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On January 8, 2026, IÉSEG organized its first AI Day, a day for the School’s professors entirely dedicated to artificial intelligence. Designed as an opportunity for awareness-raising, sharing, and collective reflection, the event attracted around 100 professors representing all departments. Let’s look back on this first edition with Loïc PLÉ, Director of Teaching and Learning at IÉSEG.

Why was the first IÉSEG AI Day organized in January 2026?

Artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, is now omnipresent. It was important to move beyond both the hype and the anxiety-inducing discourse to offer a structured time for reflection and exchange.

Although the announcement of this day was generally well received, some professors were more skeptical, thinking that it would simply be “another day riding the AI wave.” They told me this at the end of the day when they came to see me to thank us for organizing a day that they found extremely enriching.

This sums up very well the challenge we faced: by organizing this first IÉSEG AI Day, we wanted to show that AI is not an abstract concept or a mere trend, but a set of tools that already have a very concrete impact on our daily lives.

In concrete terms, what were the objectives of this day?

There were three objectives. First, to continue to raise awareness among our faculty about the challenges of artificial intelligence, not only generative AI, but AI in the broadest sense.

Second, to enable everyone to become aware of the real impact of these tools on our professions, through three key areas: teaching and learning, research, and administrative tasks related or not to the first two areas.

This day was fully in line with IÉSEG’s AI strategy, which structures the systemic approach implemented within the School to promote the adoption and use of these new technologies.

How was the day structured?

We deliberately opted for a very concrete approach, centered around several formats. There was, of course, an awareness-raising and information dimension, but also a big part dedicated to experience sharing, almost an “informal” training we could say.

We started with a keynote speech from the Digital Education Council, then organized two series of workshops. While each of them had a different scope, they all shared the goal of helping participants understand the usefulness of AI in their daily professional lives. Finally, a Speed-dAIting session provided an opportunity for informal discussions about how others are using AI and the questions they had.

Seeing what colleagues and peers are doing, how they are using AI in their classes or research, provides a wealth of ideas. It allows us to look beyond the hype and better understand the real value of these tools.

Why did you call on the Digital Education Council to open the day?

We wanted to start the day with a presentation by Danny BIELIK and Alessandro DI LULLO, respectively President and CEO of the Digital Education Council, because it is now a leading international player on AI issues in higher education.

The Digital Education Council is a global alliance of higher education institutions, academic leaders, and technology partners, whose mission is to help institutions integrate artificial intelligence in a strategic, responsible, and operational manner. Although relatively new, it already brings together more than 100 institutions in over 30 countries in Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania. This diversity enables it to produce particularly robust comparative analyses and benchmarks.

Unlike many other initiatives, the DEC does is not limited to general forward-looking discourse. It conducts large-scale international surveys, publishes well-documented reports, and leads thematic working groups on key topics such as “Teaching and Learning Online,” the use of AI in assessment, student engagement, and institutional governance of AI. Their recent work includes in-depth studies on how AI is transforming assessment, teaching practices, and the skills expected in the job market.

What did their presentation at AI Day actually contribute?

Their presentation was particularly striking because it was extremely structured, quantified, and substantiated. They didn’t just present what is being done elsewhere: they showed the real impact of AI on businesses, universities, and, more broadly, higher education, with precise data and concrete examples.

This allowed teachers to take a step back and understand that the challenges of AI do not only concern our internal teaching practices, but also the way our students will work in the future. The feedback was very positive: many colleagues appreciated the relevance of the international comparisons presented and the seriousness with which they had been conducted.

Can you give some examples of the workshops offered during the day?

The workshops covered a wide range of topics. To name a few, in the area of academic research, Louis MANGENEY presented how he uses AI in data collection, and Jean-Baptiste ARNOLD showed how he develops customized assessment tools based on a workflow to generate and process questionnaires.

In terms of teaching, Benjamin BŒUF offered a workshop on integrating personalized AI agents into a business game to help students interpret quantitative results and make iterative decisions. A workshop offered by Edward FARRINGTON and Flore BENVENUTI gave teachers an immersive virtual reality experience to improve their public speaking skills. Finally, Jonas DEBRULLE drew on his latest book to explain how to create avatars and videos to enrich courses.

Personally, the (rather technical) workshops I participated in all gave me ideas for improving my courses and rethinking the structure of my flipped classroom, which I teach in the first year.

Did the “speed dating” format contribute to the dynamics of the day?

Yes, clearly. The principle was simple: one person proposed a theme, a project, or a difficulty encountered with AI, and three or four participants came to discuss it with them during twenty-minute sessions. The goal was to encourage informal exchanges, share points of view, and come up with concrete ideas.

This format worked well and reinforced the sense of community around AI issues.

What lessons have you learned from this first edition?

This event was a real success because the momentum it created did not stop at the end of the day. Some professors have already come back to me and the entire CETI (Center for Educational and Technological Innovation) team with project ideas, requests for licenses for specific tools, proposals for articles describing what they have implemented, or simply the desire to develop new educational uses. This was exactly our goal in organizing this day: to start a global movement within the School in order to get the entire faculty on board.

How do you plan to follow up on IESEG IA Day?

The idea is not to multiply large-scale events. The main challenge is rather follow-up and dissemination. In the coming months, we will contact all participants to understand what they have implemented, ensure that they continue to exchange ideas with each other, and identify the concrete projects that have been launched to see if we can replicate them across all IÉSEG programs.

The goal is to develop a real sense of community around AI, both within the School and outside it.

More broadly, how is AI changing the role of a school like IÉSEG?

AI forces us to ask fundamental questions. Not only about our teaching methods, but also about what we teach. Some highly operational skills are likely to become obsolete quickly, while more cross-functional skills—critical thinking, formalization and problem solving, analytical skills—are becoming even more central.

This means rethinking our content, our priorities, and our role as teachers and researchers. This day has begun to instill these reflections in each of us. It is the first step in a broader dynamic, fully aligned with the AI strategy and even with the very raison d’être of the School.