WARNING FROM THE FUTURE: Jevrosimovic says that if Serbia wastes two years - it loses the race in AI ​​era!

The founder and president of the Comtrade company, Veselin Jevrosimovic, appeared on TV Prva's prime time news, when he spoke about the state of the IT sector in Serbia and globally, the accelerated development of artificial intelligence, the global tech race, as well as the role Serbia has in one of the most important scientific projects today - CERN, in which Comtrade Group also participates.

Jevrosimovic presented information and assessments that suggest the tech world is in a period of accelerated changes, where, he stressed, "the rules of the game are changing from month to month."

"IT sector in Serbia has never been stronger"

Speaking about the domestic industry, Jevrosimovic pointed out:

"The situation in the IT sector is excellent. Last year, Serbia had record revenues from all IT segments and services. We had record exports of software and services worth over 4.3 billion euros, which is a 15 percent higher growth compared to 2024."

He added that Serbia is no longer a "hidden player" in the IT world:

"We are recognized as a country with a developed IT sector. Proof of that is the arrival of large global companies, which have come to Serbia brining their development centers. We have strong technical schools, and as a result we have highly educated software engineers."

AI changing everything - and faster than ever

Jevrosimovic particularly stressed that artificial intelligence has already redefined the global economy:

"We must follow IT trends that have been changing very rapidly in recent years. We've witnessed how artificial intelligence has changed the economic map of the world in record time and, as far as I can see and am participating in it, we are doing well on that path."

He also noted that his company recognized the AI ​​revolution early:

"My company started doing AI 15 years ago, when no one was talking about it. We recognized what was on the horizon and managed to turn the ship in that direction."

Asked about the fear of job losses because of AI, his position was clear:

"I often hear the question, 'will we lose our jobs because of artificial intelligence?'. We will live with artificial intelligence now, and in the future. Those who adapt to it will not lose their jobs, it will be those who don't recognize this trend as extremely important for the development of the economy, and the entire tech sector."

"ChatGPT is just the beginning - AI has always been here"

Speaking about the current application of artificial intelligence, Jevrosimovic said:

"We need to make use of artificial intelligence. For example, ChatGPT has been with us for almost three years now. However, artificial intelligence has been here all along, not to this extent, but it has been."

He added that large companies have already gone through this wave of change:

"I can observe that most of our tech companies have handled all these changes very well."

Global AI race: "Like race to make atomic bomb"

He described the global competition to develop artificial intelligence in particularly dramatic terms:

"Right now there is a big battle in the world for supremacy in artificial intelligence. We know that there is the US Nvidia and the Chinese DeepSeek, and that battle between them right now is similar to the race to (make) the atomic bomb during World War II."

The conclusion was even more pointed:

"Whoever gains the upper hand in this fight will have the upper hand in the global economy."

CERN and data center in Kragujevac: Immense future capacity

Speaking about infrastructure projects, Jevrosimovic stressed the importance of Serbia in global scientific systems:

"Our data center in Kragujevac is an example of what such centers should look like anywhere in the world. It's precisely because of this center that we managed to get CERN's data center, which is one of the largest in the world, where over 15,000 doctors and scientists work, and they chose to have their 11th center here."

He also noted the role of Comtrade that spans many years:

"Comtrade has been managing a CERN data center for over 20 years. We operate the largest data center in the world storing 1,200 petabytes or 1.2 exabytes of data."

He also described the physical dimensions of that system:

"It's a huge hall the size of a football pitch. Next to it they have another much bigger hall that's empty."

His view of the future was a warning:

"When I asked them why the hall was empty, they told me their prediction is that in the next three years, three times more space will be needed."

From this he draws a broader conclusion:

"If CERN has managed to store 1.2 exabytes of memory here since 1950, and will in the next three years need three times as much space - what does that mean? That means we will all need three times as much space. Our mobile devices, our computers, our servers."

"Every company these day is a tech company"

Jevrosimovic believes that the world of business has changed irreversibly:

"It's developing so quickly that even we who have been in it for many years and decades can hardly keep up with these trends. Before, it was clear what IT companies were and what everything else was. However, today every company is a tech company - you have to choose a niche in which you will do business and materialize your interests."

Message from the future: You snooze, you lose

Finally, he had broader thoughts about the role of the state in strategic development:

"When you have a good base and a state that wants to support that base and foundations that are woven into the segment of our business, then the result will definitely come. The state should be open and transparent towards new technologies."

And he concluded with a very strong message:

"If we continue this trend that we have started, I think we have a bright future in the face of new challenges. But in order to adapt to new challenges and everything that is coming, we must adopt a wide-angle view and more transparent approaches, and implement new technologies, rather than wait ten years for them to be applied somewhere else before we do it. If we wait two years, we will miss this boat."

(Telegraf Biznis)