Čadež: Serbia Must Refocus on Building an AI-Powered Digital Economy

Serbia must refocus its efforts on building an artificial intelligence-powered digital economy in order to become, in the years ahead, a country that creates its own products, while positioning the Western Balkans as a region where original products are developed for the global market, said Marko Čadež, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia (CCIS).

Čadež made the remarks during the panel discussion “Building the AI Economy – Data, Infrastructure and Competitiveness”, held as part of the second edition of the BELTALKS: Belgrade Economic Talks conference in Belgrade.

As he pointed out, building a digital economy requires artificial intelligence (AI) to be deeply integrated and embedded in the industrial processes of domestic manufacturing companies, given Serbia’s strong industrial tradition, which forms the foundation of the country’s economy.

“One indicator of progress will be how many manufacturing companies use AI in their processes. For me, this is one of the most important indicators of AI adoption and, subsequently, its impact on the entire economy, because Serbia’s economy is based on industrial production,” Čadež said in response to a question about what is needed for Serbia to become a credible destination for investment in the ICT sector, further business development and the modernisation of the economy.

According to Čadež, another key condition for continuing to build the digital economy is sustained investment in and development of digital infrastructure, as has been the case to date through the efforts of both the public and private sectors. He added that further development of an AI-powered economy will require strengthening the energy sector by combining renewable energy sources with nuclear energy.

Čadež said that Serbia has been laying the foundations for AI development for a decade and announced that the national language model will be completed ahead of EXPO 2027 Belgrade, noting that Serbian large language models (LLMs), including foundational and reasoning models, are being developed in parallel within two clusters. One of these is being developed in cooperation with the European company Mistral. The goal is for domestic companies and public institutions to have access to secure, personalised models adapted to the Serbian language and the specific characteristics of the country’s administrative and legal systems.

He stressed that further digital development must be driven by the needs of the economy, with education, infrastructure and the business sector working together, alongside investment in computing capacity, data and infrastructure such as the State Data Centre in Kragujevac and supercomputers.

President of the National Assembly Ana Brnabić said that the first prerequisite for the development and application of AI in Serbia was the creation of a data foundation through the development of eGovernment. The second prerequisite, she noted, was the development of knowledge and talent, while the third was infrastructure, including data centres and supercomputers. As a result, she said, Serbia’s ICT sector has become the fastest-growing sector of the Serbian economy, and she expects ICT services exports to exceed EUR 5 billion by the end of the year.

Aleksandar Bogdanović, CEO and President of the Executive Board of Yettel Bank, stressed that there is no doubt that artificial intelligence is not a passing trend that will disappear. He added that colleagues from different markets had been surprised by how far Serbia has progressed in digitalisation and how well its services are organised.

Stefan Andonovski, Minister of Digital Transformation of the Republic of North Macedonia, said that around 40 percent of companies in the country use AI tools, but that only five percent of small and medium-sized enterprises apply genuine AI models. He warned that simply using chatbots without changing internal processes does not bring about a fundamental transformation of business operations. According to him, companies that fall behind in adopting advanced AI technologies could face serious challenges when competing with large companies introducing genuine AI agents.

Photo: Ivana Vukotić / CCIS