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AI Appreciation Day took place yesterday, inviting people to celebrate a technology that exists in our everyday lives. The annual event says it is dedicated to the humane treatment, thoughtful development and conscious celebration of AI.

The event leaves many people asking if the public should appreciate AI or spend more time learning how it works. Many digital tools have become essential over the years, but very few have their own appreciation day.

There are appreciation days for teachers, nurses and volunteers. There is no Startup Appreciation Day or Spreadsheet Appreciation Day or Search Engine Appreciation Day 鈥� AI has become one of the few technologies with its own annual celebration.

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Does AI Deserve Its Own Appreciation Day?

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The organisation behind AI Appreciation Day says the event is dedicated to the humane treatment, thoughtful development and conscious celebration of artificial intelligence.

Claudio Fuentes, COO and Co founder of Comp AI, believes AI receives this type of attention because many people have mixed feelings about the technology. He said, 鈥淥n why AI gets an appreciation day when spreadsheets never did, probably because it鈥檚 the first tech in a while that makes people a little nervous (the good kind of nervous). Worth appreciating and worth being careful with, at the same time.鈥�

His view offers one explanation for why AI has its own annual event when many other technologies do not.

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Should People Understand AI Before Appreciating It?

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Many people working with AI every day believe learning about the technology should come before celebrating it.

Oana Beattie, Vice President Data and AI at Kyndryl, said, 鈥淯nderstanding AI matters more than simply appreciating it. A truly informed user can see where AI creates value, where it introduces risk, and what controls are needed before it is trusted with decisions affecting people, customers or critical operations.鈥�

Rokan, owner of NOZLOO Kitchen and Bath LLC, said, 鈥淭he public should be encouraged to understand AI, not appreciate it as an abstract good.

鈥淚 would rather see AI literacy measured by whether an organisation knows where automation is appropriate, where human judgment is essential, and how customers can tell the difference.鈥�

Manu Gurudatha, VP of Engineering at PagerDuty, said, 鈥淭he public should be encouraged both to appreciate AI and to understand it, because without understanding, fear fills the gap where trust should be.鈥�

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What Exactly Should People Appreciate?

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Many technology leaders believe people should value the benefits AI brings instead of celebrating the technology on its own.

Cache Merrill, Founder of Zibtek, said, 鈥淚f there鈥檚 something worth appreciating about AI, it鈥檚 not the technology itself. It鈥檚 that, when applied thoughtfully, it gives people more time to focus on work that actually requires experience, judgment, and creativity.鈥�

Markus Nispel, CTO EMEA and Head of AI Engineering at Extreme Networks, said AI has changed how he approaches his work every day.

He said, 鈥淎I has transformed every stage of my work from research to execution. It helps me identify risks, keep initiatives on track and, when used correctly, can accelerate the journey from an idea to a demonstratable prototype. It鈥檚 a fundamentally different way of innovating. While it does not invent anything by itself, it does supercharge the human creativity.

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 just answer questions but challenges assumptions, connects ideas, and helps turn early thinking into something worth building. Another big advantage is how quickly it can synthesize information. Company assessments for partnership and M&A considerations that once took days can now be completed in hours, freeing me to focus on strategy, judgment and where I can add the most value.鈥�

The annual event encourages people to appreciate AI. The people working closest to the technology place much more value on helping the public understand how AI works, where people should use it, and where human judgement should always come first.
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What Do Experts Think?

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After asking experts what their thoughts are on having an AI Appreciation Day when other industries do not, this is what they shared鈥�
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Our Experts:

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• Bindesh Vijayan, Co-founder And CTO, Myndlab
• Yukt Mitash, Founder And Software Engineer, WriteBros.ai
• Volodymyr Ozirnyi, Dizz Agency
• Sylvestre Dupont, Co-founder And CEO, Parseur
• Lily Dash, Founder, Future Caribbean
• Mridul Nagpal, CTO And Co-founder, Krazimo Inc
• Alexia Georghiou, CEO And Founder, Knoxville Happiness Coalition
• Udaya Bhaskar Vemuri, Senior Application Security Analyst
• Nick Balnaves, Founder, Threada

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Bindesh Vijayan, Co-founder And CTO, Myndlab

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鈥淚n light of AI Appreciation Day, I think we鈥檙e focusing on the wrong milestone. The real breakthrough isn鈥檛 that AI can write code faster, it鈥檚 that AI is changing who gets to build.

鈥淔or decades, turning an idea into a real product meant assembling a team of developers, designers, product managers and marketers, or having the capital to hire them. Today, a single AI subscription can help one person with an idea do what once required a whole team.

