Panel Discussion “Trust in Artificial Intelligence”
The panel discussion Trust in Artificial Intelligence was organised as a direct follow-up to the delegation visit “Digitalisation with a Focus on Artificial Intelligence” conducted in February 2025 to Switzerland. The event built on the professional exchange initiated during the delegation visit and brought together one of the delegation participants, Professor René Riedl (FH Upper Austria), an Austrian expert in human–machine interaction, and Professor Liudmila Zavolokina, Professor of Information Systems at the University of Lausanne.
Moderated by Alexandra Ciarnau, President of Women in AI Austria, the discussion addressed both the opportunities and risks associated with artificial intelligence. While AI increasingly shapes everyday life and organisational processes, trust in these systems remains ambivalent. Potential benefits such as innovation and efficiency were discussed alongside risks including discrimination, disinformation and loss of control.
The event examined what trust in AI means in practice, which factors contribute to its development—particularly system resilience—and which factors may undermine it and lead to mistrust. The question of whether trusting AI systems is a sound decision was explored from both a technological and a socio-organisational perspective.
The programme consisted of two keynote inputs by Professors Riedl and Zavolokina, followed by a panel discussion and an interactive Q&A session involving the audience. The target audience included representatives from academia, science diplomacy, business and Austrian policy-making.
Through sponsorship by FH Upper Austria, it was made possible to provide each of the approximately 60 audience members with a complimentary copy of Professor Riedl’s newly published book “Trust in Artificial Intelligence – A Good Decision?”.
Beyond its thematic focus, the panel discussion served as an instrument to consolidate networks established during the February 2025 delegation visit and to translate strategic exchange into sustained academic dialogue and cooperation between Austrian and Swiss stakeholders in the field of artificial intelligence.
As a follow-up to the delegation visit and the panel discussion, a further event is planned for spring 2026 in Upper Austria, to be organised in cooperation with FH Upper Austria, focusing on the application of artificial intelligence in medicine, in particular the use of AI in the analysis of X-ray images, with the participation of an expert from Switzerland.
