A Great Stir Has Arisen Around AI, and This Often Happens When People Massively Misunderstand Something

Leaders of the future industry, representatives of technology companies that have long been using artificial intelligence and operating in the global market, provided answers to the main questions troubling the public regarding the development of artificial intelligence at the Lider conference G.R.I.D. . Karlo Knežević, head of the AI team at Sofascore, mentioned that today there are three attractive words when attracting funding – artificial intelligence, machine learning, sustainable.

– A great stir has arisen around AI, and this often happens when people massively misunderstand something. A similar stir arises when nuclear power plants are mentioned. You take a topic that no one understands, you present it in the media, and you get an explosion. And in those media, I have not noticed any particular experts on artificial intelligence from the academic community; those people are sociologists, psychologists. Kudos to them, but why aren’t IT experts being asked? – Knežević wonders.

He claims that AI will not replace anyone. Tools will simply be developed that employees will need to learn and use effectively. Those who do not will need to worry about their jobs.

– And if there is a loss of jobs, ‘former coachmen will be replaced by today’s taxi drivers’ – emphasized Knežević, adding that ChatGPT is not revolutionary; it is merely a tool for the masses that the academic community was already familiar with.

Krešimir Jurić, director from Setcor, noted that when talking about digital transformation, it is still discussed as something that will happen, even though these processes have been ongoing for a long time.

– AI is currently the number one topic, but we have interesting examples of digitization in sectors such as financial technology, renewable energy sources, etc., and information technology is the leader of the story; everything starts from it – said Jurić, mentioning the potential and development of new industries that we are not even aware of yet or are in the early stages of development.

One of the sectors that has been undergoing digitization for ten years is the automotive industry, which was discussed by Marijana Topić Domić, a member of the Management Board of Cadcam Design Center, mentioning electric and autonomous vehicles and the importance of the ability to choose whether we want autonomous driving.

– That is the right to choose in our lives. Europe has prescribed many regulations, and in all those industries, it has slowed down that development. For comparison, before the pandemic, the Chinese automotive industry was more advanced than the EU because it was not burdened by regulations. The application of AI is diverse and vast. Cadcam has been in existence for 33 years and clearly sees how the industry has begun to change in the region. The more mature society is for application, the faster applications develop and are implemented – said Topić Domić, adding that company leaders must set investment priorities and explain to their employees and owners the intangible investments that add value and are a pledge for simpler and faster production in the future.

On the topic of decision-making and leadership, Slavko Vidović, owner of Infodom, spoke, emphasizing that the CEO is a visible executive function while culture is the hidden thing that can easily fall apart under wrong moves. Vidović highlighted the difference between classical management, which accounts for all predictable risks, and the CEO’s creation of an innovative culture, with the right to make mistakes. He mentioned the previous digital and AI projects of Infodom, which are in the third stage of implementation in the company, with examples including inspection jobs, a food project predicting the movement of diseases in animals, an application that predicts the milk yield of cows so that farmers can forecast business results, and an AI recognition engine that tracks user behavior on the internet and suggests content, etc.

– While I was teaching at the Faculty of Organization and Informatics, I thought that learning was the first thing, but it is in second place. The first is understanding. When we have context, then we can learn. I believe that the development of AI will also go through learning from mistakes. What is important are the isolators of purpose, that is, the question of whether we have the ability to define the area in which we expect results? – asks Vidović, who is also a member of the National Council for Competitiveness, PMI, and the Telemanagement Forum.

At the round table, challenges in attracting and retaining talent were also discussed, with Knežević citing the example of his company Sofascore, which recruits talent from three sources: the academic community, professional networks, and through HR services that are constantly working on recruiting new people, as well as through internal academies that are a win-win situation since students often continue their careers in the company in permanent employment.

– Our interest is not to replace the faculty but to show how academic knowledge is applied in the real world. For employees, company culture and human relations come first, and only then finances. We strive to be competitive in the market, but given the strict regulations, it is difficult to be competitive if someone decides to work for a foreign company. And if you want to offer a high salary, you know how much the state takes. However, there are other legal mechanisms by which you can motivate employees, such as shares in the company. Employees become co-owners and share the annual profit. In that case, you can be competitive – concluded Knežević.

Marijana Topić Domić added that people are most motivated when they have creative freedom and when they are given the opportunity for education, and the EU co-finances various projects for acquiring digital skills. EDIH is one of those projects.

Tomislav Plesec, manager of such a project – AI gaming JURK EDIH, aimed at introducing all digital technologies into the operations of small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as the public sector in central Croatia and the northern Adriatic, explained how artificial intelligence can be brought closer to ordinary citizens and small entrepreneurs who may not yet be familiar with the opportunities that AI brings them.

He presented the idea of establishing a European network of digital hubs (EDIH). Today, there are four such hubs in Croatia – at FE-uR, the Ruđer Bošković Institute, the University of Rijeka, and the Entrepreneurial Incubator PISMO in Novska.

– The point of each EDIH is to connect to some technology, and the three niches are artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and cybersecurity. Each company can choose one, two, or all three niches – explained Plesec.

In addition to European digital centers, entrepreneurs have access to innovation vouchers from Hamag Bicro and other innovation support, which was presented by Neno Rakić, project implementation manager at Hamag Bicro.