The 25th Portorož Business Conference – PKP
On November 14th and 15th, 2023, the 25th Portorož Business Conference (PKP) took place at the Grand Hotel Bernardin, captivating audiences with profound discussions on the intersection of artificial intelligence, human creativity, and the business sustainability.
The Dean of the School of Economics and Business in Ljubljana, Professor Tomaž Turk opened the conference with a speech introducing the theme of this year’s PKP which is Artificial Intelligence. After that, the excellent speakers took the stage. The first one was, Lorenzo Marini, the Executive and Creative Director of Milan’s Lorenzo Marini Group, who taught us how we could can present the same story in at least 99 ways and as he said “If you want to sell your products, you have to speak the language of your customers”. He was then followed by Professor Spencer Harrison from INSEAD International Business School, which enlightened us with the concept of “Dirty Innovation” as a business model. After his presentation, Professor Miha Škerlavaj, SEBLU, conducted a short discussion with him.
Later on, Professor Tiziana Casciaro from the Rotman School of Management talked about Sharing Power to Enable Sustainable Enterprises. Maja Mihelčič Kurent, L’Oréal’s Deputy General manager in charge of Luxury division for Sub Saharan Africa presented how L’Oréal prepared itself for the future. Velimir Bole started the traditional late afternoon session with his economic analysis and future outlook. In a discussion with Professor Janez Prašnikar, they discussed the sustainability of public finances, the golden rule and the financing of post-flood reconstruction. The last talk of the day was by Nicolai Tangen, CEO, Norges Bank Investment Management who gave interesting insight about managing the largest sovereignty fund in an uncertain world.
The second day started with interesting lecture on Artificial Intelligence by Professor Blaž Zupan from the Faculty of Computer Science and Informatics UL: “We talk about artificial intelligence changing our lives, but no one knows very well what will actually happen or is already happening.” He touched on what AI is and how to learn about it and understand it. After him, the students from the 30th Generation of the International Master Programme in Business and Organisation (IMB) took the stage and presented their research which was conducted in August and September 2023. This comprehensive exploration of the evolving role of AI in the world, at the company level, at the workplace and public sentiment was made into a book entitled “Beyond Bits and Algorithms: Redefining Businesses and Future of Work“.
Žiga Zalar, Hana Murovec, Khalid Osmanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova presented the researchthat was done by 45 IMB students along with their mentors, namely Andreja Cirman, Barbara Čater, Tomaž Čater, Polona Domadenik Muren, Daša Farčnik, Aleš Gorišek, Tanja Istenič, Matjaž Koman, Hana Končan, Mateja Kos Koklič, Mitja Kovač, Eva Marčič, Denis Marinšek, Rok Požun, Mauro Pregarc, Tjaša Redek, Nada Zupan, and Vesna Žabkar.
Through their research they tried to understand what some Slovenian companies are already doing with AI and as Eurostat reports; just over 11% of businesses use AI, with variations by sector and size. Large enterprises dominate, and in Slovenia, over half of them adopted AI in 2023, a significant rise from 2021. The ICT sector leads in AI use, with over 40% adoption, followed by professional activities (25%) and manufacturing and retail trade (20%).
Regarding the labor market, Slovenian workers have a negative perception of AI’s impact on wages but are not worried about job loss in the next two years. They also believe their skills won’t affect their employment and disagree that AI will devalue their skills.
As many in the field acknowledge, the introduction of OpenAI solutions such as ChatGPT in November 2022 was the tipping point that led to the vast masses not only hearing about, but also using AI solutions that became easy to use for the average consumer without having to understand the technology behind it. These are just some of the findings from their research.
After the presentation of IMB students, which was very well accepted by the public at the conference, PKP continued with Stefan Rohringer, Deputy CTO & Vice President, Infineon Technologies Austrija, Branko Žibret, Partner & Executive Director, Kearney and also a panel discussion with Slovenian managers. The intensive two days ended with discussion with Davorin Kračun, President of the Fiscal Council.
For 25 years, the School of Economics has been cooperating with mentors and students of the IMB programme in the organisation of the Portorož Business Conference. In this way, it makes an important contribution to the realisation of its mission and to the delivery of scientific findings to the business community and to the development of future top managers.
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