Hey!

In recent months, I’ve been writing to you about various AI experiments, from app development to testing new tools. Today, let me introduce you to how AI is changing the way we work in our company.

As CTO of The Smartestway, I watch and actively participate in the daily changes in the way we work. And I’m starting to wonder: Are the methodologies that have served us for 20+ years still suitable for the AI era?

Meet The Smartestway

I assume you’re wondering what I actually do as CTO? My job is to take care of the long-term technology vision and help the team feel their best, work with joy, provide guidance and support.

You can read a detailed description of our product here: ​https://thesmartestway.com​

What we do: The Smartestway is a mobile app that helps students learn up to 10 times faster.

The principle is simple:

1. Take photos of notes or upload study materials
2. AI converts materials into interactive learning tools (Smart Cards, Pop Quizzes, Speed Learning game)
3. Learn interactively instead of boring reading

We already have more than 27,000 registered users who share notes with each other and learn more fun.

AI is the technological foundation of our product. We harness the power of AI to provide users with a more enjoyable learning experience and process optimization. However, it turned out that AI doesn’t just change our product but fundamentally changes our way of working too.

How Development Has Changed with AI

If you’ve been following my recent newsletters, you remember the experiments with various AI tools. But looking back, I see a clear evolution:

Phase 1: AI only provided code completion

Phase 2: Generated complete code blocks based on comments

Phase 3: Became capable of generating longer code blocks and editing multiple files simultaneously

Phase 4: Came the agent-based programming approach, where the agent already self-questions what needs to be changed, how it’s best done, plans tests, executes tests and fixes itself

Phase 5: Agents got the ability to use tools, internal and in the form of MCPs (as I tested in newsletter #11)

We can see where the trend is going and we need to adapt quickly.

But this raised an important question for me…

Does Scrum (agile work methodology) still serve the AI era?

I started wondering whether the currently most popular app development methodology Scrum still best serves the current state of AI development. In my opinion, no longer.

The main problem I see:

You spend more time managing work than doing the work itself. For many teams, Scrum’s bureaucratic burden is a bottleneck, not an advantage. While you’re stuck in process, your competition ships the product.

And what I truly believe:

The plan and the goal are not reality → The nature of the plan and the goal is to adapt (change) as they come into reality.

Others have similar questions, perhaps in a milder form than my own thinking. ​Recent research​ shows that traditional methodologies are changing:

• AI enables dramatically faster iterations
• Development cycles are shortening from weeks to days or even hours
• The need for long planning meetings is decreasing
• Focus is shifting to high-level strategy and quality control

Scrum can certainly be upgraded to get an AI assistant in each phase, but I believe the philosophy will have to change.

I’ve made a draft of how I think the system should work, and I’m now implementing it across the entire team - not just the development team.

And now the next question:

Is AI an apprentice or master?

Recently, a colleague said he sees AI as someone who doesn’t know much and needs to be guided.

But I see AI as someone who knows too much and wants to change everything. Our job is to control and guide it.

If you’re an “apprentice”, you can have AI as a master:

💡 Practical tips for “apprentices”:

• Be curious
• Maintain critical thinking
• Don’t wait for AI to take initiative
• Ask questions in the sense of “help me understand”
• Demand references and evidence
• Dig deeper and you’ll learn a lot

This way, even a “master” would quickly realize they gave themselves that title too hastily. 😊

If you’re a “master”:

⚠️ Beware of being overtaken:

Take advantage of what’s offered and upgrade what you already know, because during this time you can quickly be overtaken by an apprentice with lots of curiosity, will and the right mindset.

My conclusion:

If you’re a master, take advantage of what’s offered and upgrade what you already know. If you’re an apprentice, be curious and learn with AI as your mentor.

I’m interested in your opinion: Do you notice changes in the way of working at your workplace?

If you write me any question, I’ll be happy to answer.

Talk to you next time, Primož