Last week, Barcelona was full of entrepreneurs, business leaders, and investors. Many of them were attending 4YFN (Four years from now), which is an event belonging to the Mobile World Congress. I was feeling energized by the innovative aura surrounding me. It was my second year (here’s my debrief from MWC 2024), and the transformation has been remarkable. AI has moved beyond the hype cycle into practical, tangible solutions, reshaping how we do business.
What struck me most was the maturity leap compared to 2024. Last year, everyone talked about generative AI’s potential. This year, founders showed actual results in metrics, case studies, and production deployments. This shift from “AI someday” to “AI today” was palpable in all my conversations.
The numbers back up my observations: 60% of startups had AI as either core or supporting technology, with over a third focused on traditionally resistant sectors like manufacturing and utilities. After dozens of conversations and presentations, I’ve identified three tips to give your business a genuine edge.
Tip 1: Stop Treating AI as a Technology Project – It’s a Business Transformation Tool
I’ve seen too many businesses in our region approach AI as an IT initiative – assign it to the tech team, set up a proof of concept, and hope for magic. But the standouts at 4YFN are flipping this model on its head.
My Spotlight Startup: Horus ML
I spent some time with the Horus ML team, and their approach fascinated me. Rather than building a general-purpose AI system, they’ve created AItheroscope, which brings specialist-level cardiovascular diagnostics to primary care physicians through optical image analysis.
What impressed me wasn’t just the technology but how they approached the problem. As Jesús Prada Alonso, their Co-founder and CEO, told us: “We didn’t start with AI. We started with a critical healthcare bottleneck—the months-long wait for specialist cardiovascular assessment—and worked backward to a solution.”
My advice to business leaders: Forget creating an “AI strategy.” Instead, identify your three most painful business bottlenecks and assess whether AI could eliminate them. In my conversations with Slovak businesses, I’ve found that the fastest ROI comes from applying AI to problems you’ve previously tried and failed to solve with traditional methods. Start there, not with the technology.
Tip 2: Redefine Cybersecurity as a Business Enabler, Not a Cost Center
One panel discussion fundamentally changed many attendees’ thinking about security. For years, business leaders have approached cybersecurity as insurance, which is necessary but ultimately a cost of doing business. The leading-edge companies at 4YFN are changing this paradigm.
My Spotlight Startup: Zerod
I was particularly impressed by Zerod, which stood out in a crowded security field. Unlike traditional security firms that perform occasional assessments, Zerod has built a real-time platform connecting businesses with ethical hackers and AI scanning tools.
During their demonstration, I watched as they identified and classified vulnerabilities in a test environment within minutes, a process that traditionally takes weeks. Their four-stage approach appealed to me: quick project briefing, on-demand security team assembly, real-time vulnerability monitoring, and prioritized remediation.
This model is game-changing for mid-sized businesses that lack dedicated security teams but face increasingly sophisticated threats.
My advice to business leaders: Stop thinking of security as a compliance exercise and start seeing it as business intelligence. Implement a continuous security validation program rather than point-in-time assessments. I’ve seen several companies transform their security by embracing this mindset shift. As a result, they turned what was previously seen as a necessary evil into a competitive advantage that builds customer trust.
Tip 3: Use AI to Unlock Hidden Financial Potential in Your Business Data
Access to financial funding tends to be significant challenge among many growing companies. However, several AI-powered fintech innovations at 4YFN showed us there’s a change happening in how businesses can unlock funding.
My Spotlight Startup: Bankuish
Bankuish was the overall winner of the 4YFN25 Awards, and its victory was well-deserved. Its founder, José Fernández, was passionate about financial inclusion.
What makes Bankuish unique is how it uses AI to create credit scores for the previously “uncreditable,” especially freelancers and gig workers. Analyzing earnings patterns from platforms like Uber and delivery services opens banking services to a massively underserved market.
Their approach is that they see opportunity where traditional banks see risk. The gig economy isn’t going away. It’s the future of work. Their AI sees patterns of reliability that conventional models miss entirely.
My advice to business leaders: If access to affordable finance is challenging for your business, consider an AI-powered financial health assessment that looks beyond traditional metrics. Several fintech platforms can now analyze your transaction patterns, customer payment behavior, and operational efficiency to identify hidden capital opportunities.
Deutsche Telekom’s Commitment to Innovation
I was particularly impressed by Deutsche Telekom’s startup pitching competition at 4YFN this year. Our tech incubator, hubraum, showcased nine promising startups tackling critical AI, GreenTech, WiFi-Sensing, and Cybersecurity challenges. The format was refreshingly practical: less about flashy demos and more about real business problems and solutions. It reinforced to me how critical “corporate-startup” collaboration is for scaling innovation, especially in sectors like telecommunications, where infrastructure access can make or break a new technology.
Closing remarks for business leaders
After multiple conversations, demos, and pitch sessions, I’m convinced we’re at an inflection point. AI is no longer just a technology enabler. It’s becoming embedded in the fabric of business operations across every sector.
This shift in AI presents both a challenge and an opportunity for business leaders. Our region has tremendous technical talent but has sometimes lagged in technology adoption. The startups I met at 4YFN have convinced me that this gap is closing rapidly.
The businesses that will thrive will not be those with the biggest AI budgets but those that approach AI, cybersecurity, and fintech innovations as business transformation tools rather than technology projects.
I’m particularly excited about how these technologies could help our traditional manufacturing strengths evolve into more innovative, resilient operations. The startups at 4YFN aren’t just building cool tech. They’re creating practical tools that could help our companies compete globally.
