Forbes Business Bridges, an event hosted in New York this fall, brought together leaders from the technology sector to explore the future of innovation in an AI-driven, globally connected world.
The first panel, themed “The Future of Technology in a Globally Connected World Powered by AI,” featured seven influential speakers who shared critical insights into the evolving role of technology and its impact on society.
Andrei Ghiorghiu, CEO of BlueTweak, emphasized the importance of education in navigating the constant changes driven by technological trends, particularly AI. He highlighted the need for better regulations to keep up with these changes and expressed concern about the general public’s lack of understanding of AI. Ghiorghiu also advocated for leaders to invest time in staying up to date with technology advancements in order to make well-informed decisions.
Andrei Papancea, CEO of NLX, underscored that technology should serve humanity by increasing efficiency rather than being misused for harmful purposes. He dismissed the idea of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) as far-fetched, focusing instead on how AI and other technologies can free up human creativity by taking over repetitive tasks, ultimately driving societal progress.
Raul Popa, CEO of TypingDNA, offered a more cautionary view, warning that AI could displace a significant portion of the workforce, potentially eliminating up to 80% of jobs by 2030. He stressed the importance of leveraging AI for business survival and cautioned that societal upheaval is inevitable unless entrepreneurs and leaders make critical decisions in the near future.
Iulian Lixandru, CEO of Empower BI, likened AI’s impact to the transformative waves brought by the web and mobile technologies. He portrayed AI as an augmenter of human capabilities, freeing workers from mundane tasks and creating new roles in supervising AI-driven processes. Lixandru also emphasized the potential of Romania’s tech talent pool to contribute to global innovation.
Arthur Riel, founder of MassMutual Romania and India, focused on the importance of clean data as the foundation for AI advancements, while also highlighting that innovation ecosystems in the U.S. thrive due to their ability to fail fast and cheaply. He praised Romania’s technical talent, noting its excellent value in the global market, but emphasized the need for an educational overhaul to prepare for a rapidly changing job landscape.
Finally, Constantin Gorgan, CTO of Giles AI, delivered a pragmatic outlook, asserting that the adoption of AI is essential for business survival. He pointed to the efficiency gains provided by AI, which enable companies to optimize workflows and grant workers more time for creative or personal endeavors. Gorgan also praised Romania’s strong technical education system for producing top-quality talent, identifying it as a key resource in the global AI revolution.
This panel provided a comprehensive overview of how AI is reshaping the business landscape, from the necessity of regulation and education to the profound societal changes that lie ahead. Each speaker underscored the importance of preparing for the future by embracing innovation, leveraging talent, and making strategic decisions to navigate the uncertainties brought about by technology.
Key statements of PANEL I: The Future of Technology in a Globally Connected World Powered by AI
Andrei Ghiorghiu – CEO, BlueTweak:
I would focus on education because I feel that the current trend is Generative Large Language Models (LLMs). A few years ago, it was the Metaverse, and this trend will change again – there is no doubt about it. Change is constant. Therefore, the most important part is recognizing that this change is here to stay, it’s perpetual, and we need to stay educated in the field. That’s why I emphasize the importance of education.
I also believe there is a need for more regulation, which is a significant gap. We’re not just talking about Romania – this concern extends more broadly to the European Union. I believe there is a notable difference in how various regions approach regulation, giving the U.S. a competitive advantage at the moment. In some respects, the Asian markets also have a considerable advantage. Therefore, one of the key factors to consider when establishing a company and managing data is the regulatory aspect. It’s crucial to closely monitor how regulations evolve, as they can impact business decisions and the environments in which we operate.
When it comes to AI, I believe we, as a society, are still not educated enough. In particular, the general public lacks sufficient understanding of the subject.
When speaking about AI, we’re actually referring to a broad umbrella of various technologies. Large language models, which are currently the most widely used by the general public, are at the peak of Gartner’s Hype Cycle. According to their predictions, we can expect to see a decrease in the hype over the next few years. I believe this is a good thing because it will allow real use cases to emerge, prompting companies to start focusing on them, which will, in turn, generate a return on investment (ROI).
I believe you may be right in some respects, but I remain hopeful. There’s a lot of work that companies are currently not doing, because they lack the time or resources. Once this situation changes, efficiency will improve.
It’s essential to make time to keep up with technological advancements. Dedicate some time each week to study and understand new trends. Monitor what your competition is doing, explore the trends in your specific field, and observe how those technologies are evolving.
Andrei Papancea – CEO, CPO, and Co-Founder, NLX:
I believe that all forms of technology and innovation should be used to do good, not for the harmful purposes we’re otherwise accustomed to.
