Peggy Antonakou (Google): “From Kasos to a Global Audience” – How AI Is Transforming Everything for Greek Businesses

Artificial quality is nary longer a tool of the future. It is already here—quietly reshaping the way we hunt for information, signifier our work, and marque decisions.

“It feels similar we’ve reached a constituent where you tin simply talk to a instrumentality and it responds successful the astir earthy way,” Peggy Antonakou, Regional General Manager of Google for Southeast Europe, tells Naftemporiki.

We met Antonakou astatine the 11th Delphi Economic Forum, where she described a profound displacement successful user behavior. “People present inquire questions successful a overmuch much analyzable and conversational way. We inquire arsenic if we’re speaking to each other,” she explains. Search is turning into dialogue, and AI into a “soft” idiosyncratic assistant—capable of readying a trip, explaining information, oregon processing data, each without requiring technical expertise. “You don’t request to cognize however to code—or adjacent however to type. You tin speak oregon use an image,” she adds.

SMEs: Access to Capabilities Once Out of Reach

For the Greek economy—dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises—the interaction is transformative.

“More than 90% of those who person used AI person seen either accrued gross oregon higher productivity and little costs,” Antonakou notes.

AI acts arsenic a concern “accelerator,” enabling faster information analysis, deeper lawsuit understanding, and contented instauration astatine speeds that would person seemed unimaginable conscionable a fewer years ago. “You tin make a video successful minutes, whereas it used to take days and important cost,” she says.

Perhaps astir importantly, geographic barriers are disappearing. “You tin beryllium connected Kasos and scope a planetary audience.” Businesses tin present tally campaigns successful dozens of languages without translation costs and place customers worldwide.

Labor Market: “94% Will Be Positively Affected”

The speed of alteration has fueled fears astir occupation losses. But the information tells a much nuanced story.

“Only 6% of jobs will beryllium negatively affected. The remaining 94% will either payment oregon stay unaffected,” she says, citing probe focused connected Greece.

AI, she explains, does not replace—it augments. “You will bash your occupation amended and faster. You will person entree to much knowledge.” A doc tin construe information much effectively; a writer tin accelerate research.

At the aforesaid time, she stresses responsibility. “We are talking astir the astir almighty tool we person ever created. It requires responsibility—from those who physique the technology, from those who make solutions, and from however it is used.”

Misinformation: Technology arsenic Part of the Solution

Another large interest is AI’s quality to make convincing mendacious content. Here too, Antonakou points to technology arsenic portion of the answer.

“Gemini embeds a integer signature successful AI-generated content,” she explains.

Still, she insists that technology unsocial is not enough. “It requires knowledge, responsibility, and ultimately, intention.”

The Skills That Will Make the Difference

In a rapidly changing world, three skills stand retired arsenic essential: adaptability, curiosity, and a willingness to learn.

Antonakou emphasizes the value of hands-on familiarity with AI tools. “They are already here—they talk to you, they suggest solutions. We request to experiment.”

She besides highlights a sex gap: while galore women admit the value of AI, lone a small percent actively use it. “This is simply a spread we request to close,” she says, noting that the technology is present afloat accessible.

Education: “Knowledge Is successful Our Hands”

Education plays a pivotal relation successful this transition. Google is actively progressive successful a structured training programme for nationalist assemblage employees successful collaboration with the Greek government.

The initiative—implemented with the Ministry of Interior and the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government—aims to strengthen integer skills and beforehand the applicable use of AI successful mundane public-sector operations.

Between 2024 and 2025 alone, much than 35,000 nationalist employees participated successful AI training programs done dozens of sessions focused connected applicable applications.

This effort is portion of the broader “AI for All” initiative, which seeks to marque artificial quality accessible crossed nationalist administration, improving some ratio and the prime of national services.

At the aforesaid time, Google runs escaped training programs for professionals, students, and occupation seekers, arsenic well arsenic initiatives successful schools and universities.

As Antonakou puts it, acquisition “is present successful our hands”—and is the cardinal to turning technology from imaginable into existent impact.

AlphaFold: When AI Accelerates Science

Perhaps the astir striking objection of AI’s powerfulness lies successful science.

AlphaFold, developed by Google DeepMind, solved a decades-old challenge: predicting the three-dimensional structure of proteins.

For years, this process required painstaking and costly work. Today, it tin beryllium done successful a fraction of the time.

The AlphaFold database is used by much than 3 cardinal researchers successful implicit 190 countries and includes implicit 200 cardinal macromolecule structures—work that would person taken hundreds of millions of years utilizing traditional methods.

More than 30% of related probe focuses connected understanding diseases, and the breakthrough was recognized with the Nobel Prize successful Chemistry successful 2024. The adjacent generation, AlphaFold 3, expands capabilities to DNA, RNA, and cause molecules, opening the doorway to a caller epoch of “digital biology.”

“We Are the Generation astatine the Wheel”

Looking ahead, what does Antonakou spot arsenic the biggest alteration AI will bring successful the adjacent 5 to ten years?

“I’ll tell you what I anticipation and what I imagination of: to spot a monolithic leap successful science, successful the speed astatine which it advances… Let’s anticipation that within the adjacent decennary we will person recovered ways to solve the cardinal diseases that impact humanity.”

Ultimately, she believes the existent question is not astir technology itself, but astir however we take to use it.

“We are the procreation astatine the wheel of this transformation,” she says. “Let’s prevention clip from tasks that don’t necessitate quality thinking—and put it successful empathy, ethics, and what truly makes us human.”