"Will your business be here in 2030?" — AI in Practice puts the question to Nicosia's SME owners on 19 October

Most AI events in Cyprus are aimed at the people building it. This one was aimed at the people who have to decide whether to buy it. AI in Practice: Changing the Future of Business took place on Monday 19 October 2026, 18:00–22:30, at the Cultural Center of European University Cyprus in Nicosia, bringing together founders, SME owners and senior executives around the practical uses of AI.

Who put it on. Panis.News as lead organiser, with GrantXpert Consulting and the Future Skills Hub at European University Cyprus as co-organisers, under the auspices of the Chief Scientist of Cyprus, Demetris Skourides.

The programme, and what each slot was actually for.

• Monica Odysseos, Head of AI and Data Lab at Grant Thornton — "The AI Revolution. Why should you care?" — the framing session for an audience that has read the headlines and not the invoices.
• George Malekkos, CEO of POWERSOFT Computer Solutions — "From Business Pain Points to AI Transformation: A CEO's Roadmap to Real Results" — the most useful kind of talk on a bill like this: a Cypriot software company describing the route from a specific operational complaint to a deployed system.
• Paris Thomas, Executive Advisor on AI and Strategy — keynote, "AI and the Future of Business: Will Your Business Be Here in 2030?" — with live demonstrations and case studies rather than slides alone.

The schedule tells you the intent. Registration 18:00–18:30; welcome remarks to 18:50; a short interview with the Chief Scientist at 18:50; the three presentations 19:00–20:20; then 40 minutes of Q&A to 21:00 and 90 minutes of networking to 22:30. Roughly half the evening was unstructured — which, for a room of SME owners, is where the actual value sits. Organiser Panis Pieri said as much: "Business leaders need space to ask questions, challenge assumptions and learn from people applying AI. We created AI in Practice to make that conversation accessible and useful. We want attendees to leave with a clearer idea of what they can do next in their own businesses."

Registration ran through luma.com/ai-in-practice-cyprus and closed at noon on the day of the event.

Where it fits in the month. This was the third strand of an unusually dense October for AI programming in Nicosia — alongside the Digital Agenda Cyprus Summit ("AI Wars", 14 October, Nicosia Municipal Theatre), where the Deputy Ministry set out the 2032 target and 16 flagship AI programmes, and the second ECT Forum at UNIC's UNESCO Amphitheatre. The three had different audiences: policy, skills, and — here — the owner-operator who has to sign off on the spend. That last audience is the one Cyprus' AI strategy quietly depends on, given the government's stated emphasis on smaller businesses rather than only the organisations that can already buy their way in.