Speech Summary: Businesses across all industries are facing increasing challenges, which put their competitiveness at stake. Challenges range from disruptions driven by world conflicts and global politics to a perceived increase in socioeconomic risks. With the increased competition, businesses make a considerable effort to sustain a competitive edge in their arenas. A factor ever impacting business performance is technology—a major driver of competitiveness, accelerating innovation and new product development.  The purpose of this speech is to suggest a strategy to deal with the danger posed by Emerging Disruptive Technologies (EDTs). It suggests businesses how to design a well-thought-out plan that will help them be more resilient and competitive when faced with the threat of possible EDTs.  This plenary also intends to provide academics as well as practitioners with a strategic problem solving framework, which can be further customised for any organisation or strategic situation where the threat of EDTs is a real concern. Overall, and moreover an EDT-influenced strategy is critical for supporting decisions concerning technology investment, capability development, and other strategic initiatives.

About the Speaker: Dr. Pedro Agua gradated from the Portuguese Naval Academy with a Naval Sciences degree, and holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management from Instituto Superior Técnico - Lisbon University. He holds an MBA from IESE Business School. A Former Naval Officer, has been Head of Department onboard Naval Vessels. He also had a career in the business world, in the telecommunications and engineering sectors, at home and abroad, where he became senior manager for several years in UK, having been responsible for the leadership and management of multinational teams across three countries simultaneously. From Jan. 2023 to Nov. 2024 he was the Deputy Director for CINAV (the PRT Navy Research Centre), and currently is its Scientific Council Chairman and an associate professor at the Portuguese Naval Academy, where he teaches project management and defence systems acquisition. Since 2022 he has been a national representative for NATO STO, specifically at the SCI (Systems Concepts and Integration) Panel.

About the SIG Panel: The HORIZON-project AI4REALNET (ai4realnet.eu) aims to develop AI-based solutions for critical networks that are traditionally operated by humans, and where AI systems complement and augment human abilities. Such, the project incorporates three core aspects. Firstly, we take a socio-technical perspective on system design, where humans and AI are combined to achieve joint optimization based on their qualitative differences, with the aim of enhancing each other's strengths and compensating for each other's weaknesses. Secondly, highly skilled and experienced human experts are in the focus of the project. To augment their capabilities that are based on both, explicit as well as tacit knowledge requires different approaches than developing AI to support consumers in their everyday lives. And thirdly, the joint efforts of humans and AI involve critical networks where the stakes are high and decisions are potentially risky. The objective of the proposed workshop is to discuss AI4REALNET work in progress with conference participants.