About me
Dalibor Jovic
Director of AI. Twenty years building software and leading teams.
Today I work mostly with AI adoption. Getting AI into how people actually work with it, and how companies get value out of Gen-AI. I also coach CTOs and tech leads whose job is changing because of it.
I live in Norway with my wife and son. I love making things, and I am obsessed with learning and improving.
"Be so good they can't ignore you."
Steve Martin. The line I try to live by.
20
years building software
15
years leading engineering teams
200+
projects shipped
50+
technical interviews run
20+
conference talks
300+
videos on YouTube
My work reached
DNBPepsiIntelSwarovskiHPJukin Media
Trained at
Harvard Business SchoolUniversity of TromsøDale Carnegie
Director
of AI
Running AI adoption
I'm Director of AI at a 30-person company and I am responsible for "everything AI". That means how people work with it, how internal processes are being improved with it, but also getting it into product as an offer.
I work in three lanes. People: engineers who use AI far beyond autocomplete, and keep adopting new tools on their own. Processes: AI agents in the delivery pipeline, customer journey and other internal work. Offering: AI use cases that are built into what customers pay for.
Results
People and processes
12 → 3.5 months
A feature estimated at twelve months, with AI used as autocomplete, shipped in three and a half with AI as an agent. The team improved its AI skills and its delivery process. Same team, no new hires.
Processes
QA and support fix bugs
An AI agent pipeline lets QA and customer support fix small issues in the product themselves. A senior developer reviews and approves every change. Small fixes stop waiting in the developers' queue.
People
A culture of sharing
People suggest new solutions, find AI features on their own, and share tools and skills openly. What is learned about context engineering works with any AI provider, so the team stays free to switch.
AI practice
lead
Bringing Gen-AI to 700 consultants
I led the AI-tools practice at a 700-person international consultancy. It was all from competence lift for all consultants, an internal AI platform for everyone, and guidelines for safe use under GDPR and the EU AI Act. AI at scale.
I also designed AI solutions for clients, and led the developers who built them.
That is where I learned that building or buying the tools is the easy half, but getting people to work differently is a whole different story. Story of the change management.
Built for 700 consultants
Client projects
AI search
AI search for an insurance company's customers
A tailored AI search became part of what an insurance client delivers to its customers. They get precise answers from their policy, claim and insurance documents. I led the technical delivery and implementation.
OutcomePrecise answers from policy, claim and insurance documents
AI assistant
Instant review of customer replies
Senior reviews of customer replies used to take hours or days. An AI review too now gives instant feedback on tone, clarity and rules. Seniors get their time back, and new staff learn the standard faster. I led delivery and mentored two developers.
OutcomeFeedback in seconds, where it took hours or days
Adoption
AI adoption at a software vendor
Fear of new technology and a lack of hands-on experience were holding the leadership team back from adopting AI. As AI adoption specialist, I managed the change through workshops, knowledge-sharing sessions, 1:1s and an AI strategy that put generative AI into the employees' daily work.
OutcomeGenerative AI in the employees' daily work
Community
A place to learn, and share AI knowledge
I always want to learn more, and to meet people who know things I don't. Most of that happens in man city in Oslo. I wanted it in my home town too.
So I started a monthly AI meetup in Bergen, a place where skilled people get together and share what they know. We have had guests from the local police, from Google, and from software companies that work in defense.
Meetup
AI meetup in Bergen
Every month. People from different industries share what they have actually done with AI.
Peer group
AI Leadership Roundtable
You should not have to lead AI alone. This is my private peer group for Directors of AI, Chief AI Officers and senior leaders responsible for AI adoption. We meet twice a month to work on real problems: hot seats, show-and-tell, the AI news that matters, and guest experts.
Limited to 15 leaders. Join by referral, or apply and we talk first.
Teaching, sharing, learning
Teaching gives me both making and learning. To teach something, you need to learn it well first. I do it on stage, in courses, and in an app.
