Beyond the Demo: Turning Gen AI Hype into Enterprise Reality at KPN
GenAI & Data
Gen AI demos are dazzling - but in a live, customer-facing enterprise, the real challenge starts the moment the demo ends. Join KPN for an honest look at our journey - navigating early setbacks, launching our first foundational use case, and uncovering the critical insights that simple bots can't solve. We'll share how a parallel success in traditional Machine Learning created a fascinating strategic challenge, forcing us to think beyond a pure Gen AI approach and towards an integrated, hybrid future. This session steps beyond the hype to explore key questions and practical considerations for anyone aiming to build AI that lasts in the real world.
Time & Place
October 30, 2025
14:30 - 15:00
Zurich I+II
Limited to 180 participants.
Meet Your Intructors
Mark Wessel
Product Manager Digital / Voice Assistant & Gen AI, KPN
Mark is the Product Manager for KPN's Digital & Voice Assistant and Gen AI, where he leads the charge in creating highly personalized and relevant customer experiences. Since 2018, Mark has been instrumental in developing KPN's mature, omnichannel digital assistant, grounding it in a 'digital first, human assisted' strategy. His current focus is on embedding generative AI to move beyond simple interactions and tackle the real-world challenges of building truly helpful and integrated solutions across the organization. With a Master's in Computer Science from Delft University of Technology and a background in digital strategy at Accenture, Mark is passionate about using technology to make customer experiences effortless and more enjoyable.
What To Expect
Who Is This For?
Product Managers & Product Owners
AI & Digital Strategists
Business and Technology Executives
Customer Experience (CX) & Contact Center Leaders
AI/ML Practitioners interested in real-world application and strategy
Pre-Requisites
No Prerequisits
What You'll Learn & Do?
From Setback to Strategy: How early learnings from initial pilots shaped our entire approach to customer-facing AI.
Deploying Your First Use Case: Balancing the demand for business impact with the need for a manageable, foundational scope.
The Old Meets New Challenge: When a successful 'classic' ML model meets a new Generative AI system, and the hard questions that follow.
Structuring the Next Frontier: towards Agentic AI and tackling the challenges of new channels like voice.
Agenda & Activities
Agenda for this session
30 min presentation
15 min Q&A
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