Everyday AI: PreparationTech AI Skills Day Shows Students that AI Tools are Changing How We Work

October 7, 2026

It's time to move students beyond using AI chatbots like ChatGPT to helping them understand when and how to use AI tools to unleash their creativity, prototype and navigate a world in which AI is automating work and taking over more and more decision-making.

This was the goal of last Friday's PreparationTech AI Tech Skills Day held at the University of Amsterdam's Science Park campus which explored the theme of 'Everyday AI'. Approximately 75 high school students from groups under-represented in technology (young women, racial and ethnic minorities and low-income) and their teachers learned how professionals working in fields ranging from industrial to design, tech, engineering and education use AI tools for their day-to-day work.

The day began with an inspiring talk by Chrissie Cremers, Executive Creative Director at Aigency Amsterdam, Europe's first generative AI-centric creative agency. She spoke about creativity in the age of AI and how AI workflows are transforming the creative process, encouraging students to be bold, learn how to prompt effectively and to master a range of AI tools. (Chrissie even showed students the AI prompts behind one of Aigency Amsterdam's most popular campaigns.)

A panel of speakers then discussed how AI is transforming their work and they use AI tools. Highights included:

  • industrial designer Michelle Ivankovic who asked students for design ideas before sketching, taking a photo of a student and rendering a 3D design live
  • Adyen's Senior Payment Risk Operations Analyst Busayo Babalola pitted students against AI to detect instances of credit card fraud

Students then engaged in rounds of speed-dating with speakers, university students and role models working in AI.

During the afternoon, students and teachers completed workshops which gave them direct experience with AI logic and tools, including:

  • Bias in AI Recruitment: understanding how algorithms influence AI decision-making and adapting them to remove bias during a workshop taught by AI educator Amalia Stuger
  • Gesture-based AI: using a sensor device to train a computer to recognize movement
  • ‍Vibe coding: practising prompting to bring their ideas to life with AI coding

As one student wrote in their feedback, "I know that I need to learn AI skills. Today I learned that there are tools for every job but you first need to think about how to use this tools the right way. It's easy to let AI to do the creative thinking for you which you shouldn't. Protect your ideas and ability to think creatively."

A big thanks to all of our speakers and the University of Amsterdam and Techkwadraat Amsterdam for being amazing event partners and helping to organize this event!