On January 17th-18th, 2025, I joined the AI Weekend Retreat at H-FARM Business School.
A two-day executive course for professionals eager to make sense of how artificial intelligence is changing the way we work and think. I expected solid content. It was much more. I got an hands-on, high-level learning experience that merged strategy, experimentation, and future-thinking in a uniquely engaging format.
This retreat came just a few days after ServerlessDays Rome 2024, where I had already explored the intersection between AI agents, cloud infrastructure, and real-world use cases. That experience laid the groundwork, H-FARM helped connect the dots, offering depth, structure, and a strategic lens on the future of AI in business.
Day 1 – Strategy and Impact
The retreat opened on Friday with a session with a leading expert in AI strategy with a background in theoretical physics and deep experience at the intersection of research, business, and innovation.
The session took us from the core principles of AI to their strategic implications. Some key takeaways:
- AI is not just a technical field, it’s a driver of business transformation.
- Data-informed decisions are only as good as the questions we ask.
- Real-world applications of AI span across automation, analytics, and customer experience, but they all require context and purpose.
- Scientific rigor doesn’t need to be intimidating, complex topics were made accessible without oversimplifying.
For me, it was a valuable reminder that understanding AI it’s about asking better questions and seeing the bigger picture.
Day 2 – Generative AI in Practice
Saturday was dedicated entirely to Generative AI and Prompt Engineering, led by an expert at H-FARM AI.
This wasn’t a lecture. It was a full-day collaborative lab, designed to test and build with the tools that are already reshaping creative and operational workflows. We worked with:
- Prompt design strategies for GPT and other LLMs
- Use case simulations for different industries
- Techniques to extract meaningful, high-quality outputs from generative models
- Real-time exploration of what’s possible, and what’s still misunderstood, about these tools
What stood out was the focus on doing: building, iterating, refining. We went thought structure, insight, and just the right amount of provocation to help us think beyond “what AI can do” and into “what we could build with it.”
Beyond Tools: A Weekend to Reset Your Perspective
The biggest value of this retreat wasn’t just knowledge, it was the shift in mindset. It’s easy to think of AI as a productivity tool. But what emerged over these two days was something deeper: AI as a collaborator for ideas, not just tasks. A way to expand capability, not just automate it.
The team at H-FARM AI, with its blend of academic insight and real-world experimentation, is building an ecosystem where innovation and responsibility go hand in hand. I appreciated the thoughtful curation of both content and people, an environment where every conversation felt like a new door opening.
Final Reflection
If you’re in tech, product, design, or leadership, and you’re trying to make sense of how AI fits into your work, this kind of learning environment makes a difference. Not just because of what you learn but because of how it helps you see.
Thank you to the H-FARM team, and every participant I had the chance to talk to. I’m going back to work with fresh ideas, sharper questions, and a renewed sense of curiosity for what’s next.
English 
Italian