2025-04-24 –, Zeiss Plenary (Spectrum)
This fireside chat brings together leading voices from industry and open-source to explore how artificial intelligence is being meaningfully integrated into enterprise environments—beyond the buzzwords. Moderated by Alexander CS Hendorf, the conversation features Walid Mehanna (Chief Data Officer, Merck), Dr. Alexander Beck (CTO, Quoniam), and Ines Montani (co-founder explosion.ai, spaCy), who share their diverse perspectives from pharmaceuticals, finance, and AI tooling.
Together, they’ll explore the cultural, technical, and ethical dimensions of AI adoption in large organizations, the growing influence of open-source ecosystems, and the long-term vision required to build sustainable, human-centered AI systems. This session is designed for those who want to move past the hype and better understand what real-world innovation at scale looks like—and what it demands from leadership, infrastructure, and community.
While headlines are dominated by generative AI breakthroughs and ever-larger models, some of the most meaningful progress is happening quietly—in enterprises that are aligning AI with long-term strategy and in open-source communities driving technical excellence. This session brings together Walid Mehanna (Chief Data Officer, Merck), Dr. Alexander Beck (CTO, Quoniam), and Ines Montani (co-founder of explosion.ai/spaCy) in a live conversation moderated by Alexander CS Hendorf.
Together, they’ll explore how open-source tools shape enterprise AI adoption, the cultural and organizational shifts needed to move beyond pilots and prototypes, and the responsibilities that come with deploying AI in production. From internal LLM platforms and research pipelines to industry collaboration and digital ethics, the panel will offer grounded, practical insights from vastly different domains.
This isn’t another panel about AI buzzwords. It’s a discussion about building AI systems that matter—tools that integrate with people, processes, and purpose. The audience can expect a thoughtful, forward-looking exchange between builders, strategists, and leaders who are working at the edge of what’s possible, while keeping a strong eye on what’s meaningful.
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Expected audience expertise: Python:None
Alexander C. S. Hendorf has over 20 years of experience in digitalization, data, and artificial intelligence. As an independent consultant, he focuses on the practical implementation, adoption, and communication of data- and AI-driven strategies and decision-making processes.
While still in law school, he worked as a DJ—before dropping out to join a transatlantic music start-up. The venture evolved into a decent independent label group and, eventually, a small stock corporation, where Alexander became a partner and, at 28, took over as COO. He led the company’s digital transformation and designed systems that could scale with growth. This entrepreneurial journey laid the foundation for his deep understanding of business strategy, technology, and innovation.
After closing the chapter on digital music, Alexander turned his focus to data science and AI—initially driven by curiosity, with weekends on Coursera and evenings on GPUs. That passion evolved into a career advising organizations on AI integration, data strategy, and building impact-driven teams.
Some say he just picks the flashiest jobs—record label owner, data scientist—but really, he follows his passion: for what’s new, what matters, and what connects people and technology.
Today, he supports clients—especially in regulated or legacy-heavy industries—in aligning emerging technologies with real-world business goals. His work emphasizes cultural impact, sustainable change, and interdisciplinary thinking.
Alexander is a recognized expert in data intelligence and a frequent speaker and chair at international conferences, including PyCon DE & PyData, Data2Day, and EuroPython. He’s a Python Software Foundation Fellow, EuroPython Fellow, and board member of the Python Software Verband (Germany).
Since 2024, he has been driving Pioneers Hub, a non-profit supporting vibrant, inclusive tech communities—and helping innovators keep pace in a rapidly changing world.
Ines Montani is a developer specializing in tools for AI and NLP technology. She’s the co-founder and CEO of Explosion and a core developer of spaCy, a popular open-source library for Natural Language Processing in Python, and Prodigy, a modern annotation tool for creating training data for machine learning models.
