#6 - Filip Macukić - The unfair AI advantage: Multiply your impact, not your hours

Filip Macukić, the founder and CEO of Mediartem AI, joined the podcast to discuss his presentation from the AI Weekend conference. His presentation was titled "The Unfair Advantage: Multiply Your Impact, Not Your Hours," which focuses on the distinction between human and machine productivity and the proper use of AI tools.

Filip Macukić is the founder and CEO of Mediartem AI, a company that provides customized training and services for organizations on how to use generative AI tools in daily business. Their training is tailored based on:

1. The team's current knowledge level of AI tools.

2. The preferred tool (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini).

3. The business need (e.g., sales, board, full company).

The company also offers a more comprehensive, long-term service called AI Academy, which aims for a complete AI transformation in an organization. This service is divided into four phases: awareness, upskilling, process transformation, and strategy/policy finalization.

AI Weekend Conference

Filip expressed that the AI Weekend conference in Rovinj, Croatia, was his first time attending. He appreciated the holistic approach of the event, which covered a wide range of topics from programming and technical aspects to ethics and everyday business.

The Unfair Advantage: Multiply Your Impact, Not Your Hours

 

The core of Filip's presentation was the difference between machine efficiency and human effectiveness.

• Machine Productivity is about efficiency: faster work with fewer resources to produce a bigger outcome.

• Human Productivity is about effectiveness: knowing how to prioritize and identifying the right thing to do at a specific moment.

AI tools are presented with two analogies:

1. They are cognitive amplifiers or partners that help people use more of their cognitive powers for a bigger impact.

2. They should be viewed as an assistant chef, where the main chef (the human) is always 100% responsible for the final outcome, even if the assistant (AI) helps with parts of the process.

 

The Automation/Augmentation Framework

Filip introduced a framework to help determine when to automate (outsource entirely to AI) versus when to augment (collaborate with AI). The framework uses two axes:

1. Level of Task Complexity.

2. Level of Human Involvement (relational vs. in-person).

• Automation (Robotic Tasks): These are low-complexity, in-person tasks that can be completely outsourced to AI (e.g., saving a document in multiple folders). The mistake people make is trying to automate highly relational tasks (e.g., a LinkedIn message to a connection).

• Augmentation (Leading Tasks): These are high-complexity, highly relational tasks that should be done in collaboration with AI, but never fully automated (e.g., agreeing on a strategic partnership or creating a company-wide strategy).

 

AI Implementation in Companies

Filip noted that the initial push to implement AI often comes from the CEO or the HR/Learning segments of the company, or the IT department.

He stressed that AI transformation is a holistic process that involves:

1. Culture.

2. Upskilling of employees.

3. Process transformation.

Companies often go wrong by only focusing on one segment, such as simply buying licenses and expecting HR or IT to "push" the AI without a clear strategy or KPIs.

To properly automate a task, employees should have at least basic knowledge of the tool and know the task well themselves.

 

Current AI Excitement

Filip is currently excited about and experimenting with AI agents (like Manus), which demonstrate how many complex tasks can be handled by these tools. He's also focusing on using tools like Zapier to automate internal, low-complexity, non-human processes within Mediartem AI.

 

Mentioned Books, Companies, and Concepts

 

Item Type Link/Information Mediartem AI Company Reach out to Filip via the contact form. "The Effective Executive" Book A book by Peter Drucker, which focuses on the principles of effectiveness in a business setting. AI Agents Concept AI tools that can perform a variety of complex tasks. Manus AI Agent A popular AI agent that Filip is currently experimenting with. Zapier Tool A tool being used by Mediartem AI to automate internal processes. AI Weekend Conference An annual conference in Rovinj, Croatia, co-organized by the Croatian Association for Artificial Intelligence (CroAI).