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Belgium 19-5-26 Invitation Only Physical english

AI vs AI in Cybersecurity: When defenders and attackers both use AI

The game has changed, clearly. Attackers have AI, defenders have AI, and both sides are learning faster than anyone expected, or maybe the attackers are just a bit faster. What used to take hours now happens in seconds, and detection windows close before alerts even appear. It’s adaptation beyond automation, and no one gets to sit still. But every promise of AI-driven defence comes with a price. The tools are expensive to train, maintain, and monitor. Mistakes cost more too. False positives drain teams, model drift hides real threats, and poisoned data turns protection into confusion. So now it’s not only about defending networks, it’s about defending the defenders themselves, from fatigue, blind trust, and automation gone wrong. So how do you keep visibility when both sides use the same weapons? How do you detect intent when patterns look human but aren’t? How do you justify cost when failure still happens, just faster? Let’s explore what happens when algorithms face each other on both sides of the firewall, and what new defences emerge when speed alone is no longer enough. A closed conversation about a future where cybersecurity becomes an AI vs AI battle, and humans still have to win.

Belgium 21-5-26 All Members Physical english

Replace, Wrap, or Rebuild? : Core modernization in financial services and insurance, without a full rewrite.

For banks, insurers, and other financial services leaders, core modernization is rarely a simple technology decision. The harder question is what to replace, what to wrap, what to rebuild selectively, and what to leave alone. This round table brings together senior peers to discuss how they are making those choices under real constraints: resilience, control, regulatory scrutiny, delivery speed, vendor dependency, and the risk of getting sequencing wrong. The conversation will focus on practical judgment, where modernization creates value, where it adds risk, and how to move forward without triggering another multi-year transformation cycle. A small-group discussion for leaders looking for clear decisions, credible trade-offs, and peer perspective.

Belgium 22-5-26 Invitation Only Physical english

Managing Vendor Lock-In: Balancing dependence, cost, and control in strategic partnerships

Every vendor swears their platform is open, flexible, and built for freedom. Then comes the renewal date. The price goes up, migration looks painful, and “strategic partnership” starts to feel more like dependency. Most organisations don’t get trapped overnight, they walk into it one contract at a time. Broadcom, anyone? We know lock-in isn’t only technical, it’s commercial, architectural, and even cultural. Once tools shape how teams work, switching becomes not only costly but politically impossible. So how do you manage dependency without losing leverage? What do you do when moving away costs more than staying? How do you negotiate from a position of weakness? And what governance models help prevent lock-in before it happens? Let’s share how to keep options open, make vendors compete without breaking partnerships, and find leverage even when it seems there’s none left. A closed conversation for those who’ve learned that freedom in IT is rarely free.

May 19, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

AI vs AI in Cybersecurity: When defenders and attackers both use AI

May 22, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

Managing Vendor Lock-In: Balancing dependence, cost, and control in strategic partnerships

May 26, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual english

The Career Path of the Cloud Engineer: From system builder to strategic enabler of digital scale

The cloud engineer’s world keeps expanding. It started with provisioning and automation, but now it touches everything: resilience, security, cost, and even business continuity. What used to be a back-end function has become one of the most visible roles in digital operations. Yet with that visibility comes pressure: constant evolution, constant firefighting, and very little time to step back and ask, “Where is this career actually going?”

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Revolutionizing customer service: ERGO Insurance uses AI and Microsoft Azure to provide 24/7 personalized support

Providing top-tier customer service is a cornerstone of ERGO. To serve thousands of customers sustainably, ERGO Insurance used a Microsoft Azure-powered AI Virtual Agent (VA) developed by EBO. The solution revolutionized the company’s customer service by providing personalized, 24/7 assistance.

ERGO Insurance, a part of the ERGO Group, is committed to offer comprehensive insurance, pensions, and investment services. "Our goal is not just to offer top-tier insurance services, but also top-tier customer experience," begins Rea Theleriti, Chief Customer and Digital Transformation Officer at ERGO Insurance.

However, this goal came with a challenge: sustainably serving thousands of customers round-the-clock. To overcome this, ERGO Insurance wanted to revolutionize its approach, starting with its call centers. “Over the years, we have been focusing on instilling excellence in our intermediaries,” Theleriti explains. “More recently, we started looking into innovating the whole customer journey. We wanted to create an omnichannel experience for our customers, where they could use their preferred communication channels.”

