Conclusions

The VIII EDO 2025 International Conference was held at the headquarters of the University Autonomous University of Barcelona in Bellaterra-Cerdanyola del Vallès on June 4, 5, and 6, 2025, under the theme " Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Knowledge Management and Organizations in Society 5.0 ." The published program has been fully maintained and accompanied by the publication submitted with all the complete contributions. The various contributions have been enriched by the informal spaces for coexistence and scientific debate that have been fostered, allowing for the forging of relationships and the establishment of work networks between professionals from different institutions and countries.

The 362 experts and specialists in the field, mostly from across Spain/Europe and Latin America, actively participated in the four keynote conferences, 10 symposia, 3 thematic talks, 8 workshops, 7 panel discussions, and the poster session, analyzing and discussing the 110 contributions selected from the 153 presented. Thousands of followers on various social media platforms and over 340 continuous tweet views also participated.

These conclusions are a general summary, validated by the members of the Scientific Committee, of the most frequently repeated and articulated ideas from the debates held during the development of this Congress, which are organized considering its objectives and the established lines of work:

Of a general and transversal nature, two conclusions from previous congresses are reiterated and two new ones are highlighted:

• Today's society continues to consider knowledge and ongoing employee training as strategic elements of organizations. These connections become increasingly evident and necessary if we consider that people are a source of knowledge that, when shared, can help improve their own lives, as well as that of organizations and society.
• Organizations that focus on the needs of citizens, their internal and external users, and that achieve their active involvement, in addition to achieving organizational and learning management improvements, are a source of creativity and innovation and generate social value. The challenge for today's organizations is, and remains, to appropriately leverage and manage people's knowledge, promoting informal learning, learning communities, and networking.
• Today's society demands solutions to increasingly complex problems in a context where artificial intelligence is emerging and consolidating as an essential tool for smarter, more inclusive, and sustainable management. Its impact on organizational structure, processes, and culture is profound and requires a rethinking of the role of human beings in strategic decisions, prioritizing not only efficiency but also ethics, equity, and integral human development within organizations.
• The changes that AI is imposing on organizations and society must be continually reviewed and analyzed. We recognize the debate surrounding its philosophy, practice, and presence in academic and professional circles, but we also question whether we have sufficient time perspective to determine whether or not it is a fad and whether it promotes structural changes that allow us to speak of a new paradigm.

Regarding the impact of AI on learning and knowledge management and organizations:

• AI is understood as an additional support in a context of continuous learning and adaptation to complexity. AI can be a fundamental support in navigating this complexity, facilitating access to information, personalizing learning, and enabling people and organizations to thrive in the unknown. It can be a great ally for people and, although it cannot completely replace humans, it increasingly facilitates reflective and strategic approaches, improves analysis, and accelerates processes.
• However, many institutions react with superficial policies that fail to fully address the challenge posed by the emergence of AI. Rather than resisting it, educational and training institutions must embrace AI as a tool for innovation, critically leveraging its benefits.
• It is reiterated that people are the source of knowledge, and sharing it is fundamental for individual, organizational, and social improvement. In this context, artificial intelligence must be conceived as a catalyst to enhance this knowledge and development, without diverting the focus from inherent human value.
• It is emphasized that comprehensive organizational improvement lies not in AI systems, but in the people and organizations that design and implement them, making it crucial to review the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence and underscoring that AI must be a tool at the service of human and social principles.
• AI allows us to get rid of bureaucratic tasks and gain time to spend with people. The time freed up by AI can be invested in craftsmanship, ad hoc learning, and personalization, and this, in public administration and other organizations, impacts the well-being of professionals, citizens, and public service.
• Digital transformation is redefining administrative and financial management, but it requires a profound cultural shift and ongoing staff training. Technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence add value, although adoption gaps must be overcome.