I immigrated to the U.S. about 14 years ago. For those of you who are not familiar with Romania, I grew up near Dracula’s castle. What initially brought me to the U.S. was the opportunity to accomplish something without constraints. After speaking with my friends who are still in Romania or frequently travel back and forth, I’ve realized that many things have changed over the past decade or so.
In the U.S. in particular, I feel that funding is very fluid. There’s a lot of capital moving around, regardless of the current innovation trend. Money is readily available to be invested, and I believe that’s incredibly beneficial. Many people have ideas, but the best execution always wins. Of course, not everything succeeds – it’s sort of like the law of large numbers in action. Based on my experience, the U.S. has been especially fruitful when it comes to powering innovation.
Let me start by addressing what I don’t think we’ll be seeing anytime soon – something you may have heard referred to as AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). In my opinion, that remains largely in the realm of science fiction, and it is unlikely to be achieved. What we will see more of – and many of us are already experiencing this, whether we’re operating in the AI space or not – is technology driving greater human efficiency. Throughout history, from the invention of the wheel to the cart, and now computers, technology has always been humanity’s pursuit to make life easier and free up time to do what only humans are really good at – creating.
To put it simply, computers are not particularly intelligent in business terms. They’re really good at executing simple mathematical operations extremely quickly – something humans aren’t exceptionally good at. However, computers are terrible at dealing with abstraction, a skill in which humans excel. With all the latest innovations in AI and whatever else follows, I believe we’ll see a significant increase in people regaining their time and being able to invest it in pursuits that will help push us forward as a society.
When tackling any problem, start with the end goal in mind and ground your efforts in practicality. Avoid overcomplicating the solution. Focus on making incremental changes, and over time, you’ll create a meaningful impact on your business and its bottom line.
Raul Popa – CEO & Co-Founder, TypingDNA:
I think it’s pretty obvious, so I’ll keep it brief. AI is going to take over one way or another, and our ability to work with AI in any capacity is crucial for the next phase of humanity – or perhaps even its final one.
We’re in a space where startup founders, particularly those from smaller startups, are part of a larger ecosystem.
Actually, we’re part of a WhatsApp group with more than 30 Romanian founders living in New York City who run various businesses. Most of them, I think, are involved in AI, which is quite interesting. That’s one of the reasons we moved here. Not everyone immigrated 14 years ago – I emigrated five years ago. Most people fall into one of two categories.
Those who arrived here one to five years ago typically had a business that was either successful in Romania and ready to scale or startups that needed to go global from the outset. They developed their technology in Romania, as we did, but required the funding and traction that is often only accessible by starting in the U.S. Of course, this is debatable; you can start a business from anywhere, but succeeding in the U.S. makes it much, much easier to expand globally and conquer other markets. These are the two primary pathways through which Romanians end up in the U.S. to expand their businesses. Additionally, there are some executives or individuals who aren’t co-founders but work for top companies.
Some of them came because they had excellent backgrounds and studied at top universities. After settling here, they started building businesses. I would say these are the two or three types of individuals who move here to start or expand their ventures.
I want to offer a different perspective, perhaps even a divergent one. There are many opinions on this topic, and I don’t intend to contradict anyone, but this perspective already exists in the market. For example, just a few days ago, Vinod Khosla, one of the world’s top investors, predicted that 80% of jobs will disappear by 2030. That’s only six years away, and if I’m honest, from a CEO’s perspective, that’s really bad. Most companies could face bankruptcy because people wouldn’t have the money to buy products, which is a serious problem. AI will eliminate many jobs. While some new jobs requiring new skills will emerge, it won’t be enough to compensate. If 80% of the workforce is no longer needed, this poses a significant issue.
Just yesterday, OpenAI secured the largest funding round ever. You see all this money flowing, and you might think there’s a lot of prosperity and abundance in the market. However, I believe many top investors and business leaders understand the macroeconomic reality of job losses. They know that if you don’t build or leverage AI, you risk being left behind. One thing businesses should do now is figure out how AI can help them stay competitive and remain in the game for the long term. Honestly, I don’t think there are easy answers at this point. Society, as we know it, is changing; jobs are disappearing, and Gen Z may face a jobless future.
I genuinely believe this. While there is room for optimism in some areas, we need to stay realistic and acknowledge that many aspects are grim. I work in cybersecurity, and my startup deals with related issues. We’re witnessing a massive surge in identity fraud – about a 24% increase year-over-year. People don’t realize that we’re no longer safe. Everything can be cloned now, from how you speak to how you look. Someone could create a video of you saying things that seem entirely believable, even to people who know you well.
