<p><strong>“AI first” is the motto of BREiNN, the innovation center of the engineering firm Breman. “For us, every task starts with artificial intelligence: writing a report, creating a presentation, performing a calculation—you name it,” says Patrick van Stokhem, technical director and AI strategy consultant. “Then we fine-tune it ourselves.” As the role of AI within companies grows, it becomes increasingly important to understand how an AI system arrives at its answers. Only then can you keep processes safe, fair, and reliable. Van Stokhem explains the opportunities and risks that AI brings and shares the insights he gained during the event “The Future at the Table: AI-Connect” regarding explainable AI (XAI).</strong></p><h1>From creation to oversight</h1><p>“In the coming years, AI will become increasingly autonomous,” says Van Stokhem. “I give it another two years, and then employees will be able to ‘ask their company questions.’ In other words, they’ll ask a question and get an immediate answer, without any human intervention. Think of it as ‘a Google’ filled with all the information available within the company. Databases, reference materials, contact information, figures, budgets, and so on. You ask your question, and the company chatbot provides the answer.”</p><p>Building on that is the autonomous customer service system for Breman that the five-person team at BREiNN is currently working on. “Soon, customers will be able to call and message our company via WhatsApp. They won’t get a human on the line or in the chat, but a digital avatar that draws its answers from ‘Breman’s Google.’ If a question is complicated or a customer would rather speak to a live agent,” says Van Stokhem with a laugh, “the digital agent will transfer them to a human.”</p><h1>Breman and Innovation</h1><p>Breman is a family-owned business with nearly 1,700 installation experts across 26 locations. The company is building a future filled with sustainable, technical installations that improve living and working conditions. “Breman installs high-efficiency boilers, heat pumps, solar panels, ventilation systems, and smart thermostats, and provides service and maintenance. And Breman is committed to solving societal challenges, such as the energy transition and the housing crisis,” explains Van Stokhem. “BREiNN prefers to tackle these challenges using AI and robots. We have a robot named Bob in the office that we’re experimenting with.”</p><h1>Time savings</h1><p>One of the societal challenges Breman is currently focusing on is the housing shortage. “We’re particularly short on social housing in the Netherlands,” says Van Stokhem. “Water, on the other hand, we have plenty of. In fact, due to climate change, the Netherlands is slowly but surely becoming increasingly flooded. We’re now working on the ‘Drijvende kracht’ project: a design for homes on water. I had the AI run calculations and create drawings for a few days. My prompt (the instructions given to the AI tool, ed.) included all sorts of conditions: floating, round shape, in the Netherlands, lightweight, weather-resistant, and so on. After two weekends of calculating and thinking, it spat out a drawing of a floating home with an aerodynamic dome, including technical specifications. We had those verified by structural engineers at BREiNN. It turned out to be very close to a working solution.”</p><h1>Explainable AI</h1><p>In a world increasingly driven by AI, verifying and understanding the decisions and responses of AI systems is essential. That is why explainable AI (XAI) is on the rise. A case that cried out for AI explainability was the gender discrimination by Apple Card in 2019. Women were given lower credit limits via the Apple Card than men, even among married couples with joint finances. Europe is prioritizing the ethical and fair application of AI through the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) regulatory framework. According to Van Stokhem, XAI is an important step toward compliance with that act. During the event “The Future at the Table: AI-Connect” on December 3 in Zwolle, dozens of attendees, including Van Stokhem, focused on making AI explainable. The AI-Connect event was organized by ZWINC, Digitaal District Zwolle, and the AI Hub East Netherlands, with financial support from the Top Sector ICT.</p><h1>The Future at the Table: AI-Connect</h1><p>Keynote speaker Meike Nauta, winner of the 2025 Prince Friso Engineering Prize, shared her expertise on XAI during the event. “What really stuck with me,” Van Stokhem reflects, “is that we can already work on the explainability of the AI applications we’re developing. And that you can even program the applications so that they explain themselves. It’s actually quite simple—for example, by including a standard prompt that instructs the application to explain how it arrived at its answer when responding to a question.”</p><h1>What if working becomes optional?</h1><p>The event also offered Van Stokhem a chance to network, slow down, and philosophize. “I had some great conversations there with people I wouldn’t otherwise meet. For example, from Isala Hospital. My conclusion after the conversations at the event is that AI should bring about a renaissance. What if work—as we currently know it—becomes optional? That AI does the work and ‘the human is in the loop’ to check if that work is going well? That we become managers of our own AI solutions? Then we’ll all have time to take our kids to school, healthcare workers can give patients more attention, and the installation technician will have more time for questions from the customers he visits.”</p><p>Building on that last point, Van Stokhem expresses another wish for the future. “With BREiNN, I’d like to create a solution for Breman’s technicians. No technician starts this job because they love administrative tasks. What if the technician could talk to their tablet, and it would enter everything into the system and automatically print an overview for the customer?”</p><h1>Brainstorming about AI</h1><p>Van Stokhem enjoys collaborating with other companies and organizations: “Anyone who wants to brainstorm about AI is welcome to reach out to BREiNN”: <a href="mailto:info@breinn.nl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">info@breinn.nl</a>. Want to learn more about the AI Hub East Netherlands or submit an AI-related question? Visit <a href="www.aihub-oost.nl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">www.aihub-oost.nl</a> and contact one of our program managers.</p>

How explainable AI (XAI) keeps processes safe, fair and reliable