Regarding the tools and utilities of AI for the development of people and organizations:

• The conclusion of the 2023 congress remains valid: “The expansion of the digital world and its social, personal, and political implications is becoming evident. In this regard, we must improve our skills and knowledge of the digital world and the importance of ethics as a crosscutting axis of social, institutional, professional, and personal life that should be consistent at all levels. At the same time, and decades after the emergence and expansion of the Internet, we are becoming aware of some of the less positive aspects of the digital revolution, such as the proliferation of false information, the erosion of privacy, the excessive concentration of wealth, power, and control, the widening digital divide between individuals and social groups, the uncontrollable development of artificial intelligence, the degradation of public discourse on social media, and the increase in compulsive and addictive behaviors toward new technologies.”
• Likewise: "Various contributions have allowed us to learn how to add value to technological tools and how they can improve team efficiency in terms of communication, reworking, and managing collective knowledge. Likewise, the importance of addressing social and professional challenges, service learning, case studies and real-life situations, active methodologies that promote innovation, lessons learned, and other approaches that enrich the training environment, generate satisfaction, and seek to guarantee, maintain, and increase optimal processes has been reiterated."
• The expansion of digital technology, including AI, requires improved skills, digital knowledge, leadership that fosters organizational community, and work based on challenges and projects. Therefore, when used properly, AI can be another tool to enhance collective intelligence, creativity, and the social value that accompanies it.
• Educational and professional systems have faced multiple disruptive innovations in recent years. Once again, the transformative potential of AI forces us to rethink learning methodologies and the potential of simulations, as well as traditionally used assessment systems. At the same time, it is necessary to foster unique human capacities such as creativity, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and specialized knowledge.

Regarding the leadership necessary for transformation:

• The conclusion of the 2023 congress remains valid: “ Despite the existing development of models and strategies for creating and managing collective knowledge, there is a perception that a more effective governance, management, and leadership model is still lacking to make experiences more sustainable over time. Its importance is still considered fundamental, as long as they act as change managers, including a positive attitude toward change, strategic vision, effective leadership, and ongoing review processes for the actions and results achieved.”
• The importance of management and leadership in giving meaning and significance to the incorporation of technologies is emphasized, without forgetting the necessary support (training, resources, mentoring, etc.) and development strategies that can help ensure the sustainability of the changes achieved.
• Collective intelligence is a new design challenge that requires debureaucratizing and simplifying organizational structures. It includes an explicit rejection of overdiagnosis and a call to planned action, but always with the emphasis on putting people first in the strategy.
• The new challenge in management —understood as both an art and a technique—in the age of AI will be humanistic or it won't be. In any case, managers and professionals face ethical, emotional, and cultural challenges when adopting this new technology.

Regarding the values and policies that must permeate the transformation process:

• Learning processes are individual and include access to information/knowledge, analysis of this information in relation to previous learning, integration into a new cognitive approach, and its subsequent application to new situations. AI facilitates our access to and analysis of information, but it does not, for now, eliminate the personal effort of comparing new ideas with existing ones, generating new personal patterns, and applying them to new situations.
• A mechanical and repetitive use of AI can indirectly and unintentionally reduce personal effort in the face of new learning and lead to the assumption that the information obtained is sufficient and comprehensive when it is influenced by the algorithms used and the information sources used. It can also lead to people who are less critical and reflective, as well as highly conformist and dependent on the information provided by the AI used.
• AI facilitates our personal, professional, and institutional activities and enhances some of our skills, but it shouldn't make us forget the ones we already have (analytical capacity, purpose and direction in our actions, generation of new cognitive structures, critical thinking, social values, etc.). We must work to enhance our skills, not just replace them.
• There are different and, in part, conflicting views on the importance of promoting regulations on the use of AI that avoid bias and do not increase social inequalities.
• Communities of practice help reinforce organizational values through collaborative learning and impact the experiences of their members, which can shape the possibilities and limitations of AI.
• Public policies and institutional practices cannot remain neutral in the face of structural inequalities, as these can sustain discriminatory processes based on gender, technological dominance, cultural background, or other factors. In this regard, transformation is not a wish but a shared responsibility that offers us opportunities to advance more inclusive structural and operational models.

Finally, it is worth emphasizing once again that these new realities require a collaborative institutional and professional process between the social, productive, and academic sectors, as demonstrated by the current EDO2025 Conference. In this context, we need to promote more interdisciplinary evaluations and studies on the effects and impacts of AI on personal and institutional learning, ensuring high-quality data and transparent intervention models.

The Scientific Committee of the Congress
Bellaterra-Cerdanyola del Vallés, June 6, 2025