Jan Buytaert is chief information officer at GO!, the public body for state schools in the Flanders region of Belgium. His role is to initiate new IT projects and prove their value to the business, with the hope that business decision makers and policymakers give them the green light. The projects can have huge implications for education in Belgium, as the region has around 750 schools and institutions, and 210,000 students. "There wasn't always a lot of digital innovation so I had to work hard trying to convince management and policymakers that we should invest in tech and digital education, and change the way of teaching and learning," Buytaert tells NS Tech. In 2016, Buytaert and his team analysed the way teaching was carried out in several schools, working alongside teachers, students and principals.

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming the next big thing in the tech world. Major companies are investing in the tech, and more and more we're finding AI built into our day-to-day lives. Dries Buytaert, founder of Drupal and chief technology officer at Acquia, is excited to see where AI is going and feels it could be the next big disruptor in the tech world. However, there are concerns and challenges to consider along the way. "It has the opportunity of being sort of the next big platform for creating both user experiences as well as distributing both content and services," Buytaert said of AI. "All of the big tech companies are investing heavily toward this – Amazon, Facebook, Google specifically – they're all making pretty large bets on these technologies," Buytaert told FierceCIO.