Thursday April 16 was the day the Professional Textile Care industry came face to face with the artificial intelligence impact. And it did not flinch. Rewatch the full AI day at gbpa.cinet-online.com/live.
“What we saw on April 16 was not hype — it was 14 real businesses, run by real operators, showing what AI actually does when you put it to work in a laundry.“
The AI Masterclass
The day opened with an AI Masterclass presented by three CINET AI Consultants: Amos Rossman (Israel), Michiel Droog (Netherlands) and Rachit Ahuja (India). Together, they laid out the current state of AI adoption in PTC – where it is being used, what results operators are seeing, and how to approach AI implementation without getting lost in the noise. The Masterclass was followed by a session titled: “AI at its Best”, featuring two companies sharing live case studies: FORNET (China), Washmen (Dubai).
14 Entrepreneurs, 14 Pitches
The day commenced with AI Starter Pitches – 14 entrepreneurs from across the global PTC network, each presenting their AI project to a live audience and an independent jury. Every one of the 14 was a winner in the sense that counted most: they built something, tested it, and had the confidence to stand up and share it with the world.
The pitching companies and their representatives were:
| Company | Participant | Country | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hublo | Stephane Cohen | France | 80 |
| Carpet Clean Tsanakis | George Tsaknakis | Greece | 66 |
| Cleanovo | Chirag Bhatia | India | 79 |
| Kapoor Drycleaners | Ojasvi Kapoor | India | 81 |
| LaundroKart | Ravi Raghav | India | 75 |
| Quickclean Private Limited 🏆 AI Award Winner | Anshul Gupta | India | 86 |
| Synergy Express Garment Care | MK Pooja | India | 70 |
| The Laundry Concierge | Jash Dalal | India | 73 |
| Drop and Wash SDN BHD | Zarina Binti Ismail | Malaysia | 71 |
| Londri | Mohd Hafizul Bin Razali | Malaysia | 49 |
| Fornet | Leon Wennekes | Netherlands | 65 |
| Vendrig BV / Edwin van Rooij | Nigel van der Valk | Netherlands | 69 |
| French Cleaners | Mark Hatch | USA | 72 |
| Jan’s Professional Cleaners and Laundromat | Jan Barlow | USA | 61 |
After evaluation by the independent jury, Quickclean Private Limited (India) emerged as the overall winner of the CINET AI Starters Award 2026, scoring the highest combined points across the judging criteria. Congratulations to all and especially to Anshul Gupta and the Quickclean team. All projects include also a technical manual for implementation is available in a practical hand-out for CINET members. The official jury report will be made available on the website as well.
The Hand-Out Manual is summarising the experiences and learnings from all 14 AI projects. This manual is a unique resource: a ground-level view of what AI adoption actually looks like in PTC businesses around the world. All pitches can be rewatched in full: gbpa.cinet-online.com/live
The AI Code of Conduct
A significant milestone of the day was the introduction and distribution of the CINET AI Code of Conduct for professional textile care. Developed by the CINET Artificial Intelligence Steering Committee, the Code provides a practical framework for operators using AI tools in their business — covering transparency, data responsibility, and the ethical use of AI in customer-facing and operational contexts.
Smarter PTC Business: Transformation of services
In the afternoon, the Workshop on Smarter PTC Business brought the day’s commercial dimension to life. Christoph Richter of Kreussler Chemie presented a data keynote on where the global PTC market is moving and why it matters. Jad Halaoui of Washmen (Dubai) shared the unit economics behind scaling a digital on-demand laundry. Julie Lijun of FORNET (China) explained how omnichannel operators build margin in local service markets. Léon Wennekes addressed the sustainability of AI and automation effects on PTC Business Development.
The Dynamics of market changes and requirements demand a rapid change of services, hence processing. The Future is about offering personal services of high quality sustainable cleaning by means of IT, AI and Professionals in advanced organizations. This creates an impressive long-term perspective for countries worldwide. The presentations of this workshop proved this is not science fiction, but already happening today!