鈥淯ltimately, I think that鈥檚 what AI Appreciation Day should really be about. Not simply appreciating what AI can do, but recognising how it鈥檚 giving more people the ability to innovate, solve problems and turn ideas into reality faster than ever before.鈥�

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Yukt Mitash, Founder And Software Engineer, WriteBros.ai

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鈥淚 think AI Appreciation Day exists because AI is one of the first technologies that normal people interact with almost as if they were another person. Most major technologies stayed hidden behind screens and wires, but AI sits in front of us and writes and reasons and responds, so people naturally form opinions about it in a way they never did with databases, cloud computing or networking.

鈥淔or that reason, I don鈥檛 believe AI needs to be appreciated so much as it needs to be understood. Appreciation can make people focus on the output of AI, while understanding helps them ask good questions about where that output is coming from, how it can fail, and where real, human judgment is required.鈥�

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Volodymyr Ozirnyi, Dizz Agency

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鈥淎I did not appear on its own. It was created by people, trained by people, and continues to be directed by people. At its core, AI is a powerful tool designed to help us solve problems, not something to admire for its own sake.

鈥淩ather than encouraging people to appreciate AI, we should encourage AI literacy. Every professional should understand what AI can do, where its limitations lie, how bias can emerge, and when human expertise must take the lead.鈥�
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Sylvestre Dupont, Co-founder And CEO, Parseur

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鈥淎I is a tool. A good one, but still a tool, like the wheel or a hammer. Do we celebrate Wheel Appreciation Day?

鈥淭he teams we work with don鈥檛 鈥榓ppreciate鈥� AI. They use it to solve specific, boring problems.

鈥淲hat slightly worries me is this creeping tendency to humanize AI. Once you start appreciating a tool like a person, you鈥檙e one step away from treating it like a colleague.

鈥淪o I won鈥檛 be baking a cake this year. I鈥檒l keep using AI where it works, and saying out loud when it doesn鈥檛. As far as I鈥檓 concerned, that鈥檚 the best appreciation a tool can get.鈥�

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Lily Dash, Founder, Future Caribbean

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鈥淚 actually think the two go hand in hand, but if I had to choose one, I鈥檇 always start with understanding. The more people understand AI, the more confidently and responsibly they can use it, question it and ultimately build with it.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 because AI has become much bigger than an industry. It鈥檚 starting to influence almost every part of our lives, from the way we learn and work to how businesses are built and entire economies grow.

鈥淧ersonally, I don鈥檛 think AI Appreciation Day should be about celebrating the technology for its own sake. What excites me is celebrating the people who are using it in thoughtful and creative ways to solve problems that actually matter.鈥�

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Mridul Nagpal, CTO And Co-founder, Krazimo Inc

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鈥淲e should be encouraging people to UNDERSTAND AI, not appreciate it. Appreciation is a feeling; understanding is what lets you actually use it well, and regulate it sensibly.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a 鈥榙atabase appreciation day鈥� or a 鈥榗ompiler appreciation day,鈥� and those quietly run the modern world. That AI gets one is a tell that it鈥檚 being marketed as a movement rather than evaluated as a technology.鈥�

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Alexia Georghiou, CEO And Founder, Knoxville Happiness Coalition

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鈥淎ppreciation requires emotion and this begs the question, how can we appreciate if we don鈥檛 understand quite yet what artificial intelligence is necessary for, what the best use is, and how it can best serve the human.

鈥淎I deserves its appreciation day; it鈥檚 a disruptor, and we need to have even more conversations around the proper usage of AI to create an environment of safe and responsible usage.鈥�

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Udaya Bhaskar Vemuri, Senior Application Security Analyst

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鈥淚 think the public should understand AI better rather than simply appreciate it. AI is a powerful tool, but like any tool, it has strengths and limitations. Understanding both helps people make better decisions.

鈥淚n my view, the goal is not to make everyone excited about AI. The goal is to help people understand what it can do, what it cannot do, and how to use it responsibly.鈥�

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Nick Balnaves, Founder, Threada

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鈥淚 think people should understand AI before being asked to appreciate it. Appreciation sounds harmless, but it can turn a tool into a cause.

鈥淲e do not have appreciation days for databases, payroll software or cloud computing because we judge those technologies by whether they solve a problem well. AI should face the same test.

鈥淎n 鈥楢I Appreciation Day鈥� makes sense as a marketing moment, but it tells us little about whose work the technology improves, who carries the risk, or who is accountable when it fails.鈥