Trías de Bes: Adopt AI or risk falling behind

Tomorrow at 19:00 at the Creand building in Andorra la Vella, entrepreneurship and innovation expert Fernando Trías de Bes will give a talk titled “Investing in Times of Artificial Intelligence,” examining the usefulness of AI and the keys to its implementation.

He says AI is a revolution comparable to an industrial revolution in terms of impact, and that its effects extend into social, educational and business spheres. Firms that are last to adopt AI risk being disadvantaged if its application improves productivity, but the shift can also create opportunities.

Studies show productivity can increase between 20% and 40%, depending on the sector. For small and medium-sized enterprises, Trías de Bes recommends starting with basic tools such as ChatGPT or Bard to understand how they work; true implementation, he argues, will follow through the specific applications that are developed.

More than 70,000 specialised apps are being created, he notes, and companies should monitor developments closely. If a business lacks the internal capacity to evaluate or implement these tools, outsourcing to an advisory firm is a sensible option. Ignoring the trend, he warns, is not acceptable.

These applications will have the most immediate impact on areas like human resources—where they can craft job adverts and shortlist candidates, explaining their reasoning—and customer service. While AI will automate routine tasks and some content generation, Trías de Bes stresses that elements such as intent, tone and context in communications will still require human input.

Rather than causing wholesale job loss, he frames the change as professional reconversion: workers will be redeployed towards activities that add higher value. The central challenge for companies, he says, is understanding how AI affects their specific business model. At this early stage, depending on which applications emerge, the effect may be limited to particular tasks or extend to an entire value proposition.

He outlines four phases in AI’s impact on business: the current phase of productivity gains; subsequent changes in market dynamics; shifts in competitive intensity that could eliminate some intermediaries; and, finally, potential alterations to the structure of certain sectors. Which sectors will be most affected remains unpredictable.

Despite the disruptive potential of AI, Trías de Bes insists that impact analysis relies on traditional strategic tools—such as SWOT analysis. The technology may be new and dazzling, but assessing its effects is an analogue exercise grounded in strategy and human analytical capacity.