DigitalWallonia4.ai: assessment and actions

Supported by the Digital Agency, Agoria, the ICT Cluster Infopôle and Réseau IA, the the main objective of the “DigitalWallonia4.ai” program is to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in Wallonia and the development of of its Walloon ecosystem. Its official launch was celebrated on November 27, 2019 but the effective start took place on July 1, 2019. Here is a summary of the actions in progress (updated on a regular basis).

The DigitalWallonia4.ai project aims at developing  awareness on artificial intelligence in Wallonia. The strategy is broken down into four structuring axes, which are themselves made up of numerous initiatives:

• Society and AI;
• Businesses and AI;
• Skills and AI;
• Research, innovation, partnership and AI.

Numerous awareness-raising activities have taken place since the launch of the programme. They are aimed at companies, public authorities and citizens.

One of the first was the setting up of the DigitalWallonia4.ai program published on the Digital Wallonia platform which brings together all the resources (events, profiles, publications, etc.) related to the project.

• As part of this first axis of the DigitalWallonia4.ai program, in connection with the ethical and societal dimension of AI, a call for tenders was launched for realizing an impact study of AI, with a vision to assist the Walloon Government in its future decision-making. This contract was awarded on April 6, 2020 to the CRIDS / NADI of UNamur. The final report of this study is expected in the second quarter of 2021.
• Webinars to present industrial use cases and update on various topics related to AI including legal and ethical aspects within the framework of TRAIL'20 Workshops from 1 to 9/09/20, which preceded the event of launch of the TRAIL (Trusted IA Labs) consortium on September 10th, 2020. The presentations are available via this page (French only).

• As part of the new resources allocated to the DigitalWallonia4.ai program by the Walloon Government (WalGov), the continuation of the study of the societal impact of AI, and recommendations for the adoption of AI by the WalGov as part of the 2019-2021 start-up plan and its results is planned.
• Following on from the webinars previously organised as part of TRAIL, DigitalWallonia4.ai, TRAIL, AWEX and AI4Belgium are organising "AI Crossroads" every 3rd Wednesday of the month. These monthly events demonstrate AI application cases in companies and research results on various domains/themes impacted by AI technologies.
• The Belgian AI Week takes place during the week of 15 March. On this occasion, many interactive webinars will be offered to citizens, companies, researchers or the public sector. This AI Week is supported by AI4Belgium and DigitalWalonia4.ai through the promotion and support in the organisation of the event.
• Straddling the society and skills axis, a training programme in artificial intelligence for public administrations is about to start. It's organised jointly with the help of the School of Public Administration (EAP) and Numéria (consortium of competence centres) with whom we organise AI training courses in the framework of axis 3 (skills & AI).

The second pillar aims at supporting and accelerating the digital transformation processes within Walloon companies in order to create "augmented" products and services.

Two main actions were implemented in 2019 for this axis. A third one has just been launched in February 2021. These initiatives are considered the flagship actions of the DigitalWallonia4.ai programme. They include the Start IA and Tremplin IA support programmes, but also the new Cap IA programme. The Digital Agency's objective is to perpetuate this dynamic through a multi-year plan, allowing the launch of one or more support programmes per year.

The objective of Start IA is to support companies in their discovery of artificial intelligence, through a 3-day coaching session by one of the members of the Digital Wallonia pool of AI experts. More precisely, Start AI consists of analysing the company's activity, detecting AI opportunities and prioritising them according to their return on investment. To this end, the public market launched in September 2019 made it possible to identify AI players capable of providing such coaching. 15 companies were selected (out of a total of 50 experts). Today, the pool of AI Experts includes more than 30 experts in the field.

This pool of AI experts was created specifically for Start IA support, but of course does not represent the only bodies recognized by the Agency as having expertise in AI in the Walloon Region. The mapping of the entire AI ecosystem in Wallonia is available via the product & service tag artificial intelligence or via the DigitalWallonia4AI platform.

