all group accounts and entities via regulated APIs, allowing real-time liquidity monitoring, centralized payment initiation, and automatic reconciliation with its ERP system.

Lucian Grosaru, CEO of Sema Real Estate, described the project as part of a broader digital transformation strategy: “Digitalization is currently one of our top strategic priorities… offering real-time automation, extended visibility into financial flows, and a high degree of traceability, with minimal manual intervention.”

Implementation Details and Expected Impact
While Sema did not disclose the investment cost or implementation timeline, the company says it expects to improve efficiency in collections, payments, and cash visibility while reducing manual workloads in its finance department. Questions remain over whether the changes will impact staffing levels or result in cost savings, and how success will be measured in tangible terms.

Finqware CEO Cosmin Cosma said the adoption of FinqTreasury by Sema reinforces its position as “the industry standard for financial digitalization” in the real estate sector. The platform is already in use by several major property groups in Romania and Central and Eastern Europe, including Globalworth, NEPI Rockcastle, and Iulius Group.

Industry Context
Treasury automation is becoming more common in Romania’s real estate market, driven by instant payment systems such as SEPA Instant and Transfond, as well as regulatory changes pushing for more transparent and efficient financial flows. However, analysts note that while automation improves operational control, it also raises cybersecurity and system-dependency considerations.

Sema Real Estate, active for over 20 years in the Bucharest market, is best known for the large-scale Sema Parc and The Light developments, which together comprise more than 150,000 square metres of office space.

Finqware, authorized as a pan-European payment institution, provides open banking-based integration tools used by both corporates and banks in the region. Its pricing model, service-level guarantees, and integration challenges vary by client, with details for the Sema project not yet disclosed.

Photo: Lucian Grosaru, CEO of Sema Real Estate

Ai4 2025: Tackling the 90% Failure Rate in Enterprise AI Deployments

CIJ EUROPE rushed between discussions and skipped one to be at one of the more candid and practical talks at Ai4 2025, Alex Bermudez, GTM lead at Airia, and Ben Eichholz, Senior Director of AI Innovation at Pax8, addressed a problem that few in the AI industry are eager to admit: nearly nine out of ten enterprise proof-of-concepts (POCs) for generative AI never make it into production.

Drawing on statistics from IDC and Gartner, the speakers outlined why enterprise AI adoption often stalls after initial trials. The main culprits, they said, include pressure from leadership to deploy AI without clear operational plans, slow change management, poor AI literacy among users, and conflicts between innovation ambitions and organisational risk tolerances in areas like governance, compliance, and security.

Eichholz shared Pax8’s own journey, which began with promising AI tools like ScopePilot for Microsoft 365, designed to summarise meetings and improve content creation. While these tools boosted personal productivity, they failed to embed into core business workflows, making ROI difficult to prove. A pivot to custom AI agent development brought new challenges — projects that were too slow, lacked capabilities, or were outdated by rapid technological change. By 2024, Pax8 shifted to a platform-based strategy, partnering with Airia to stay on the leading edge while managing risk and complexity.

Bermudez noted that as enterprises scale AI deployment, new security threats — including data poisoning, untrusted inference, and vulnerabilities in the emerging Model Context Protocol (MCP) — are becoming serious concerns. Shadow AI, where employees use unauthorised tools like ChatGPT or Gemini, also remains a risk unless organisations provide sanctioned, user-friendly alternatives. At Pax8, building an “AI playground” on Airia’s platform significantly reduced this problem by giving staff secure access to leading AI models, including the latest releases such as GPT-5.

The discussion also addressed the difficulty of integrating AI with both structured and unstructured enterprise data. Eichholz cautioned against “letting perfect be the enemy of good” in data readiness, advocating for a use-case-driven approach that targets relevant data subsets rather than waiting for complete enterprise-wide clean-up.

Looking ahead, both speakers argued that the real goal for enterprises is a fully orchestrated, multi-agent system capable of reading from and writing to diverse data sources while operating within strict governance frameworks. Achieving this, they warned, requires careful platform selection, robust identity and authentication controls, and the ability to manage guardrails consistently across models.

Airia, which specialises in enterprise governance, security, and orchestration for AI agents, offers no-code prototyping, access to over 150 foundational models, and built-in observability and data-loss-prevention layers. Eichholz cited these capabilities — along with Airia’s ease of deployment and its support for democratising innovation across a workforce — as reasons for Pax8’s decision to partner rather than build entirely in-house.

With generative AI moving from hype to hard reality, Bermudez and Eichholz’s message was clear: success depends less on chasing the latest models and more on building the infrastructure, governance, and user adoption strategies that can turn AI pilots into lasting enterprise transformation.

AstraZeneca’s Chief Architect on Scaling Enterprise AI and the Rise of Agentic Platforms

At Ai4 2025, AstraZeneca’s Chief Architect Wayne Filin-Matthews — an important AI celebrity in experience and knowledge in the AI business world, important for CIJ EUROPE not to miss — joined Tricia Martínez-Saab, Co-Founder & CEO of AI infrastructure company Dapple, for a wide-ranging fireside chat on the realities of scaling enterprise AI in one of the world’s largest and most regulated industries.

