Supporting Belgian SMEs with AI: insights from BECI's CEO Thierry Geerts

What if the quickest route to AI success isn't about building new systems. We sit down with Thierry Geerts, CEO of Beci, Brussels Chamber of Commerce and former Google Belgium director, to explore why small businesses in Brussels might be better placed than large corporations to harness AI's potential right now. Thierry argues convincingly for practical use over invention, suggesting that the region's high wages and pragmatic talent make ready-made AI tools a strategic advantage.

We challenge the myths surrounding AI-driven job loss and examine the Brussels labour market with fresh data. Thierry reveals how his team used AI to uncover around 100,000 open positions—showing that the job gap is more about discovery and matching than scarcity. From automated translation that prepares businesses for export to AI copilots enhancing customer relationships, he explains how leaders should view AI as an opportunity first, then a tool for efficiency. The key is adoption: empower your team, redesign workflows, and measure the gains so that time saved translates into value created.  

Thierry also introduces Homo Digitalis, a mindset recognising that employees already engage with AI in their personal lives. Companies that restrict tools at work create a cultural mismatch and lose momentum. We discuss what Belgium needs next — not another hype cycle, but a clear AI master plan connecting universities, policy, and businesses for long-term value. Looking five years ahead, AI should feel as familiar as your smartphone—some teams will lead because they started small, learned quickly, and expanded what worked. If you're seeking a plan that's grounded, measurable, and human-centred, this conversation is your guide.

Join us and listen to all episodes on www.pwc.be/aiunscripted

Transcript

Setting The Brussels AI Stage

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to the next episode of our AI unscripted series. Today we're gonna talk about business. We're gonna talk about specifically business in the Brussels area because I'm here joined with uh Thierry Hirt, uh CEO of BC, which is basically the Brussels Chamber of Commerce. But of course, Thierry has a specific background, and that's also the reason why I definitely wanted to speak to Thierry because, of course, he is the um previous director of Google uh Belgium, um, and he's also involved in winter circus and all that stuff. We're gonna talk about that later on. Pathieri, welcome. Thanks for joining. It's a pleasure. So it's not a coincidence that if you look at BaCie, Chamber of Commerce, Brussels, that AI is predominantly uh on the website also and part of the vision statement.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yeah, we we help companies to thrive in the actual world. Yeah, and the actual world is including AI. And so we have communities about talents, we have communities about um exposed uh, we have communities about EHD, but definitely we needed one on uh on AI and digitalization, and that became one of the main uh main topics uh because it's the main topic for companies today, so that we can domestify, that we can help companies out, um, and also to give some trainings, but also connect companies with each other so they can exchange best practices.

From Google To Chamber Leadership

SPEAKER_01 1:26

But you have a background at Google. Um how different is that? Because you're talking about BC and it's the Chamber of Commerce. Big difference, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Well, it's a big difference or not. Um, I think uh at Google we were really connected with the outside world. You know, you you feel the city, you feel you you feel the country, you know what people are searching, you know what is happening on technology. And in the chamber of commerce, you have the same thing. We just have this connection with companies. Um, I think the difference is working for an international company or corporate company, or working for an SME, which is the case here. That's that's a big difference. But about the the job is there is less difference that you can uh think of. Uh at Google, my work at the end was a lot of policy and and communication, and obviously we are here to defend the the benefits of 35,000 companies. That's the volume that we had that as customers uh at Google as well. Yeah, so many SMEs uh here.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

So are they really proactively talking about uh AI based on your experience, or is that a bit of a well is particularly interesting because you have all types of companies in Brussels.

