Torras.ai

What can artificial intelligence do for a business, and what still depends on trust between people? In this episode of the Torras AI Podcast, I speak with Carles Grau about turning technology into useful change. Our conversation moves from the early Internet to today's AI tools, with practical examples from B2B sales, entrepreneurship, and innovation with a social purpose.

Carles has held leadership roles at HP, Sun Microsystems, Accenture, and Microsoft, where he was general manager in Catalonia. He later led Mobile World Capital Barcelona and is now founder and director of GIC, Growth Innovation Consulting. He is also the author of El nuevo efecto WOW. Innovando con propósito. We have known each other since our Sun Microsystems days, which gives us plenty of history to draw on as we consider this latest technology wave. The conversation is in Catalan. A summary of the conversation appears below.

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Highlights from the conversation

AI brings back the feeling of the early Internet

Carles describes three broad stages in his career: managing multinational technology businesses, working closely with entrepreneurs, and leading a public-private foundation. Those experiences let him look at technological change through several different lenses: what it makes possible, how an organization adopts it, and how it reaches society.

Today's AI gives him a feeling similar to exploring the Internet in the 1990s. At Sun, we were trying to help companies understand what a connected world could mean. He recalls that sense of discovering new territory and sees a comparable opportunity now to rethink how people work. The challenge is to turn that excitement into applications people can actually use.

Innovation with purpose starts with a human need

We discuss the idea behind his book: innovation should have a purpose that can be seen in people's lives. Carles recalls how the pandemic made simple digital tools essential for staying connected and accessing services. The value came from helping people do something they needed to do.

He also describes work with a social robot called Misty to support older people experiencing isolation. In his account, the robot could help with companionship, reminders, and contact with family or care professionals. The example illustrates the question running through our conversation: whose problem does a technology solve, and how will we know whether it helps?

Use AI to give salespeople more time with customers

Carles offers concrete examples of AI in B2B sales. Before a meeting, an assistant can bring together CRM information and relevant public material to help a salesperson prepare. Afterward, voice notes can become a structured record and help keep the CRM up to date. Drafting proposals, preparing contracts, identifying prospects, and organizing leads are other tasks where he sees useful applications.

These workflows still need people to check the information and judge what to do next. Carles emphasizes reviewing proposed contacts and messages before approaching a customer. The time saved becomes more valuable when it creates room to listen, understand a customer's situation, and have a better conversation.

Trust becomes more valuable when messages are easy to generate

I ask what happens when everyone can generate large numbers of personalized sales emails. If producing the message becomes easy, how does a buyer decide whom to trust?

Carles brings the answer back to human relationships: empathy, keeping commitments, understanding another person's priorities, and responding when something goes wrong. Tools can improve preparation and follow-up, but a customer also needs confidence in the person and organization behind the offer. For him, that human connection remains central to the final stages of a commercial relationship.

Explain technology in the customer's business terms

A technically impressive product still needs a clear reason for a customer to adopt it. Carles suggests discussing outcomes the customer can recognize: productivity, costs, revenue, delivery times, satisfaction, or sustainability. The relevant measure depends on the problem being solved.

That also changes the conversation about price. Teams need to understand the economic value they create and test their assumptions with customers. Describing a capability is only part of the work; showing how it improves a real process makes the proposal easier to assess.

Move from pilots to feedback, and build a balanced team

For founders, Carles recommends getting a minimum viable product into the hands of suitable early customers. A friendly first customer can help a team learn what matters, identify weaknesses, and change direction before spending too long refining an idea in isolation.

He describes a strong team as having three complementary areas of capability: technology and science, commercial development and investor relationships, and operations and finance. A founder does not need to excel at all of them personally. The team needs enough balance to build, sell, and deliver what it promises.

Data and training determine whether AI adoption works

When advising an organization on AI, Carles starts by asking about its data: its quality, how it is organized, and how it is governed. Those foundations affect what an AI application can reliably accomplish.

He then turns to training and change management. Buying access to a tool is one step; helping people use it effectively in their daily work takes further effort. Teams need time to learn, experiment, and adapt their routines if the organization expects more than occasional individual use.

Young professionals still need curiosity and judgment

Our discussion of younger workers focuses on learning as repetitive tasks become easier to automate. Carles stresses curiosity, critical thinking, teamwork, reading, and a solid grounding in mathematics. These abilities help people ask useful questions, evaluate an answer, and keep developing as tools change.

His advice is to stay engaged with learning and with other people. AI changes the work available to a junior employee, which makes it especially useful to create opportunities to understand customers, solve problems, and develop professional judgment.

Connect Catalonia's research strength with companies

We finish by discussing Barcelona and Catalonia's technology ecosystem. Carles sees an opportunity to turn more scientific work into products, patents, and new businesses through closer collaboration between universities, researchers, and industry.

The conversation includes the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the BSC AI Factory, whose services connect computing resources, AI expertise, training, and support for businesses. For Carles, Europe has an opportunity to build and commercialize technology, alongside its roles as a customer and regulator.

Connect with Carles Grau

You can find Carles on LinkedIn and learn about his work through Growth Innovation Consulting. Thank you, Carles, for a conversation that connects decades of technological change with the everyday work of earning trust, building useful products, and helping people learn.