Filin-Matthews, who brings nearly four decades of experience across senior technology roles at Microsoft, Dell, HSBC, and Accenture, leads global strategy and architecture for AstraZeneca’s IT operations spanning 126 markets. The company, the top pharmaceutical player in China, is in the midst of an ambitious expansion — targeting 20 new medicines in five years, doubling annual revenue from $50 billion to $100 billion, and building a $50 billion manufacturing site in Virginia. AI, he stressed, is central to enabling this scale without a proportional increase in AstraZeneca’s 10,000-strong IT workforce.

From Machine Learning to the “Agent Economy”
While AI has been part of AstraZeneca’s workflow for years, Filin-Matthews noted a marked industry shift in early 2024 toward “agentic” AI — platforms that operate autonomously and collaborate like teams. “Agents are the only way we can meet our science, operational, and sustainability goals at this pace,” he said. But implementing them at enterprise scale is not straightforward.

One challenge lies in building a “composability layer” — the infrastructure that allows agents to work across different platforms securely, traceably, and cost-effectively. Without it, enterprises risk budget overruns, compliance breaches, and inefficiencies. AstraZeneca’s approach is to democratise agent-building across multiple ecosystems — Microsoft for productivity, ServiceNow for automated IT processes, financial tools for optimisation — while enforcing strict controls over agent-to-agent communication to maintain compliance, particularly around sensitive cross-border data transfers.

The Overlooked Factor: Cognitive Behaviour of AI Teams
Filin-Matthews warned that too much focus is placed on the technology layer, with insufficient attention to the “cognitive behavioural” dynamics of agent teams. Just as human teams have diverse roles, effective AI teams require a mix of agent “personalities” — for example, even a procrastinator agent can serve a productive function in scientific collaboration. AstraZeneca is working with institutions like Stanford to model these dynamics for R&D, aiming to accelerate molecule prediction and drug discovery without proportionally expanding headcount.

Governance, Sovereignty, and the Cost Challenge
Operating in one of the most regulated industries, AstraZeneca must design AI systems that meet strict governance, sovereignty, and compliance standards. This includes rethinking not just tools but organisational structures — envisioning, for example, agent teams that autonomously manage governance workflows, with humans intervening only at key decision points.

Forecasting costs for complex agent-to-agent communication remains another major hurdle. Agents may shift between multiple models and platforms, incurring token, API, and processing fees that are difficult to predict. Filin-Matthews called for more mature forecasting tools from cloud providers and a sharper industry focus on optimising long-term and short-term agent memory for both compliance and efficiency.

Looking Ahead: Five Years to Maturity
Despite the momentum, Filin-Matthews cautioned that large-scale, fully mature agentic AI is still at least five years away. “In five years, we’ll have learned a lot, failed in some areas, and still not be where we need to be in governance and control,” he said. The most transformative developments will come from more sophisticated agent platforms and from restructuring enterprise operating models to fully leverage them.

Audience Concerns: Accuracy and Model Performance
In response to an audience question about accuracy loss when chaining multiple agents, Filin-Matthews pointed to emerging approaches that embed reasoning directly into the agent layer, slowing computation slightly to improve precision. He also predicted a potential shift away from the “large language model” terminology as models evolve to address performance and accuracy limitations.

While the technical challenges are considerable, Filin-Matthews’ message was clear: the future of enterprise AI will be defined not only by advances in agent platforms but also by how organisations adapt their structures, governance, and thinking to harness them safely and at scale.

Ai4 2025: Brooke Lorenz on Why AI Success Starts with People, Not Models

At Ai4 2025, Brooke Lorenz, Director of Market Research and Insights at DHI Group, Inc., delivered a solo talk titled “Finding the Right Talent in the AI Era,” warning that while companies are pouring millions into AI technology, many are neglecting the human expertise needed to make it work.

Lorenz opened with a scenario familiar to many in the audience: leadership teams eager to “invest more in AI” often focus on data, models, and infrastructure, but overlook the talent required to bring those systems to life. According to industry research she cited, nearly half of companies investing heavily in AI admit they lack the in-house expertise to operationalize it. Meanwhile, AI skills have rapidly become mainstream, appearing in nearly 40% of U.S. tech job postings, yet the supply of experienced practitioners has not kept pace with demand.

She outlined an “AI talent ecosystem” comprising three key groups. The first, “builders,” includes AI researchers, ML engineers, and data scientists — a small, highly competitive pool with long hiring cycles. The second, “orchestrators,” such as AI product managers and automation specialists, bridge business needs and technical capabilities and represent the fastest-growing segment. The third, “enhanced professionals,” includes existing developers, engineers, and even marketers leveraging AI tools like Copilot; this group, she stressed, is an untapped upskilling opportunity often ignored because AI isn’t in their job title.

