Endeavor Greece invited people of its network to talk about “How will Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain transform the greek economy” during Decentralized 2019, a conference organized for the 3rd time by the University of Nicosia, held on October 30th – November 1st 2019, in Athens. Nikos Moraitakis, co-founder & CEO of Workable, Alexis Pantazis, co-founder & CEO of Hellas Direct, Astyanax Kanakakis, co-founder & CEO of Norblock, Kostis Gkiokas, Lead Software Engineer of Plum Fintech and Sotiris Bantas, founder & CEO of Centaur Analytics, participated in the panel discussion. Athanasios Ladopoulos, founder of LAPO Blockchain, moderated the panel. 

As it emerged from the discussion, the use of Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain can overthrow the greek entrepreneurship and economy as well as people’s everyday lives, while Greece’s benefit from the integration of the new technologies can reach even €190 million by 2035. Also, the speakers agreed that Greece can become a hub for research and growth for other countries and therefore an example of innovation for South Europe. However, the mindset of greek people must change, if we want our country to be able to follow this technological evolution.  

Nikos Moraitakis mentioned that “Blockchain can do things that in the past seemed impossible. Its use will change the nature of many jobs and will unsettle all the national security systems that people have been using so far”. Also, he said that “Artificial Intelligence can change the importance of some elements in people’s resumes, as it will change the way resumes are being screened and evaluated”.

According to Alexis Pantazis: “Change is inevitable, even if someone is never completely ready for it. In the insurance sector, blockchain will allow the safer transfer of data and the safeguarding of users’ personal records. The major difficulty lies in coordinating all the parties involved”. “The biggest challenge is that technology is ready, but people are not” said Astyanax Kanakakis. 

Kostis Gkiokas said that “The technological progress is something that people must adopt. However, the pace of integration can differ from country to country. Nevertheless, the next generations will become more and more familiar with the new technologies, it’s a natural procedure”. 

According to Sotiris Bantas, “In order to create a sustainable, competitive advantage for Greece, the new technologies must be accessible to every company, everywhere on the planet. The competitive advantage consists of using different technologies and skills that are uncommon in his place. Also, one must not forget that Greece has very strong foundations in Mathematics and Biology and that our universities are capable of producing this whole set of skills.”