Why SMEs Can Move Faster With AI

SPEAKER_00 2:34

You have uh you know the PwC of the Google of this world, they come in the in the headquarters on in Brussels, and you have very small companies, one-person companies, um, and for very diverse origin. So you could say, well, they don't need AI or they cannot use AI and this first of your wrong. Um, but for big companies, you can afford a consultant, you can have you have top management being educated about it, it's not so obvious for an SME. And so that's where we come in uh to offer to those all types of score companies that kind of support. But um, in fact, it's easier for a small company to adopt AI than for a big company. Uh, two main things for that. Um, and the first thing is compliance. Um, as a big corporation, it's very hard to be fully compliant, it's super important. Um, but if you are an SME, you can just start doing it. Uh okay, you cannot do anything but a lot of things you can just do. Uh, and secondly, resistance to change. Um, the bigger the organizations, most of the time when there is a change, it's middleman blocking. So even if you have if you have an SME and the CEO, the owner is convinced, he can decide and start on Monday, which is impossible. Of a company of 1,000 people, they will they will have unions, they will have board of directors and other things that you interact, and you see that with innovation, sometimes it's easier to be small.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Yeah, of course, scale is also important. So, is that then a bit the role that BC also plays in sharing best practices?

SPEAKER_00 4:03

I think the we we play the role of informing and inspiring. Um, scale is not that important uh because the scale comes from the platform. Uh so you can you can compare the AI revolution with the electricity. Uh it's the same kind of change on society, the the second industrial revolution to the fourth industrial revolution. Um, but you could say, as SME, I cannot afford an industrial plant for electricity. So you are purchasing your electricity from on the outside world, and now an SME can do exactly the same. You can use the tools that have the skills, but they don't need to develop tools with with with um with that kind of skill. Um and a lot of benefits today on using AI and Gen AI is just using tools. You don't for one big example on that, one very obvious translation. Um, so translation is generative AI, to be clear. Google Translate is even if it's an old thing from 2006, it's pure generative AI. Um, so you can start using it on Monday, and you can decide to have all your employees talk talking, speaking 130 languages from one day to another. Multilinguages is important for companies to export. But that will be easy for an SME just starting doing that. And on big companies, they say, Is it uh is it compliant? I agree to use it, and then uh uh people will sometimes block it, or the company will block the use of co-pilot of Gemini. Um, so it those kind of things are interesting because it uh it's an opportunity for small companies, it's an opportunity for big companies if they do it really well, but you see that a lot of AI projects that are big top-down projects are failing, while just the use of tools are most of the time successful on a very short time basis.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Yeah, because many big uh corporates are indeed going now and around of doing use cases, a lot of use cases. There was also in the press uh lately trim down, please, all those use cases and focus a bit more, yeah, which is probably a luxury that the MSMBs not have to do all those kinds of uh also if it's far more pragmatic, yeah, um, and it maybe can miss a big business model change or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

But in just the getting the benefits of Gen AI or AI on a short term, they can be mere.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

I'm talking about benefits because is it efficiency for you or is it looking at new opportunities for SMEs?

Tools Over Moonshots: Practical Adoption

SPEAKER_00 6:31

I think if you only think at AI to be something to cut costs, um uh that will be very difficult and very dangerous. Why? Let's say that you say to everyone in your company, we will start with AI and now we are cutting costs. Uh, it will maybe work for the first time in your first project, but there will be a big resistance to change. And so afterwards, you will probably not be able to implement fast enough the opportunities. If you start with the opportunities, you show why it's beneficial with examples where you have better customer intimacy, uh, you make work um nicer for people, uh, you take some repetitive tasks out, but they enjoy the benefits of it. If after that you decide to cut costs in your call center by the 30%, it's it will be just one project, but the AI will be adopted already. It will every technical technical local change, adoption is more important than the technology and such. You can be the best one in technology and completely fail. Uh, you have another example for that. Yeah, um, so if you it is really transformational, so you need the adoption. And if you don't start with projects that will stimulate the adoption, you will block your future ability to adopt other projects. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Which is basically a positive view, huh? Because you're a positivist, you're an optimist. I'm a obvious because I believe they also just can show what order of homo digital is. Yeah. Which is basically a positive uh narrative.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