We need to be cautious about the choices we make over the next few years because I believe we are at a turning point where we can truly shape our future and be real entrepreneurs. Peter Thiel recently delivered a talk in which he predicted that we might be heading toward a form of communism. He thinks that universal basic income will become necessary as more people will be out of work, and governments, not companies, will have to coordinate these efforts. Companies are focused on profit, which presents a significant challenge.
So, if you’re an entrepreneur, you have a few years to figure out what’s coming next. You should pay close attention to these predictions. While they may sound grim, we need to remain realistic.
As for AGI, we may not achieve it, but then again we don’t need to. The Large Language Models (LLMs) and the technologies we have today are already capable of replacing most jobs. It’s merely a matter of integration – making them perform specific tasks, robotics, automation, etc. Once all these elements come together, the pace of change will undoubtedly accelerate.
In 2016, I gave a TEDx talk in which I made similar predictions. At that time, AI as we know it today didn’t exist, and most people laughed at me. In 2019, I participated in a major panel on AI at the European Parliament, where I recommended initiatives that are now part of the AI Act.
Reflecting on my experience and what I think will happen, I’ve been following these developments for over ten years. I was involved in building AI 10 years ago, at a time when most people didn’t even know what it was. I understand the incremental nature of most technologies, which typically create new jobs and opportunities. But this is different – this event will fundamentally change the world as we know it, and I don’t think we’re adequately prepared.
Iulian Lixandru – CEO, Empower BI:
Data will be important, but if you ask me, AI will have an impact similar to that of the web and mobile revolutions. AI will enable companies to streamline processes, enhance people’s capabilities, and unlock significant opportunities for corporations. Therefore, I believe AI will be the next wave after web and mobile.
I believe what the U.S. has to offer is access to capital and great innovation centers. Like all of you here, you are driving great innovation, and networking has never been easier. For those of you who work with multiple countries, the easiest person to network with is often an American. They are usually concise, focused on business, and willing to engage openly, putting everything on the table.
What does Romania have to offer? As everyone else has mentioned, we have a great talent pool of IT professionals. We have many tech hubs and a thriving startup scene, fostering a young entrepreneurial environment. But what is emerging on top of that?
We are one of the friendliest countries to the U.S. in the region. Back in the ‘90s, we embraced American culture like no other, probably also because we share the same letters and alphabet. Some of you who are older might remember that Romanians waited for 50 years for the Americans to come. You finally arrived – thank you for that! I believe this relationship works well because our cultures are very compatible. Additionally, you excel in management while we excel in technical skills.
We shouldn’t view AI as trying to replace people; rather, AI will enhance our capabilities. Just as an engine in a car uses horsepower, AI will enhance our brainpower. Instead of doing repetitive tasks, millions of people who find their jobs draining will discover that these tasks can be automated by AI. This will give people more free time to be more creative and to focus on the more interesting aspects of their work.
There will still be a need for people to supervise AI, which means new jobs will emerge. For instance, we’ll see positions like prompt engineers, and I believe a significant ecosystem will develop around AI-related jobs. I have a short story to share: we actually implemented an AI tool that predicts sales and generates stock inventory proposals for a retailer. I spoke with the manager, who expressed concern about the future of the jobs in his department – would they disappear? At that time, we had people handling these tasks manually, but our AI tool predicts inventory with an accuracy of about 95%. For the remaining 5%, people still need to manage it manually.
No jobs were lost. Instead, those individuals were freed to boost their productivity, and now that department is actually hiring more people. While this may seem like an isolated case, I’ve seen this happen many times. You implement technology, optimize processes, increase productivity, and create new budgets for jobs that otherwise wouldn’t exist. So, I wouldn’t say that AI will definitely replace us.
The most important thing I recommend is to educate your workforce about AI. Make sure they embrace it. Secondly, ensure you have clean and accurate data. If you feed AI garbage, it will give you garbage in return. It is essential to ensure your data is well-structured, organized, and properly governed. These are the two key factors: education and high-quality data.
Arthur Riel – Founder, MassMutual Romania and MassMutual India:
I believe data will be incredibly important. AI, while surrounded by a lot of hype and promise, will eventually hit a brick wall. And to break through it, we need clean, consistent data to deliver quality results. Data has been the Achilles’ heel of technology throughout the 40 years I’ve been involved, and probably even for decades before that. So, I see it as a real challenge for us.
