Dr. Mathias Celis

Behavioural scientist (Ghent University) and co-founder of Pidgy, an email inbox AI assistant.

Dr. Mathias Celis is a behavioural scientist and founder who studies what modern work does to the human brain in the era of AI. He holds a PhD in psychology and economics, is affiliated with Ghent University (Belgium), and researches cognitive load, workload and attention in client-facing professional firms.

AI is changing estate and letting agency at its core: how leads come in, how viewings get booked, how offers move. Yet it remains a people business. Vendors choose the agent they trust. Sales complete when buyers, sellers, solicitors and lenders keep moving together, and they stall in the chain, where everyone assumes someone else is chasing.

That is the blind spot Mathias works on. The tools change every month, while the human brain has barely changed in 70,000 years. Behavioural science knows a great deal about what makes people trust, decide and follow through. Most AI is built without it.

That is why he makes the case for behavioural AI: technology designed around how people actually think and work. He helps owners and directors decide where AI belongs in their business, and where it should stay out. Automate the admin, protect the moments where a vendor decides to trust you. When every agency has access to the same tools, he believes the human side becomes the real competitive edge.

Mathias is also a builder. In 2019 he co-founded an AI and automation company that was acquired by a multinational in 2024. Today he is co-founder of Alkmist, the Ghent-based company behind Pidgy, an AI assistant that turns the inbox into a clear view of who is waiting on whom.

Before research and business, he represented Belgium internationally as an acrobatic gymnast and became vice world champion.