In March 2025, Sofia hosted the AI Innovation Summit 2025, a full-day event exploring how artificial intelligence is beginning to shape the way companies operate, communicate, and grow. Organised with the support of the Bulgarian Industrial Association, which also coordinates the AI in Mentoring project, the event created a space for practical exchange between businesses, trainers, and tech professionals.
The focus was not on abstract theories or distant possibilities. Instead, participants shared concrete examples of how AI is being used right now in areas like recruitment, project management, data analysis, and internal communication. Many of the sessions centred around one key question: how can companies actually integrate AI into their everyday work?
This question is also at the heart of our project. While the summit addressed the business world more broadly, the discussions strongly echoed the goals of AI in Mentoring, especially when it comes to building skills and confidence among staff. The need for practical training, support, and clear use cases came up again and again, underlining how important it is to prepare people, not just systems, for the changes AI brings.
As our consortium finalises the AI in Mentoring training programme for company mentors, events like this remind us why this work matters. Helping mentors feel ready to explore AI tools in their everyday guidance of apprentices isn’t just a nice extra – it’s part of a bigger shift already underway.
The summit showed that the future of work is arriving quickly.
Through our training, we hope to make sure mentors, and the apprentices they support, are ready to be part of it.