I’d like to build on the last two topics regarding the innovation gap between the U.S. and Europe. Much of this gap is about how companies are perceived.
In the U.S., you need to be able to fail, not only fast but also cheaply, and that gives the U.S. a significant edge. Let me give you an example: after I graduated from graduate school, I decided I never wanted to work for a big company. That decision did not turn out very well, but I pivoted and decided to start a training company. I had $3,600, formed a corporation, and it took about an hour of my time and a week of mailing back and forth to get my business up and running. It cost $100 a year to maintain the government filings – very affordable. I landed Lotus Development Corporation as my first client, earned a substantial amount, and turned that into a 10-year career traveling all over, teaching courses at various companies and universities.
Now, for contrast, let’s take the example of my brother-in-law, who lives in Spain. He’s Spanish and decided to start a company. It took him four months just to establish the business. It cost him around $8,000 in notary fees, and he had to pay a minimum tax of $5,000, even if he had no revenue. That difference meant that, had I been in his situation, with only $3,600 I never would have started the company. The ability to start something, succeed and face taxation, or fail and incur minimal costs, is a big advantage. Of course, access to capital is also a major factor. However, I often compare my experience with my brother-in-law’s; bottom line, it was much harder for him to take the risk than it was for me as an American.
I think leveling that playing field would go a long way toward making a difference.
As an American who has done business in Romania, I can certainly offer my perspective and agree with what was just said. I first went to Bucharest in January 2012, when I was chief enterprise architect at the World Bank. We were involved in several projects with Eastern European governments that required enterprise architecture.
My team was involved, and I traveled to Moldova, Sofia, Bulgaria, and Bucharest. I was amazed by the amount of talent I encountered. There are top-quality, highly analytical problem solvers here, and culturally, there’s a strong compatibility with how the U.S. conducts business. I lobbied the World Bank to open a center in Eastern Europe. We already had a large center in Chennai, India, and I argued that we also needed a center in Eastern Europe, favoring Bucharest or another city in Romania as my preferred location. The problem I faced was that most of the senior leadership in IT was from Chennai, and they were like, “Yeah, Arthur, we’ll get right on that. Don’t worry. Hold your breath while we look into it.” It took me seven years, but two days before I left the World Bank for MassMutual, they finally announced the opening of a center in Sofia, Bulgaria, which now has 450 employees.
I finally got it across the finish line, but it took a long time. When I joined MassMutual, there were no captive centers. It took me just seven minutes to convince the executives that we needed a center in Eastern Europe and one in India. We established MassMutual India in Romania, and today we have 600 people in Bucharest and Cluj, and about 2,000 in Hyderabad. The talent here is exceptional. I believe the word about this has not spread sufficiently in the U.S. Selfishly, I might prefer it that way, because competition will become tough. But it’s amazing how much talent exists across Eastern Europe. When you consider the size of the workforce, costs, and geopolitical risk, Romania quickly rises to the top of the list. It has been a great 12 years of interacting with and been bullish on the entire region.
A couple of things regarding society: we are going to see a significant disruption in the job market. I don’t believe there won’t be enough jobs for everyone, as some organizations like the World Bank are concerned about. We have heard those predictions before. There are more jobs today than ever before, and we will continue to see job growth. The question is whether displaced employees will be able to take on these new jobs or if they will have the necessary capabilities. I believe that junior developers, junior attorneys, and people writing marketing literature or articles for magazines will see their jobs replaced by AI. However, we will still need senior professionals to review the work produced. This raises the question: how do you get senior attorneys if you don’t have any junior attorneys to replace them when they retire?
How do you work that pipeline? There are many societal questions that arise whenever there’s automation. When weaving looms were automated, a million people lost their jobs. We have more jobs today, but can people who operated manual weaving looms transition into the new jobs that are available? This transition requires our educational system to undergo significant restructuring. I also find the rise of deepfake videos to be extremely concerning. We’ve already seen how technology can be used to manipulate populations, and this will only escalate with AI. I don’t know if you’ve seen the deepfake video circulating now that shows Donald Trump with his arm around Kamala Harris, as they shop for dresses or something similar. You watch it and you think it looks like a real video, but it’s completely fabricated.
Determining what is real and what has been produced in an artificial intelligence laboratory will also be disruptive for society.
