We are teaching Blockchain and AI Demystified at IACA in December

Two days in Laxenburg for people who have to judge AI and blockchain without building them.

What IACA announced

The International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) has opened applications for Blockchain and AI Demystified, a two-day open training on 14 and 15 December 2026 at the IACA Campus in Laxenburg, Austria. IACA delivers it in cooperation with Blockstruct, and our founder Srdjan Kuprešanin teaches it.

The training is for anti-corruption and integrity professionals without a technical background. It is taught in English, in person, to about 20 participants. Applications close on 4 December. IACA admits on a rolling basis, so places can be gone before then.

Why "demystified"

AI and blockchain can be powerful tools and powerful adversaries. Both come wrapped in mystery, some of it accidental, some of it intentional. The people who pay for that mystery are the ones who have to judge these systems: an investigator weighing a vendor's claim, an auditor asked to sign off on a model, a prosecutor looking at a chain of transactions.

The course clears it away. Participants learn what a blockchain establishes and can guarantee, and what it cannot. They learn what an AI model actually is, as distinct from the engineered components around it that usually stay out of sight.

AI has made content cheap to produce. Checking it is still slow, skilled work, and it decides what can be trusted. Integrity professionals do that work every day. The course shows how to bring it to AI and blockchain.

What participants learn

By the end of the two days, participants can:

• explain the core concepts of blockchain and generative AI in plain language;
• separate what these technologies can guarantee from what they cannot;
• follow how digital assets are used to move illicit value, and how that value can be traced;
• tell what an AI model already knows from what it has to be taught for a specific use;
• explain why models hallucinate, and keep it to a minimum;
• recognise the risks of deepfakes and fabricated documents, and ask the practical questions that matter when someone proposes a technology solution.

Who it is for

Mid- to senior-level practitioners who have to judge these technologies from several sides: what the systems produce, what is claimed about them, and the applications others propose. That includes:

• investigators, prosecutors, and police and financial intelligence officers;
• anti-corruption authorities and government officials;
• asset recovery practitioners;
• supreme audit institutions and internal auditors;
• compliance and integrity professionals, including in state-owned enterprises;
• international organisations and oversight bodies.

No technical knowledge is required.

How it is taught

Eight sessions of about 90 minutes over two days: expert presentations, guided discussion, live demonstrations, case studies, group exercises and realistic anti-corruption scenarios.

Participants are the experts in their own field, and the programme is built around them. They bring their questions, doubts and cases, and those are worked through over the two days.

Nobody is trained on a particular commercial tool. The aim is a clear mental model of each technology, which keeps its value as tools and products change. A robotic arm on a production line makes sense to us before we have even thought about it. The course aims for the same intuitive grasp of AI.

About the trainer

Srdjan Kuprešanin founded Blockstruct, a Vienna company that builds automation of complex processes for banking and public administration.

• Blockstruct built a euro-backed stable token for Raiffeisen Bank International. An independent cybersecurity firm engaged by RBI reviewed and verified the solution from a cybersecurity perspective, which enabled its integration with the RBI core banking system.
• Blockstruct experts built and delivered the blockchain solution of Croatia's national medicine-shortage monitoring system for the Ministry of Health.
• Blockstruct is a member of the AI:AT Hub of AI Factory Austria, which the EU co-funds.
• Through Blockstruct's collaborations with universities in Austria, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, he has taught young software developers.
• He contributed to the UK Parliament's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Blockchain and AI.
• He gave a short presentation at the Austrian government's Interministerial Forum on AI Policy.
• He has trained 40 senior managers at UniCredit.

Key facts and how to apply