Taking a step forward, ERGO Insurance cooperated with EBO, a Microsoft partner and leader in customer engagement automation, to implement, Χαρά (Joy), an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven Virtual Agent (VA) built on Microsoft Azure.

Technology with a human touch

What makes the Virtual Agent particularly unique in the Greek insurance market is its outstanding recognition rate. Χαρά was built using Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning techniques, Azure Cognitive Services, and Azure Bot Services. EBO’s NLP experts worked with ERGO Insurance and Microsoft to build a VA that can have two-way human-like conversations with customers. The VA’s sentiment analysis can identify users’ emotions and adapt to the conversation accordingly. Finally, Χαρά’s machine learning capabilities keep its language library updated, enabling the VA to learn, adapt and handle more complex tasks.

With these features, the VA can handle both predefined and open-ended questions. “The Virtual Agent’s 95.5 percent recognition rate allows it to understand messages from customers and respond appropriately,” explains Konstantinos Chatzisymeon, Chief Information and Processes Transformation Officer at ERGO Insurance.

Combined with a conversational tone and the ability to communicate in 'Greeklish', a blend of Greek and Latin characters, users experience a more personal touch than with usual chatbots. "We aim to communicate with our customers in whichever way they prefer," explains Theleriti. “The more dialogues and services we offer, the more we can understand our customers. And though it may be a competitive advantage now, a Virtual Agent will become standard practice in the future.”

Simpler, more personalized interactions

One version of the Virtual Agent mainly addressed frequently asked questions (FAQ), enabling customers quick access to information regarding insurance coverage, emergency procedures, and more. While this helped with decreasing the workload for one-touch tickets, ERGO Greece wanted to create a more personalized experience. It integrated the VA directly into its core systems to offer more functions and perform a variety of operations.

The VA was then deployed to assist with policy renewals, enabling customers to verify their payment amounts and methods. Moreover, users could register for the customer portal via the VA. “It walks customers through registration with a dialog-driven process, which is more personal than filling in a standard form by yourself,” elaborates Theleriti. “This makes people feel more comfortable, and that encourages more sign ups.”

Happier, more engaged customers

Within four months of using Virtual Agent, ERGO Greece saw better customer experience. "Achieving 85 percent customer satisfaction rate for dialogues initiated through the VA is a great sign. It shows that our users are happy with these interactions," remarks Theleriti.

Providing 24/7 support has also had a positive impact on the company’s policy renewal process. Typically, once customers are sent a notification to renew their policy, they would have to find the notice and contact an agent or call center. Since the burden of the process lies on the customer, some may just forgo renewing their policies.

Now, the renewal process is simplified with the VA. Customers can request and access information easily even without specific policy details. They only need to provide their name and tax identification number or vehicle plate number. They can then make the payment online. “Customers sometimes renew their policy twice a year, so the easier we make it for them to make payments, the more value we are offering as a company. Having the VA significantly helps us manage the payment system, as we’re handling around 3,000 transactions per month,” describes Theleriti.

Effective human-AI partnership

While the VA can fully operate automatically, ERGO Insurance has full control over conversational workflows and can manage, build, or enhance conversation flows at any point in time. Should a customer conversation require human intervention, Χαρά automatically transfers the conversation seamlessly to a human agent. “In four months, 83 percent of chats were completely handled end-to-end by the VA. This has eased our agent workload and enabled us to focus on more complex business tasks,” says Theleriti.

Following the successful pilot phase, ERGO Insurance is set to implement further use cases of the VA. The company is hoping that it will become the starting point for many core processes, including renewals and claims. “The most crucial consideration is how we integrate technology into our customer journey. If it's supplementary, it won't create value, and people won't use it,” elaborates Chatzisymeon. “Our goal is to digitize and automate our processes to truly revolutionize the experience by making the interaction conversational via the VA.”

“EBO is proud to have collaborated with ERGO Insurance on its digital transformation journey,” shares Dr. Gege Gatt, CEO at EBO. “We are excited about the future potential of the VA to serve as the starting point for many of ERGO Insurance’s core processes. EBO remains committed to integrating technology seamlessly into the customer journey to create truly transformative experiences."

Reflecting on the journey so far, Theleriti notes, “I place great value on our partners, EBO and Microsoft, and our staff who implemented this solution. Transformation isn't solely driven by technology. How we use technology and what we choose to do with it is most critical in how we’ll transform customer experience in the future.”

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