It is um, you know, I believe that AI is a the wrong word. In fact, it's not human humanity what we are doing. If you see what you can do as an individual with those digital tools, you can connect with five billion people, you can talk one of the 30 languages, you can find your way here in Brussels, so you can use ways. Those are tools that are making are doing things that is just unimaginable for my grandfather, for example. And once we start to recognize that what we can do with that technology, you can afford managing the risks because you understand it, you get some benefits, and then you can manage. If you start as a good Belgians with the risks and you try to control all the risks, you're always behind. And secondly, it's impossible because the only way to manage the risks is first to understand how it works, and you will only understand how it works if you do something positive with it. And so I believe that we are now an evolved species, we're not an homo homo sapiens anymore, we're in homodigalis. And understanding that as CEO, you have to understand that your employees are also homo digitalists. So if you can try to work with your people in the old-school way to control them to work from nine to five and use two big tasks and no inspiration and no context, then you will lose your talents. If you consider there as homodigitalists, you enforce them, we you allow them to use the AI that they use privately. How many companies don't use the AI, but the employees are using it in a private way? And then you have a you have the impression that to go to work you need a time machine to go back in time, and that's obviously not the way you want to develop your company.

Efficiency vs Opportunity Mindset

SPEAKER_01 9:43

And is that a differentiator that we can have as a country like Belgium or even Brussels as a region? That indeed we may go maybe faster. Also, their scale you talked about is not that important compared to bigger countries?

SPEAKER_00 9:56

As long as we believe as Belgians, we have to be the champion in implementation of AI. You know, the programming of AI, um, we've missed it a bit. It's Silicon Valley, Chinese, um it's very expensive, it's very risky as well. So you need a lot of capital risk and to be able to do it. Um but you can be the best at implementation of it. And since our salary cost is higher than outside in the neighboring countries, um, and you can do 20-30% efficiency gains or better custom interaction, whatever it is, um, we have the most benefits to take benefit of this technology. But then let's stop crying. Let's not say oh, we want to develop things that are existing already. We just take the existing tools and we start to get the benefits as fast as we will. And definitely the challenge on those AI projects is to gather the benefits. You can give copilot to all your employees who cost you some money, and then they will be more efficient, but you will not measure anything because they will spend more time doing whatever else. So we really have to work with the teams to be able that you get the benefits, you do something else with the time that you have uh you have gained, and that's not so easy. And I think that's for Belgians um is interesting because we are pragmatic and we have a lot of well-educated people. In general, we have also a neutral view on the technology. We are not doing the hype, uh, but we are not that afraid on technology either. So I think we are in a good shape to do so. What we need is some more inspiration and some more ambition.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah, a bit less modesty, maybe to the nair.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Modesty is nice, uh, but it's different to be modest or to be shy as well or to have a lack of ambition. I think you have a you can have an enormous ambition with a love of modesty. Um here at Bessie, I have a 10x um ambition to grow. Uh, but I don't say we will succeed, we are the best in the town. We say that's interesting to do, it's possible, uh, that will be exciting, we will use the the nice the good tools to do so, and and then you get excitement. Um and then you know, if you can manage to have growth in those times, that's always better for the team, but motivation, but also as nature, we need growth, we need movement, we need inspiration. And I think that's why I wrote a book on homo digital. Is if we can make people not afraid anymore of the technology, but believe of the possibilities of technology, then it will be just a more interesting ride. And the chances of success are just 10 times higher. Because when you do something because you have to, you're never good at it. Uh I have to learn English for uh at school, and I was the worst student. So I was I was good at everything except for language and definitely on not on English. And then I started working for PWSC when I was uh in 1989, imagine. And then um I had to do my my paper in English, and I had the first review with the partner, and everything was nice except my language, but then you learn very fast because you need it, and so from the worst student, I became I worked for American Complice, uh, I worked for Google. My English is still and I didn't exist, and I didn't exist, imagine that. Yeah, yeah.

Homo Digitalis And Workplace Culture

SPEAKER_01 13:13

But touching upon the the talent part and uh because many uh well people I talk to, CEOs, but also um HR uh directors, they are struggling a bit with the question workforce. How will that evolve? Yes, we need to involve people, yes, we have high talented people, but will we have enough of those? And how are we going to teach younger people if parts of the the job are basically automated via AI or otherwise? How do you see that evolving?

