From BA to BAi: the BA as Agent of Change in the AI Transformation of your Organisation

For many organisations, the past few years marked their first real encounter with AI, and Ann Mistiaen and Nikolaas De Graeve’s organisation was no exception. As Business Analysts, they recognised a familiar role: agent of change, and helped to facilitate their company’s AI transformation.

Rather than a top-down rollout, they chose horizontal integration: appointing AI ambassadors across every domain, running ‘AI for Dummies’ sessions, drafting a company AI policy, and turning product-team hackathons into working proof-of-concepts, embedding AI into their own practice along the way.

In this session, they share what worked, what didn’t, and where their AI strategy heads next — practical inspiration attendees can take back to their own organisation.

Key Takeaways

• Low-threshold ways to build AI literacy, from ‘AI for Dummies’ sessions to hands-on hackathons.
• A starting point for building an AI policy: guardrails that let teams experiment responsibly.
• A blueprint for horizontal AI adoption: appointing AI ambassadors across every domain instead of a top-down rollout.
• An honest look at what worked and what didn’t — real lessons so others can skip the same mistakes.

About the Speakers

Ann Mistiaen and Nikolaas De Graeve are both Business Analysts at Vanden Broele Group, which delivers innovative knowledge solutions for governments and non-profits in Belgium. Ann began her IT career in early 2000 as a functional testing consultant and has spent the past 12 years as a business analyst, with much of her work focused on local and federal government.

Nikolaas started out in IT and communications in 1998 and has been a business analyst for 10 years. Together they design solutions for both internal and external clients, and have previously presented at the Business Analysis Summit South Africa in 2022 and 2024.