The illustration below shows the pool of AI experts created for the first Start IA support :

Tremplin IA is intended to set up demonstrators (PoCs) on artificial intelligence in Wallonia. The mission of Tremplin IA is to allow Walloon companies to implement AI demonstrators with the help of AI Experts selected by the companies themselves.

Tremplin IA is divided into two sub-categories: Tremplin IA - Individual PoCs and Collective PoCs:

• An individual PoC is a demonstrator set up by a single Walloon company, accompanied by an AI provider.
• A collective PoC is created by at least 2 companies (or at least one company, completed by an institution, research centre,...) to which the results of the PoC could benefit. Example: a competitiveness cluster could initiate a collective PoC on AI for the benefit of all its members.

The Cap IA support programme is aimed at companies with a mature AI product or service and aims to support them in the marketing of their AI solution. For this, Cap IA mobilizes a set of actors with multiple and varied skills that will accompany the company on the strategic level.

• A pool of AI experts has been set up for Start AI following DW public contracts. It now includes about twenty companies providing AI services.
• The second Start IA call for applications was launched. In total, 55 winning companies have benefited from the support of the Experts of the AI Experts pool.
• Three calls for AI Springboard projects were also launched (two individual and one collective). Despite the CoVid19 crisis, a total of 58 applications for individual PoCs and 7 for collectives have been received since the programme started. The DigitalWallonia4.ai Steering Committee selected 5 individual PoCs, 5 collective PoCs in the first call for applications, and 14 projects from 41 applications for the second call for applications AI Springboard - Individual PoCs.

• Accelerate the use of AI by our SME fabric by targeting priority sectors on the basis of the Start IA, Tremplin IA and Cap IA support programmes. The objective at the beginning of 2021 is to stimulate the demand for AI by our companies in all sectors and mainly to respond to the growing demand of companies for our programmes by allowing access to more Walloon companies.
• Reinforce the new programme called Cap IA to support Scale Up in their market entry.
• Set up a call for Start AI projects dedicated to public organisations.

(French only up to now)

• Cartography of the Pool of AI 'experts of Digital Wallonia.
• List of companies awarded for the first Start IA call.
• List of the 10 projects awarded for the first Tremplin IA call.
• Call for participation Start IA 02 and extension of the Pool of AI experts.
• The winners of the 2nd call for AI Start projects
• The results of the 2nd call for AI Springboard projects - Individual POCs
• The second call for IA Springboard projects - Collective POCs
• The opening of the 3rd call for Start IA projects - Open continuously
• The first Cap IA call for applications

The training and development of skills in AI are essential to help our Region get confortable with these new technologies.

In order to achieve this, a first level of awareness of AI is available through the posting of the online course on AI developed by Agoria. This course is available free of charge thanks to the DigitalWallonia4.ai program over the platform. This online course is a first level training for companies and individuals. Thanks to DigitalWallonia4.ai also, the panel of use cases presented on this online course, mostly from Flanders or other European countries, will soon be expanded by around ten use cases from Walloon companies.

This Agoria online course, first and foremost business oriented, will be complemented by the new national online course, Element of AI , set up by as an online course for all the Belgian citizen.

In addition, two public call for tenders were launched across the whole of Wallonia for the establishment of a regional training program on AI. These call for tenders concern two levels of training in AI. The possibilities offered by artificial intelligence are constantly evolving. The training offered aims to present the applications of artificial intelligence :

1. within companies (level 1: awareness) ;
2. but also to train IT professionals in the use of AI (level 2: skills development).

While the basic training will mainly try to answer the question "Why AI ?", the advanced one will allow participants to understand the issues and master the tools and techniques (the "How?").

These contracts were awarded on April 10, 2020 to the NUMERIA competence center consortium (except CEPEGRA), and will be coordinated by Technifutur (Olivier Matz).

The full training programme is available on the Numéria-academy website.

• The first AI basic training courses were launched remotely by NUMERIA. 3 training sessions took place (with an average of sixty participants for each session):
• Artificial Intelligence (AI): opportunities in marketing and customer relations ;
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its opportunities in the industrial sector ;
• Artificial intelligence (AI) at the service of public bodies or businesses.