In conversation with Antoine de Wispelaere, founder and CEO of FIDDS
By now, everyone uses AI in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. According to Antoine de Wispelaere, founder and CEO of FIDDS, the real gains lie elsewhere: in your business processes. And the goal is not just higher productivity, but work that becomes more enjoyable and easier. A conversation about company brains, strategy on a single wall and why you should never let go of the steering wheel.
Why did you found FIDDS?
“Because organisations still make far too little use of the real power of AI. Of course everyone uses AI in their workplace: in Word, PowerPoint, Excel. But that is not where the real added value is. We focus on optimising business processes. You use AI to bring information together, draw insights from it and automate processes based on those insights. That opens up endless possibilities, and we are all only at the very beginning of exploring them.”
What does that look like in practice?
“We build it up in layers. At the top is the organisation’s strategy. We visualise it in Obeya: your complete strategy on one wall or one screen, so everyone knows the next step to make that strategy happen.
Underneath, we add a company brain. All the knowledge that now sits in people’s heads and in dozens of systems comes together in your own chat environment. Everyone gets access to exactly the knowledge that fits their role.
And on top of that we place a design system made entirely in your own brand identity. Everything employees create, from presentations to quotes, immediately takes the right form and look and feel.
When you combine all of that, you have an incredibly strong concept. Employees find everything quickly, make decisions faster and serve customers better. That is what we want: to make your work more enjoyable and easier.”
Can you give a concrete example?
“Take a new colleague. An average company easily has twenty systems, a large organisation forty or fifty. And on average, information is stored in three or four places. Where is the latest version? What do I really need to know?
AI solves that brilliantly. You say: this knowledge belongs to this role. Then you ask for a three-day onboarding programme that guides the new employee step by step through all processes and need-to-know information. And that is just a simple example. It has little to do yet with complex transitions or accelerating your growth.”
Many people are afraid of AI. How do you see that?
“I think a positive, open attitude is important. Of course it is smart to think about risks. But you are part of it and you make your own choices. You should not let go of the steering wheel and think: go ahead, I will connect everything and we will see what happens. That is nonsense.
Look at the past fifteen years, in which companies moved to the cloud. AI will be just as big a transition, and it too happens step by step. That way, you take each next decision in a controlled way. The goal is that you stay in control, whether you are an employee, a manager or a director. A little fear is fine, because it keeps you sharp. But you do not become a passive bystander.”
You should not let go of the steering wheel and think: I will connect everything and we will see what happens.
How far along are organisations, really?
“My estimate is that only about ten percent are really taking steps. Everyone is thinking about it, but many questions remain. How do you keep your own data to yourself, so it does not end up in the large AI models? How do you arrange the infrastructure, now that hardware is scarce and expensive? We have ready-made, sovereign solutions for that.
Most organisations are still in the experimental phase. The step towards company-wide applications, where you innovate across systems and processes and stay ahead of your competitors, is one we all still need to take.”
So where do you start?
“On two levels at once. The best use cases are thought up on the work floor and presented to a manager who says: brilliant, let’s do this. But if you want to capture the real benefits, you have to set it up across the whole organisation. Then you need a board that includes it in its strategy and leads by example. AI really is a transformation topic.
And start with manageability. Many organisations now think: we will solve it ourselves, we have a few handy people. You can bet on it that in two years you will have 28 to 128 separate AI solutions, and that manageability will then be the big problem.”
What makes FIDDS different from other AI firms?
“The Big Four focus heavily on research, adoption and identifying use cases: the theoretical spectrum. They leave the actual implementation, with infrastructure, applications and a brilliant UX, to others. Technical firms, on the other hand, come up with brilliant applications but struggle to guide adoption.
That is why I deliberately set up a Strategy unit, a Design unit and a Solutions unit within FIDDS, with Obeya on top for the practical implementation of strategy. That way we have everything in-house: adoption, good design and technical manageability. Clients really value that, combined with a can-do mentality.”
What have you learned yourself?
“Three years ago we worked on a large project in which we brought all kinds of data sources together on a data platform. Normalising data from all those sources was painstaking work. It led to long lead times and little visible result, while people need results to stay enthusiastic. Today you apply AI directly to your systems of record. That is faster, and the enthusiasm stays.”
What should people be more aware of?
“Almost everyone has an idea of what AI can do. But thinking through how to use it optimally to make your own profession more enjoyable and interesting is something people find difficult. That is where we help, for example with Frits: an AI consultant that, in a fun and engaging conversation, finds out what matters to you and what could make your work easier. You do it at your own moment, and it sparks creativity.
And keep it human. Anyone who works with AI a lot notices that it can also make things unnecessarily complicated. The art is to keep it simple, concrete and tangible. If you manage to create enthusiasm, people keep going. And your customers will be happier for it too.”
