Closing a Decade: SmartCat CEO on Resilience, AI Reality, and the People Behind SmartCat’s Growth

As SmartCat closes its first ten years, we sat down with our CEO, Nenad Božić, to reflect on a turbulent anniversary year, the realities behind the AI hype, and the kind of talent that will define the next generation of AI and Data companies.

Looking back at the past year, especially as it marked SmartCat’s 10th anniversary, how would you describe it? What did it teach you, and what are you most proud of?

If I’m being completely honest, this was a turbulent year defined by constant change. On paper, a ten-year anniversary is something you imagine celebrating under better market conditions. But reality rarely aligns with ideal timing.

The biggest lesson is simple, yet easy to forget: you can never afford to get comfortable. 

Even when you start the year with two very strong quarters, circumstances can shift rapidly. That’s why diversification isn’t a buzzword for us, but more of a survival strategy. Whether it’s markets, industries, clients, or service offerings, reducing risk has become a core mindset.

What I’m particularly proud of is how we navigated those conditions without losing momentum. 

Being part of Vantage Discovery’s acquisition by Shopify and contributing to the integration of a new AI-powered search engine was a defining moment. 

We also launched Content Lion, an ambitious enterprise initiative, right on time, enabling David to actively take it to market.

And perhaps most importantly, we managed to achieve growth, modest but real,  in an environment where many publicly listed companies reported far worse results. 

Given the context, that says a lot about the resilience of the team and the fundamentals we’ve built over the past decade.

Where is this ship heading in 2026? How do you see the industry evolving, and how is SmartCat adapting to remain successful?

That’s the big question everyone is asking.

AI arrives with enormous promise, but we’re still not seeing its full, tangible value realized. When I look at our clients, the pattern is clear: they come in with big ambitions, but once you unpack those ideas, the foundations for large-scale investment often aren’t there yet. 

Most want to experiment with smaller budgets, but AI, in my opinion, is increasingly an all-or-nothing game. Companies that want real value will eventually need to undergo deep, end-to-end transformation.

At the same time, we’re operating in a landscape where AI code generators promise to do “everything,” which makes positioning even more challenging.

This is where our strategy becomes very clear. We’re exceptionally strong at rapid prototyping: our workshops are designed to produce tangible prototypes fast. B

But what truly differentiates us is that under the same roof, we also have the expertise to take those prototypes and make them production-ready. That bridge between experimentation and real-world deployment is where true value lives.

I also expect larger players to become more cautious, investing primarily in proven platforms. 

That’s why our Databricks partnership is such a strong signal of where we’re headed,  positioning ourselves as a trusted integrator delivering high-quality professional services around platforms that already have market validation.

For the year ahead, two priorities stand out clearly: 

• building ecosystems around established players
• helping clients genuinely extract business value from AI,  not just experiment with it.

What qualities in SmartCat’s people motivated you the most this year? And what message does that send to young professionals who want to work in a modern AI and Data company?

One moment that truly stood out was when we delivered a completely unexpected new feature to a client – without being asked. It came purely from the initiative of our people. 

Aleksa, Emanuilo, and Dušan were curious enough to deeply understand the client’s needs, self-organized, and built a working prototype in just a few days.

That feature turned out to have enormous value, and it became a powerful sales hook.

A similar thing happened internally. Our AI team decided on their own to interview colleagues from back-office functions like sales and finance, simply to understand where the real pain points were. 

What followed was pure magic: four AI agents emerged from our internal AI lab, now actively helping our back-office teams work more efficiently.

We’re clearly entering an era defined by curiosity, self-organization, initiative, and creativity. These are no longer “nice to have” traits. In fact,  they are essential. 

If you want to work in an industry that builds technical solutions with real business impact, this is the mindset you need to cultivate.