News

Sandi Markon in Dialogue with His Digital Double

Sandi Markon presents a digital version of himself that speaks Slovenian

On Friday, June 6, 2025, at the 10th Entrepreneurship Congress in Portorož, our CEO and owner, Sandi Markon, gave the first public presentation of his virtual agent—a digital version of himself that understands and answers questions in real time and visually mimics his facial expressions and voice.

This technological innovation is our response to the challenge of present technologies and proof that we are reaching the dimensions of the new era of artificial intelligence in Slovenia. With our newly established AI department, we are proving that the ability to develop cutting-edge AI solutions is not reserved only for global technology giants.

A New Department, A New Era of AI Development

The establishment of the department represents a strategic shift of the Stroka Business Group towards the development of state-of-the-art technological solutions. Led by a team of experts in various fields—from physicists to machine learning engineers—the department focuses on three key areas: advanced AI-powered applications, predictive analytics and business process automation.

"Our decision to create an AI department stems from the conviction that Slovenia needs its own, high-quality AI solutions," explains Sandi Markon. "It is no longer enough to simply implement existing tools. It's time to create technologies that respond to the specific needs of our local and regional market."

Virtual Agent: A Month of Development, Years of Progress

The development of Sandi's virtual agent took one month of intensive work, but it is the result of the team's years of knowledge and experience. The technology is based on the integration of three key components:

• Real-time speech recognition - delivered via Azure technology, which has proven to be the fastest and most reliable solution for Slovenian
• Response generation - provides a customized LLM model based on OpenAI technology, but equipped with its own knowledge base and standard commands for accurate response
• Speech and video synthesis - the development team used a combination of ElevenLabs for speech generation and HeyGen for matching video content with speech

The personalization of the agent to Sandi's voice and way of speaking was particularly challenging. As project manager Mitja Suvajac explains, "Existing technologies are trained in the wider Balkan region, so Slovenian speech often sounds like a mix of Balkan languages. They can learn the tone of voice and the interjections, but it is difficult for them to fully adapt to the Slovenian accent because the models are already pre-learned."

What Else is the AI Lab Hiding?

The AI department does not only develop technology demonstrations. Their portfolio of projects shows a systemic approach to the digitalization of the Slovenian economy:

• Chat-to-ERP - natural language communication with databases in real time. Instead of complex queries and extensive searches, users can simply ask: "How many invoices have we issued in the last year?" The system will also be integrated with an ERP solution.
• Stroka AI - our own artificial intelligence, hosted and run on our own servers to ensure data security
• Predictive analytics - enabling sales forecasting and procurement optimization based on machine learning, which is already being successfully implemented by our partners
• Speech-to-text - a solution for the Slovenian language that can also recognize dialects, which was tested for the first time today at the Congress of Entrepreneurship

Local Knowledge, Global Technologies

A key driver for the AI department is the focus on local infrastructure and data security. As the project leader explains, "Our goal is to have data that is secure and processed locally. We use the Ollama interface, which allows us to use LLM models on our own servers, where we know exactly what is happening with the information."

This approach reflects the broader mission of the company, as we at Stroka Business Group believe that Slovenia needs to develop its own competences in the field of artificial intelligence, rather than relying exclusively on global platforms.

Physicists as the Programmers of the Future

A special feature of the AI department is the involvement of physicists in the development process. "The Stroka Business Group has been working closely with the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Maribor for years," explains Markon. "The knowledge of physicists contributes significantly to the logic required by the latest AI technologies."

This approach also enables the development of low-code and no-code solutions, where experts without programming knowledge create high-quality applications based on their theoretical knowledge.

Testing the Future in Real Time

Friday's appearance at the Entrepreneurship Congress was also a practical test of the technologies being developed by the AI department. In addition to the virtual agent, they also tested a system for automatically recording and summarizing (transcribing) panels in real time, which will allow organizers to quickly produce summaries and articles.

"The Entrepreneurship Congress is a great testing ground for us," smiles Markon. "Here we can test how our technologies work in real conditions and get feedback directly from users."

Vision: Slovenia as the AI Capital of the Region

The creation of the new department and the launch of the Virtual Agent on Friday are just the start of a bigger vision. At Stroka Business Group, we strive to make Slovenia known for quality, secure and locally developed AI solutions.

"It's not just about the technology," emphasizes Markon. "It's about creating an ecosystem where Slovenian companies can rely on local experts for their most complex technological challenges. This is our contribution to national technological independence."