Talks
Biggest fails of AI: learn and laugh
Booster Conference 2024, Bergen. The best-known AI fails, and what they show about where the limits are.
Technical debt, also for non-programmers
Booster Conference 2023, Bergen. What developers mean by technical debt, how one button can break a whole system, and how much debt a team can afford.
Booster
2025
Organizing your week as a developer or tech lead
Booster Conference 2025, Bergen. How to plan your month, week and day, so fewer things slip and less of it causes stress.
I speak regularly at conferences and industry events about putting generative AI to work. Want me at yours? Get in touch.
Courses and the app
Use AI to Create, Learn, Organize and Grow
My AI learning app. It works like a personal coach for using AI in everyday life, with no tech skills needed. 25 modules go from basic use cases to agentic workflows. Every lesson has a video.
Diglab Academy
Live courses and workshops for AI and product leaders, on Maven. I run it with Hussam. Together we teach "CAIO Foundations: Your Path into the Chief AI Officer Role".
Applicable Programming on YouTube
Free, practical development lessons. Video, tech, creativity and reflection in one place. 300+ videos so far.
Design patterns masterclasses
Two video courses: JavaScript Design Patterns Masterclass and PHP Design Patterns Masterclass. Patterns explained through real projects.
Live webinars
30+ live sessions for developers and tech leads.
The AI adoption newsletter
For founders, Directors of AI and CAIOs at companies under 100 people. What has to change in how people work, and who owns it.
Learning
Harvard Business School
Leadership Principles, a certificate program taught by Joshua Margolis and Anthony Mayo. It is about thriving as a leader, bringing out what other people can do, and building high-performing teams.
University of Tromsø (UiT)
Organizational leadership: the theories, tools and methods for working with colleagues toward an organization's goals. Subjects included organizational theory and leadership, work and organizational psychology, corporate strategy, HRM, project management, innovation, marketing, and leading small and medium-sized businesses.
Dale Carnegie Norway
Boost Nestor, a leadership and communication program tailored with Dale Carnegie. It aims at measurable business impact through concrete changes in behaviour.
Tech
lead
Developer meets leadership
At 16 I worked weekends in a local café to pay for high school. Serving people who were tired, drunk or difficult taught me to read the room, stay calm and communicate clearly. Later my teammates noticed I could talk to clients and stakeholders, and they kept asking me to lead.
In 2012 my wife and I moved to Norway and rebuilt from zero. I've been a tech lead for most of my career, leading cross-functional teams in startups and larger companies. I get excited when I see someone grow, and start enjoying the role more because of it.
50+
Technical interviews
Hiring developers for the teams I led, and learning what a strong engineer actually looks like.
Seven years at a Norwegian telecom
Senior developer at a broadband and telecom company. I built websites and internal apps.
Developer
From Serbia to Silicon Beach
I studied electronics and taught myself to program. I've worked professionally since 2004 and have shipped more than 200 projects.
I've built custom CMSs, full social networking platforms, video platforms, mobile apps and AI solutions. Through all of it I've focused on writing clean, scalable code. Today my stack is Angular on the front end, Java and Kotlin on the back end.
200+
Projects
My first years: freelance websites first, then agency work. Custom CMSs, social networks, video platforms and mobile apps, for startups and larger companies.
Six years at a Los Angeles agency
Developer and tech lead. About 100 projects for Los Angeles clients. The work reached Pepsi, Intel, Swarovski, HP and Jukin Media, along with political organisations, nonprofits and public figures.
Names and dates for all of this are on my LinkedIn profile →
Outside work
A maker at heart
I love making things, which got me into programming, and also into woodworking, electronics, 3D printing, photography, and probably ten other hobbies I don't have time for. Code, photos, videos, storytelling, hardware. I guess life is easy when you do not have any friends.
I used to write a blog about life in Norway, in Serbian. You can read it with Google Translate.
And yes, even at over 40, I do not take myself seriously.
Reach out
Maybe I can help you somehow. And by the way, it is a blessing being able to talk to you guys.
