Spain's AI Week: how your SME can actually make it count

From September 21 to 24, 2026, Red.es is rolling out the first AI Week (“Semana de la IA”) across 54 Acelera pyme offices throughout Spain, with 146 free activities designed to get small and medium businesses trying artificial intelligence on their actual operations, not a generic demo. At Evicron, an AI and custom software studio based in Barcelona with more than 200 projects delivered across 12 sectors since 2019, we see the same pattern in almost every first meeting with an SME: they arrive wanting to “add AI” without having decided which specific process they want to improve. This guide covers what AI Week actually is, how to prepare so the free session isn’t wasted, and what to do once the talk ends and it’s time to decide whether the project moves forward.

What AI Week is and what to expect

This is the first edition of the initiative from Red.es, the public body that runs the Acelera pyme office network, spread across 54 locations nationwide with a total of 146 activities: awareness sessions, hands-on workshops, webinars, one-on-one advisory slots and free diagnostics. Topics range from productivity and process automation to marketing, data analysis, digital strategy, and “secure, sector-specific AI” — tailored to the obligations of each activity, not a generic ChatGPT talk. It closes with a joint gathering of the Acelera pyme offices to share conclusions and best practices.

If your SME hasn’t taken the plunge yet, this is a genuine chance to talk to someone at no cost before deciding anything. If you’re already using AI loosely — someone on the team has ChatGPT open and not much more — it can be the push you need to turn that into a process with measurable results.

Why a free talk isn’t the same as “doing AI”

A one-hour session is good for getting oriented and asking questions, not for designing a project. Two international studies from this year — one from Deloitte, one from EY — agree that only around 1 in 10 companies has taken AI from the pilot stage to a real process with measurable return; the rest stay on the surface because nobody translates that first trial into a process with an owner, a budget and a success metric. AI Week can give you the first push, but the work of scoping the project, sorting out the data and setting a real budget starts afterward, not during the session.

How to prepare so the session is worth it

What to bring to the appointment so the diagnostic doesn’t stay at the level of generalities:

• A specific process that costs you time or money every week — customer support, quoting, document handling, bookings — not “I want to add AI” in the abstract.
• Clarity on where your data lives: spreadsheets, a CRM, loose PDFs, an ERP. The quality of that data shapes the outcome more than whichever AI model sits behind it.
• A quick inventory of what’s already in use without anyone formally deciding it: if part of your team is already trying ChatGPT or similar tools on their own, that’s discovery work you’ve already done.
• A rough idea of what “working” would look like: specific hours saved, fewer errors, faster responses to a customer. Without that baseline metric, any demo looks like a success.

What to ask during the session

Beyond the diagnostic itself, it’s worth leaving with answers to this:

• Does this use case qualify for Kit Digital funding, or do I need a different route?
• Do I need a provider selling licenses for a generic tool, or one that builds something custom on top of my own data?
• What obligations does the EU AI Act place on me if I automate this specific process?
• What’s a realistic price range for a project like the one I have in mind, beyond a rough brochure figure?

From the free talk to a real project

An Acelera pyme office diagnostic is meant to orient you, not to execute the project: it doesn’t replace the work of scoping it with a technology partner or building it. If you leave AI Week with a clear process in mind and the will to move forward, the natural next step is a discovery phase with whoever will actually build it, where you nail down exactly what gets automated, which systems need connecting, and what budget makes sense — our guide to AI implementation costs breaks down real ranges, from €6,000 for a simple agent up to projects with several integrations.

Our AI consulting for businesses has worked this way since 2019: free discovery, weekly sprints with visible deliverables, a clickable demo by week two, and code you own with no vendor lock-in. That’s the same standard that should apply whether you’re coming out of an Acelera pyme office or any other starting point: a specific process, with an owner and a metric, rather than a generic subscription nobody ever revisits.

In short

Red.es’s AI Week — September 21-24 across 54 Acelera pyme offices, with 146 free activities — is a solid entry point if your SME hasn’t decided where to start with artificial intelligence. The real value is in arriving with a specific process already identified and leaving with the right questions answered, not in the talk itself: turning that free diagnostic into a project with results still takes the same work as always, public support or not.

Did your SME leave a diagnostic session with more questions than answers? Get in touch: our first discovery session is free too, and we reply within 24 hours.

Sources: Forbes España, “Red.es acelera la adopción de la inteligencia artificial en el sector empresarial con la ‘Semana de la IA’”, Galicia Press, “Oficinas Acelera pyme de Galicia participan en la ‘Semana de la IA’ impulsada por Red.es”.