This year’s AI Summit illustrated a widening gap: artificial intelligence is becoming part of many people’s daily lives, while Hungarian companies are moving much more slowly to implement it. The event attracted more than 5,000 visitors and over 400 speakers.
Mucsányi Marianna, the event’s lead organizer and Content Development Director at Indamedia, warned that new tools alone are not enough if a company’s operations are not prepared to use them. The podcast’s regular expert guest was Aczél Petra, communication researcher and professor at Széchenyi István Egyetem.
Mucsányi highlighted a striking contradiction: many people already use AI regularly in private life, yet the same tools can be banned or discouraged at their workplaces. Companies that apply AI well can achieve significant efficiency gains; research presented at the Summit showed that during transition periods firms did not necessarily reduce headcount and in some cases even hired new employees.
However, she stressed this does not ensure long-term job security for all roles: if automation reaches the levels companies desire, certain mid-level and lower white-collar positions may be displaced from the market.
The real barriers for SMEs
According to Mucsányi, one of the biggest challenges for Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is not the AI technology itself but inadequate internal preparation. As she put it, "you cannot jump from a checked notebook into AI." AI delivers value only when a firm has organized data, documented and standardized processes, and transparent operations.
If corporate knowledge resides only in managers’ heads and new hires learn company practices through months of on-the-job experience, subscribing to an AI service on its own will not produce a breakthrough.
Investment wave, geopolitics and Europe’s dilemma
The Summit also focused on the large wave of investment flowing into AI: enormous sums are going into the technology while AI’s current revenue streams remain much smaller. This raises concerns about a possible investment bubble that, if it bursts, could affect other sectors.
Global competition is intensifying: China is advancing rapidly, the United States concentrates large amounts of capital in AI development, and Europe faces the recurring choice of whether to regulate first or allow the technology to develop. Mucsányi warned that by the time Europe establishes regulatory frameworks, it may have lost ground in the technological and economic race.
Hungarian innovation and monetization challenges
There are serious innovations in Hungary, but they often appear in isolation. The issue is frequently not a lack of ideas or expertise but companies’ inability to recognize, build, and monetize their own innovations.
In the AI era, a real competitive advantage will belong to firms that already have the data, processes, and expertise on which AI can be effectively built.
Topics covered in the discussion
The podcast covered the Summit’s highlights; AI’s effects on efficiency and jobs; fears around media and art; the possibility of an AI investment bubble and geopolitical aspects; Europe’s lag and Hungarian innovation opportunities; expectations of Hungarian companies toward the AI Summit; and why one cannot leap into AI without prior preparation. The conversation also addressed education, adaptation, and the next major wave of AI adoption.
Participants concluded that technology adoption depends not only on tool availability but also on companies’ preparatory work and strategic mindset.