I’m less pessimistic about this issue. I’ve started a couple of robotics groups and various companies, and the ROI always seems promising: “Hey, we’re going to eliminate 35 full-time equivalents (FTEs) worth of work through these bots,” which represents a significant savings compared to the licensing costs of the robotic software. When I ask, “All right, fine, here’s a piece of paper. Write down the 35 people we’re going to lay off,” that paper always comes back blank. Why? Because we did free up their time. For example, it used to take six minutes to process a change of address on an insurance form, but the bot does it in eight seconds. To calculate the savings, you can subtract the numbers multiplied by the number of transactions divided by 2,000 hours a year – that’s one FTE.
In the end, though, you freed people from doing mundane tasks, and there’s always more work for them to do. Capacity is always outstripped by the volume of available work. This has been predicted many times, as I mentioned earlier regarding weaving looms and other automation in manufacturing – yet there are still plenty of jobs to go around. I believe these jobs will be different, and the real question is whether your workforce is capable of seizing those opportunities and making them work. But I don’t see this as a significant issue.
The World Bank predicts that a 12-hour work week may become the norm, and they are advocating for a basic income; but the government has no money. Ultimately, you can only rely on other people’s money for so long before it runs out, leading to unsustainable systems. I don’t believe this will be a viable solution either. Just one more quick comment: back in 2016, I delivered a TEDx talk in which I expressed similar views, but at that point, the concept of AI, as we know it today, was almost non-existent. Most people laughed at my predictions.
Constantin Gorgan – Chief Technology Officer, Giles AI:
I feel a bit of pressure to come up with something interesting, since the six other members of the panel have already shared a lot of insightful information. Being a very pragmatic and practical person, I will talk about very specific topics. Let’s take a look at what happened at the beginning of the 2000s.
About 20 years ago, we were witnessing the expansion of the Internet. What happened to the companies that did not adapt to the Internet? They disappeared, right? Now we’re discussing AI, which has actually been around for much longer than many of us realize – since the 1950s and 1960s. However, we’ve only recently been able to leverage the algorithms behind AI because we now have the computational power necessary to train our models effectively, use the data we have, and store that data efficiently.
Therefore, we should embrace AI, even if it means that some workplaces will disappear. This will also mean that new workplaces will arise. In my opinion, adopting AI is a matter of survival when considering business strategy. Adopting AI is essential for staying competitive, and that’s what it ultimately comes down to.
I also come from a software development background, having worked with a large consulting company that originated in Romania, and expanded internationally. In response to your question, Romania has extremely talented people. Our educational system is structured to place a strong emphasis on technical skills. There are many types of educational systems in Romania as well, especially alternative education systems, but I’m referring to the main one, which is the public system. Speaking with my colleagues from abroad – from the UK, Germany, and other countries – I’ve noticed that the learning curve in their schools, especially in technical subjects, is not as steep as it is in Romania. For a child, this might be difficult at first, but if you look at what they can achieve at ages 10, 16, or 20, the difference is significant. This is one of Romania’s greatest strengths: very good technical talent at a reasonable cost. The quality-to-cost ratio is excellent. If you combine Romania’s production capabilities and infrastructure with the markets abroad, like the United States, you have a recipe for success.
Now, what’s the most important and scarcest resource that we have? Time. That’s probably the best thing to leverage when you’re in a position to decide whether to adopt something or not.
Why? Because, for example, I represent Giles AI. What we do is connect to the data within your company, whether it’s from databases, JIRA, Confluence, or other sources. This interconnected data goes through an AI assistant that answers your questions immediately.
For example, imagine a company with 100, 300, or 1,000 employees. While we can’t know when everyone is off, there are times when we need to know exactly who will be working in the company throughout November. The traditional method for finding this information is to log into your HR tool, applying a number of filters, and ultimately end up with a result. Wouldn’t it be easier if you had your own personal assistant? You could simply ask who will be available in November, and it would instantly provide information on who is off, on vacation, on maternity leave, etc. Just one prompt would take you one second – ten seconds, to be realistic. This is what AI offers us for the future. It gives us back time to do more or to spend with our family, friends, or do whatever we choose.
There’s also a new business opportunity that people are referring to as the “industry of truth.” If you know how, you can create a business that offers this service, validating whether a particular video is authentic or not. There are companies already making significant amounts of money with this type of service; it’s essentially the industry of truth. Did you just say that’s true or not?
Have you seen the Tesla autonomous trucks? Do you know what the most popular occupation worldwide is? It’s being a truck driver. And that will be gone soon.
I want to direct this to the business owners here. Maybe not everyone agrees, but we are navigating a time of transition. I believe that those who do not adapt will simply disappear. So, especially if you are not technical people, make sure you have the right technical partner beside you – not just to elevate your business to the next level, but also to keep up with the exponential growth of what AI entails.