Milutin Pavićević is an entrepreneur and researcher with 15 years of experience in artificial intelligence. As the co-founder of digital agency Alicorn and startup ZUNO Games, he has dedicated his career to making advanced algorithms simple, accessible, and meaningful for everyday users.
With a background in user experience design, Pavićević focuses on creating tools that merge behavioral science, gamification, and AI to enhance the way people learn and work. He also teaches at the University of Donja Gorica and serves as Executive Director of the Montenegrin Association for Artificial Intelligence (MAIA), which unites over 40 experts to advance AI education and awareness in Montenegro.
The Role of AI in Education
“Human touch and care are extremely important in education, especially when it comes to elementary and graduate schools. Nothing could truly replace a teacher in the classroom,” says Pavićević. “AI and related technologies, if used well, will be crucial as helping tools that allow teachers to better approach various groups of students.”
He believes that personalisation of education and out-of-classroom touchpoints are key examples of how AI can support teachers—not replace them.
“In the near future, we will see advanced analytics applied at scale to identify pain points and opportunities for each individual student and provide personalised learning plans — for example, a certain percentage of homework.”
Turning Learning into Play
At ZUNO, the startup he co-founded with Sanja Gardašević, Pavićević and his team combine behavioral science, AI, and gamification to transform learning materials into interactive tools.
“Our pilot program with the Faculty of Economics in Podgorica showed that more than 80% of students engaged regularly with the mobile app, achieving measurably better test results than those who did not use it,” he explains.
This innovation was powered by Delcat, their AI content creation suite, which “takes learning materials as ground truth and creates, edits, fact-checks, and deploys gamified content at scale.”
Agility and Openness in Vocational Training
When asked what vocational institutions can learn from the tech industry, Pavićević highlights the importance of agility and openness toward new technologies.
“Being more agile and taking an approach that is permissive rather than restrictive when it comes to new technologies is what vocational training should aim for.”
He advocates for allowing tools such as ChatGPT in certain stages of the study process—while maintaining clear boundaries where critical thinking and theoretical understanding are essential.
“We should take care that important theory is not skipped in favour of modern technologies. Subjects like web, mobile, or AI development should be taught in addition to, not instead of, algorithms and programming.”
Building a Connected AI Ecosystem
Pavićević underscores the importance of collaboration among tech communities, educational institutions, businesses, and the public sector for digital transformation.
In a country with prominent brain drain, this includes professionals in the diaspora — the Montenegrin AI Association, for example, gathers more than 40 scientists in AI, with nearly half based abroad.”
He also notes Montenegro’s growing innovation ecosystem, with entities like the Innovation Fund, Science and Technology Park (NTP), and Tehnopolis, which provide funding, office space, and collaboration opportunities.
Challenges: Data Culture and Knowledge Foundations
Despite progress, data culture remains a major obstacle.
“The practice of systematically collecting, processing, storing, and transparently sharing data is generally below acceptable standards,” he warns.
Pavićević urges vocational institutions and partners to focus on fundamentals:
“AI is good at turning solid theoretical and engineering concepts into products. We should work on foundational knowledge and use AI as a tool to bring those ideas to life.”
He also sees AI as a way to make theory more engaging:
“This is a great opportunity to make theory less boring by using AI to demonstrate its applications and encourage critical thinking.”
The Balance Between Depth and Breadth
From his experience building AI products, Pavićević stresses that the future belongs to professionals who balance depth and breadth.
“Hyper-specialisation at the cost of foundational knowledge is counterproductive. Creating ‘Flutter engineers’ today or ‘LangChain experts’ tomorrow comes at the cost of producing well-rounded engineers.”
He warns of overreliance on AI tools, which can create “developers who can manifest software products out of thin air through prompting—often beyond their true understanding.”
“Twice in the last two decades I’ve seen my main tools become deprecated overnight. It was my foundational knowledge that turned those disruptions into opportunities.”
The Western Balkans and AI Innovation
Regarding the region’s AI potential, Pavićević advises a realistic yet opportunity-driven approach.
“AI innovation demands extreme processing power, talent, and funding. Not every country needs to tackle this in the same way, and the Western Balkans shouldn’t be bundled together.”
While Montenegro is improving education quality, it still faces talent shortages and funding gaps in later growth stages.
“Our opportunity lies in investing in innovation, creating quality talent that stays in the country, and tapping into EU research programs — building institutions like the National Competence Centre for High-Performance Computing.”