The IEEE SMC Student Branch Chapter in association with the IEEE Student Branch KGEC and the Department of Information Technology, Kalyani Government Engineering College (KGEC) successfully organized a webinar titled “Beyond Automation: Human-Centric Applied AI” on 15 March 2026 (Sunday) at 7:00 PM IST.

The session featured Hemant Soni, Digital Customer Experience Specialist at Capgemini (North America) as the distinguished speaker. He delivered an insightful lecture on the evolution of Artificial Intelligence from traditional automation-driven systems to advanced human-centric and cognitive AI paradigms. The talk emphasized the growing importance of integrating human intelligence with AI systems to enhance decision-making, customer experience, and enterprise efficiency.

The webinar witnessed enthusiastic participation from over 100 attendees including undergraduate and postgraduate students, research scholars, faculty members and industry professionals. The speaker elaborated on modern AI architectures, enterprise-level AI adoption strategies and emerging trends shaping the future of human–AI collaboration. The session also included an interactive Q&A segment where participants actively engaged with the speaker thus making the discussion highly enriching.

The organizing team extends its sincere gratitude to the Faculty Advisor Partha Sarathi Banerjee and the IEEE Student Branch Counsellor Angsuman Sarkar for their constant guidance and support. Special thanks are also due to the organizing committee members — Debashis De, Kousik Dasgupta, and Jyotsna Kumar Mandal — for their dedicated efforts in successfully conducting the event.

The chapter also acknowledges the continuous encouragement and support from the IEEE Kolkata Section, IEEE Region 10 and the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society in promoting student-led technical activities.

The webinar concluded with a vote of thanks, marking yet another successful initiative aimed at fostering innovation, research and knowledge dissemination within the IEEE community.