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Um, I think it's uh I understand the the risks and it's not wrong what they say, but I think that um it goes on a longer time frame. You know, uh it's now just three years that we had the launch of Chat GPT, and if you read the news at that moment, so November 20 uh 23, um it was like it will change the world, students will not study anymore, you know, we will Nostradamus. Everything, Nostradamus, and no CMOs, COs anymore. We're now three years later. To be honest, it didn't change our life that much. You know, it's there, you use the tool. Most of the companies have had more costs than lesser costs about it. Um, so most of the time those changes take 10 years. And in 10 years' time, it's very hard for humans to imagine all the things that will change because the talent that you will attract will be other talents. Uh, there will be other things that's cool happening. So I think it's impossible to think about that. Um, what you can do today is just look at the outside world and see we don't have enough talent, we will need to develop talent, and the only way to make the job done is having AI. You know, one thing is true, for example, healthcare, we will not have enough doctors and nurses in 10 years' time. So if we don't use AI as fast as possible to make that job more attractive, um you know, less running around, more helping patients. Uh the thing will not be done. When I was at Google 10 years ago, the big big disaster self-driving cars, uh, you'll have all those truck drivers will be unemployed. Guess what? We don't find people to drive with clocks today, we don't find people to drive with uh trams and buses. Uh so AI is too late on that. We would be we needed to be faster on automated vehicles because it's impossible to find the people that want to do that job because there are other jobs. We're creating a lot of other jobs in the meantime. We don't fill those roles and we are not ready yet with optimalization. So, you know, we can trains and firms can be automated quite fast, and we will find jobs for those guys, and also the fixed assets are invested for a long time, so you will not replace everything in one time, so it will be an evolution. Once again, it will take five or ten years' time.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

And specifically in Brussels, I guess that also the workforce discussion is slightly different than in the other parts of uh the countries.

Belgium’s Edge: Implementation First

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Well, it was a bizarre discussion because when I arrived here, there are 96,000 unemployed in Brussels. And the narrative is there is only one job for five unemployed people, so 20,000 jobs. But the on the opposite, all my members are crying for people. So I said there is not something strange. So I took my knowledge from Google, we did some crawling of the web with some data analysts, we found 100,000 jobs. So there is one hundred thousand jobs for 96 unemployed people. It will not fit perfectly, but it will fit in one way or another. We can connect more people. It's just that the this this market and the people are working in this that area are thinking in an old school way of unemployment. There are no jobs, the jobs are in structured database, they don't think about social media where most of the jobs are posted now. Um, and so we are really trying to change the narrative on Brussels on that, and we need to do so because a lot of people will lose their unemployment benefits uh at the beginning of the next year. And the message is it will be hard, but there are jobs, there are jobs available, which is very good for the economy, because then companies will find people, and that's good for the economy, the economy will grow, and secondly, we don't have to pay those employed unemployed people, and most important, they will have a life back because it's better to have a job than to be on an unemployment. So I think we are on an in a difficult moment, but also uh something that we once again, if you are possibleists and you look at the things in another way, and is that AI? Well, partly we we it was impossible to make this 100,000 um uh pitch with without AI. It's you know, you need AI to do through all the way and to find those jobs, but at the end it's just normal work.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Yeah, Brussels is also the biggest university city of the country.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Is there a link between BC and the universities in terms of how do they evolve? Uh are we really creating the right skill sets?

SPEAKER_00 18:10

So we are in touch with all the governments that we have in Brussels and quite a lot and all the universities. Uh and it's a good connection, but I think what we miss is a is an AI master plan or something like that. You know, we still manage Brussels, it's not only in Brussels, I think we manage this country as being on a normal thing with some crises, but not on the AI journey. Uh for the national government, there is a the statement of Park Dev, for example, there's nothing about AI on on in the full story. Absolutely. And that's bizarre when you're in 25, you're in the midst of an industrial revolution, which is also a human revolution, as I said.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Um course regionalized, then so that's probably also on the regions.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

You hear a bit more about AI in in Flanders, you have some AI plan, but it's not like uh guys, this is amazing, like you have in Singapore or other places in the world. And I don't want to overhype technology, but I want to be involved with the impact of technology on people and on business. And this impact is high, not as a panic of a hype, but it's high on a 10-year basis. And a government, a CEO, has to be involved with a longer term. It's not for you to have your monthly budget, you don't need AI. You need your AI to succeed in the next thing, which is creating value for a company.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Yeah. So how do you see the AI revolution evolving in the next two, three, four, five years?

