AI Guild Annual Open Letter

Advancing the AI Guild

Second letter to AI Guild members and shareowners

The first letter in autumn 2020 announced the registration of the AI Guild Gmbh (Berlin, HRB 208192B). For the go-to-market, the AI Guild chose

• #datalift with a focus on deploying use cases to advance AI adoption; and
• #datacareer with an emphasis on establishing accreditation as the quality standard in the profession.

The AI Guild has 1200+ members (please apply to join here). Members’ key expectations remain community networking, business opportunities (e.g., consulting, freelance), and career development (e.g., mentoring, coaching, learning). The AI Guild delivers with the AI Guild dinner series, the #datalift events, the #datacareer program, and B2B services for advancing AI adoption.

This second annual letter

1. Reviews the highlights from the past 12 months
2. Introduces the AI Guild shareowner and business agreement
3. Outlines the vision for 2022, especially the addition of Robust AI as a business service.

Highlights of 2021

#datalift No 1 to 6 (September 2020 to November 2021) featured use cases in production (YouTube playlist here). The challenge in Europe is realizing the business value of AI, which hinges on the technical feasibility of deployment, the business value of the use case, and the scalability of the solutions.

Thank you to the AI Guild members who have shown more than 25 use cases in production, providing practical and comparative insight on how companies realize the benefits of data and algorithms. More than three-quarters of the registered 5000+ audience is in Europe.

1. More than half are practitioners in the field, and another 20% are business executives like executive directors, technology managers, and founders. About 20% are talents in research or education (students).
2. About 40% are senior experts, and 30% are entry-level practitioners. Notably, 25% of the audience are managers, directors, CxO, and business owners.

#datalift is the go-to platform for experts advancing AI adoption in Europe. The AI Guild keeps identifying use cases in production and works with companies and practitioners to share insight and detail for better and faster deployment.

#datacareer is the AI Guild’s forum for enhancing practitioners’ careers. The challenge in Europe is demonstrating the business value of specialized career paths and ladders to the CxO level. We work to build teams with trusted leaders and significant business impact.

Thank you to the AI Guild members who

1. Set the highest standard by establishing the AI Guild accreditation, recognizing the leaders in Europe qualified to the highest standard for technical competence, ethical behavior, business impact, and benefits to society.
2. Have piloted competency profiles for the Senior-level, identifying the go-to experts in Data Analytics, Data Science, Data Engineering, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, MLOps, NLP, and Computer Vision.

#datacareer by the AI Guild combines online information sessions (via Eventbrite) and paid support services for accreditation, competency profiles, and validated CVs. To practitioners, the AI Guild offers a risk-free pay-later option. Career support is free at the point of use. Users only pay once they achieve a measurable career improvement (e.g., new role, promotion, pay rise).

1200+ members in November 2021

AI Guild shareowner agreement

The AI Guild members opted for a for-profit setup. All members have the opportunity to be shareowners. Together, we demonstrate the commitment to advancing AI adoption. The investment is made via an investment company for AI Guild members, securing the right for anyone to invest from €500 to €10,000.

The following ideas govern the proposal.

• The investment company follows best practices, including e.g. investor engagement, business partnering, share dividends and trading.
• Investment is an individual choice, and you may invest silently or make it public.
• For risk management, you might consider investing up to the equivalent of an annual bonus or holiday.

The investment company is set up by 01 May 2022. The investment period is from 01 June to 31 August 2022. The first meeting of all shareowners and any AI Guild member interested in investing takes place in person in Berlin from 10.00–12.00 on Saturday, 25 June 2022.

Vision for 2022

The AI Guild GmbH has tied the #datalift platform to the #datacareer quality standard for providing B2B services as Robust AI. A paid proof-of-value was delivered in 2021.

For establishing the AI Guild on the market in 2022, the vision is as follows.

1. Robust AI. Partner with 3 to 5 companies seeking industry leadership by productionizing data analytics and machine learning.
2. #datacareer. Set the highest standard by defining competency standards for the major career paths in data analytics and machine learning.
3. #datalift. Run the #datalift summit with 100+ speakers and workshops for 1000+ attendees.

The highlight of 2022 is the #datalift summit in Berlin from 22–24 June 2022, live and in-person. The summit includes the following highlights:

1. The speakers’ dinner is on Wednesday, 22 June 2022.
2. A public accreditation ceremony recognizes the leaders in the field on Thursday, 23 June 2022.
3. The AI Guild summer party for all 1200+ members and friends on Friday, 24 June 2022

Get your tickets to the #datalift summit here https://www.thedatalift.eu

Get your tickets and join 1200+ AI Guild members

Dânia Meira and Chris Armbruster for the AI Guild GmbH (Berlin, HRB 208192B).