Location trends in hiring, based on Lightcast labour market data, reveal California leading in total AI job postings but Texas and Minnesota posting the highest year-over-year growth. Demand is also rising beyond big tech, with industries like manufacturing, healthcare, aerospace, and consulting aggressively recruiting AI talent. Lorenz called this a “window of opportunity” for non-tech companies to attract candidates by meeting them where they are and showcasing what makes their organisation unique.

She also highlighted common hiring missteps. These include optimising for static job descriptions instead of evolving skill sets, rushing hiring into 30-day sprints unsuited to top candidates’ decision-making, and over-reliance on AI screening tools that erode trust. Her firm’s survey found 68% of tech professionals distrust fully AI-driven hiring, and nearly half would opt out if given the choice — a notable irony given these roles require AI expertise. Candidates, she noted, are equally likely to use AI in their own applications, creating a “conversation between AI tools” that recruiters must cut through with targeted, human-led engagement.

To win over top AI talent, Lorenz advised transparency about salary ranges, realistic requirements, and clear communication on how AI is used in hiring. Competitive compensation matters, but candidates also prioritise strategic impact, growth opportunities, flexibility, and the chance to work on meaningful projects. Retention hinges on similar factors: clear business impact, ongoing learning budgets, autonomy, and a culture of curiosity and ethical influence.

While some leaders assume they can’t compete with big tech, Lorenz’s research shows 71% of AI professionals are open to roles outside it. Undervalued industries such as manufacturing may have strong differentiators — like job stability — that, if effectively marketed, could give them an edge.

She closed with a reminder that AI strategy “doesn’t start with models; it starts with people.” The way companies hire shapes the teams that drive innovation. In a competitive market, trust and cultural alignment matter as much as technical skill, and the most effective hiring blends technology’s efficiency with the human connection that sustains long-term engagement.

Ai4 2025 Fireside Chat highlights “Women’s Leadership Role in AI Transformation”

The Ai4 2025 conference featured a candid and wide-ranging fireside chat on the future of Women in AI leadership, workplace culture, and inclusion, with Fortune journalist and Most Powerful Women Editor Emma Hinchliffe interviewing Margo Georgiadis, CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering and Co-Founder and CEO of Montai Therapeutics. The discussion explored how AI can serve as a partner to amplify human intelligence, productivity, and creativity—and the responsibility leaders have to ensure organizations are adaptive and empowered by it.

Georgiadis, who has held senior roles at McDonald’s, Mattel, and Google, described her current work in life sciences, where Montai Therapeutics is focused on creating small-molecule therapeutics for chronic disease. Despite breakthroughs in treatment, she noted that even among the most severely diagnosed patients, less than half have access to life-transforming medicines, and among all diagnosed patients, access drops below 10 percent. Her company uses AI to reimagine drug discovery, aiming to close that gap.

The conversation shifted to the challenges faced by AI-native startups and enterprise adopters. Georgiadis pointed out the fierce competition among foundation-model companies and AI-focused applications, with long-term survival hinging on becoming the “application of record” in industries like healthcare where user trust is critical. She emphasized that beyond competitive pay, culture is a decisive factor in attracting top talent, particularly women. Environments that empower employees to take creative risks, contribute meaningfully from day one, and feel genuinely valued are more likely to retain high performers.

She shared stories highlighting how culture influences women’s participation in AI, including instances where tone-deaf recruiting approaches alienated top female candidates. Many women, she said, prioritize impact and belonging over compensation alone. Leaders should re-examine recruitment processes, job descriptions, and promotion pathways to counter bias, using AI tools to broaden candidate pools and analyze hiring pipelines for inequities.

Georgiadis stressed that women’s representation in AI leadership is not a diversity box to tick but a business imperative. At a time when AI is reshaping industries, the design and deployment of these technologies must be inclusive to ensure products meet the needs of diverse users. Drawing on examples from her tenure at companies like Ancestry, she underscored the importance of involving varied perspectives in product development and testing to prevent bias—whether in consumer services or specialized B2B applications.

The discussion also addressed the persistent confidence gap in AI adoption. Surveys show that only around 30 percent of professional women feel comfortable with AI, compared to 74 percent of men. Georgiadis argued that closing this gap requires active engagement from the C-suite, with leaders dedicating two to three hours each week to learning about AI, experimenting with tools, and seeking out industry perspectives. She also identified “change integrators”—often women with both domain expertise and the ability to envision and communicate change—as key to overcoming cultural resistance to AI-driven transformation.

For women at earlier career stages, Georgiadis advised seeking environments aligned with their values, using personal networks to evaluate company culture, and being proactive in expressing career aspirations. Leaders, in turn, must recognize that cultural and gender differences influence how employees advocate for themselves and adjust talent management practices accordingly.

Closing the session, Georgiadis reiterated that AI’s true potential lies not in replacing human capability but in augmenting it. Leaders who commit to building adaptive, inclusive organizations will not only unlock greater innovation but also create workplaces where the next generation of AI talent—especially women—can thrive.

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