SPEAKER_00 19:34

In five years' time, it will be as normal as your smartphone. You forget about it. You have it, you use it for tons of things, but you completely forget about that. You uh I started a good in 2011, and then it was the it mobile first revolution. And then it would visit banks and it would say, Well, we'll see about the mobile, and then you had the mobile checkout, and now the app is more important than all the other services in the bank. But now it's obvious for everyone. So AI and Gen AI will be obvious for everyone in 2012. The question is there were some companies will have taken benefit of it. Yeah. As you see now with some banks with amazing uh apps, and some others will be having complicated journey, lagging behind and trying to catch up. And so uh uh so you have to be on the train of this Gen AI revolution, but not in a hype way, because that's also wrong. Then you just spend money.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

But as a way of winners and losers, I think also as an individual, I think it's the question will the digital divide increase or decrease? Well, if you're not following the AI trend, you may be at the uh at the losing end.

Measuring Gains And Avoiding Hype

SPEAKER_00 20:39

Yeah, that's also the case. It's it's a problem for the ones not using it. Um but on the digital divide, um, it's it's less complicated than the IT divides. If you had your first PC, it was impossible to do something without guidelines, trainings, software that you had to install, and it was used meaning officers in the beginning, it was an expensive machine, yeah, and was used by 20% of the population. And this digital AI AI is used by 95% of the Belgians. So making good use of it is complicated, but the it's easier to use without evening. Without I mean the tools are easier to use and the the trainings are shorter than it was in the computer evolution. And I think that's also something to remind uh that it's uh it's less complicated uh than you can think.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Maybe Terry to yeah, start uh landing a bit on this uh session. Uh a few questions and don't think too long on the answer. Okay. Uh it's more a bit of uh what's the first app that you use in the morning? AI driven?

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Um it's uh Lico, but because it's news and it's uh for the moment the West bring the best news on Brussels. Uh and I'm sure that they use AI to uh optimalize your the the news and the in the way it's presented uh to me.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

The biggest mistake that you ever made relating to technology?

SPEAKER_00 22:05

To technology? Um no, I I I think I managed it well. I never went on a hype. Okay. Uh I'm I'm not the early adapter that people are thinking. Um, and that's good because otherwise you become a nerd. Uh but I was there on time. For example, I worked uh in the 90s, I was working for an industrial laundry company, uh, so quite different. And I was king of the town because at that time I was managing PCs better than the others because it was new uh in the beginning of the 90s. And then in 95, uh, it was an American company, I had to send the the production details by email to the headquarters. And I was like, whoa, I I I received instructions, uh, you know, MCI mail, super complicated. But I sent the email, it was successful, and that day I decided I had to change job because I was there was something happening that was uh I didn't get and so I started in the media and and I continue and then the internet became an important story. But I never worked for a purely tech startup uh uh in the in the in the moment that was a hype or get on second life or in the metaverse or those hypes. I think so. Getting your understanding of what's happening without jumping too fast, I think that's uh not that do everything well. But on technology, I was quite now.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

What would you do if you would be now 30 years younger?

SPEAKER_00 23:34

I would start uh with an international career. Uh I would start in Dublin, for example, where there's a lot of uh tech uh companies there. Um the negative thing about my career is only Belgian career. Uh with Google had the chance to travel the world, but still. So I'm an expert on Belgium, which is very nice for my actual jobs. I can defend Brussels, nowhere else. But yeah, in this connected world, it's good to be to work in Asia, to work in the US for a time. And that I missed that.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

But still come back afterwards, uh the best place in the world.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

The more you travel, the more you will understand that this is the best place to work.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Okay, thank you, Thierry.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

Very interesting. Thank you for coming to OBC.

Talent, Automation, And Job Myths

SPEAKER_01 24:16

It's an honor to have you here. Thank you. And with this, um yeah, thanks for tuning in and uh hope that you found it interesting. I did at least. So uh I'm sure that you also got a number of elements that were interesting to you. So, see you around uh next time for another episode of AI Unscripted. Thank you. Bye bye.