ARGENTIC at EBDVF 2026: Bringing Agentic AI Where It Matters Most

2 October 2026

From 30 September to 1 October 2026, ARGENTIC was in Galway, Ireland, for the European Big Data Value Forum (EBDVF 2026), where this year’s theme was building Europe’s AI and data backbone.

At the DICE alliance session, our colleague Dr. Izidor Mlakar (University of Maribor) presented Mind Buddy, one of ARGENTIC’s seven large-scale pilots.

Mind Buddy: an AI companion for adolescent mental health

Mind Buddy is an AI companion designed to support young people’s mental health across three settings in their daily lives:

• At the hospital: socially assistive robots support therapy sessions at UKC Maribor (University Medical Centre Maribor).
• At home: a tablet companion builds on RDIUP’s CompanionApp.
• At school: digital companions are there for young people during the school day.

Throughout, sensitive data stays local, and clinicians stay in charge of every critical decision.

Autonomous, but human-aligned

That’s what we mean by agentic AI that is autonomous but human-aligned. And mental health for young people is exactly where getting that right matters most.

Seven pilots, one approach

Across our seven pilots, ARGENTIC is testing this approach in healthcare, energy, marketing, tourism, agriculture, recruitment and virtual companions. We will share more about each of them soon, so stay tuned!