CenteIA, the academy that brings artificial intelligence to everyone

When artificial intelligence still seemed like science fiction or a tool reserved for highly specialized technical profiles, Armand Pujadó and Jordi Segura, then engineering students at the university, not only foresaw its potential, but also sensed a business opportunity. Thus, they decided to bet everything, including their savings, with a clear objective: to bring artificial intelligence closer to non-technical people and make it truly useful in daily work. This was the germ of CenteIA, one of the first academies to offer training in artificial intelligence in Spanish, at a time when practically all available offerings were in English.

First collaborating with other educational platforms and, subsequently, with the creation of their own company —founded in November 2024—, CenteIA has experienced exponential growth: in just one year it has exceeded six million euros in turnover and has trained more than half a million people through its free courses.

Originally from Igualada, Pujadó and Segura shared an apartment in Barcelona while studying Robotics Engineering and Telecommunications Engineering, respectively. "I remember perfectly the day ChatGPT came out. I ran into Armand's room to show it to him and show him the potential it had," explains Segura. After months of using this tool at a private user level, they detected an evident gap in the market: there was no structured, accessible, and Spanish-language offering to train the general public in artificial intelligence.

The response was immediate. In just a month and a half, their first academy already had more than 500 students. That initial success prompted them to create their own platform: CenteIA (Center of Excellence in New Technologies and Artificial Intelligence). Today, the company has a team of nearly one hundred professionals, among whom are top-level teachers such as Lula Balarino —former Chief Data Officer of Telefónica and founder of Conexia Learning— and Óscar Corominas —Learning Facilitator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)—, in addition to the trajectory of the founders themselves: Segura as head of AI in the television program MasterChef and Pujadó as leader of AI projects at Caamaño Asia.

Beyond the teaching talent, its founders emphasize that CenteIA's great differential is its pedagogical model, based on clear, practical, and immediately applicable content. From the optimal use of prompts to communicate with chatbots to image generation or the automation of repetitive processes, the platform is committed to addressing the real use of technology, especially in the work environment.

The first point of contact with CenteIA is the free course 'IA 3 en 4', which promises to advance three years of technology in just four days. The course consists of four free live classes offered four or five times a year —the next ones from February 23 to 26— and pursues a clear objective: "to democratize artificial intelligence and make it accessible to everyone, even for those who start from scratch," explains Segura.

Those students who want to delve deeper can continue their training with the university postgraduate degree in artificial intelligence and automations, a six-month program with 36 university credits, certified by the European University of Andorra, Sabal University (Florida) and the University of Nations of Mexico. The program combines recorded content, which is progressively unlocked, with three live sessions a week to resolve doubts. "The constant monitoring means that between 85% and 90% of students complete the postgraduate degree, a figure much higher than the average for online content," highlights Pujadó.

Thanks to this model, CenteIA has trained more than half a million people through free courses and 3,500 students in the postgraduate degree in artificial intelligence and automations. Far from the stereotype, most of these students are not young or technical professionals, but people between 45 and 55 years old —and also over 60 or retired— who seek to reinvent themselves professionally. "Artificial intelligence generates fear, especially among those who are not digital natives and have not grown up with a mobile phone in their hand. But this group of professionals is also aware that, either they update themselves, or they run the risk of being left behind," notes Pujadó.

"Before, artificial intelligence was an opportunity; today it is a necessity"

With training in Spanish and, for a few months now, also in English, CenteIA has students from 32 countries, from Spain and Latin America —such as Chile, Argentina or Mexico— to Anglo-Saxon countries like the United States, the United Kingdom or Australia, and even from Senegal or Nigeria. The next step, they assure, is to offer increasingly specialized and specific training, in strategic areas such as blockchain, cryptocurrencies or decentralized finance.

The financial objective for this year is also clear: to reach 10 million euros in turnover, mainly through training, although the group also operates as an AI consultant and software developer. As an artificial intelligence consultant, CenteIA offers everything from packaged solutions for small and medium-sized companies, such as agents or chatbots, to services for large international corporations. Currently, they are already developing projects in international countries and cities such as Mexico, Dubai or Shanghai, with the aim of becoming the "strategic artificial intelligence department" of different companies, according to Segura. The third pillar of the group is the development of its own software, with the imminent launch of a program capable of creating chatbots in just 30 seconds, as well as its own mobile application for tracking the postgraduate program.

"Before, artificial intelligence was an opportunity; today it is a necessity. People no longer consider not having knowledge in this field," summarizes Pujadó. And it is in this context that CenteIA wants to continue accompanying individuals and professionals so that they can understand, apply and take advantage of artificial intelligence in their daily lives.