Virtual reality! Tech-loving entrepreneur says AI does more work in half the time

A tech-loving entrepreneur ditched his human assistant for artificial intelligence because it does “vastly” more work in half the time for 15 times less.

Leonid Dovbenko runs several multi-million dollar businesses including e-commerce firm YallaHub and relied on personal assistants and other people to run his schedule for decades.

But always keen to cut costs and embrace new technologies, in 2022 he opted for AI-powered tools to save money. It costs him around £1,568-a-year ($2,000) compared to a physical secretary who costs around £23,600 ($30,000) over the same period.

For this, the programme analyses all his calendars and tasks and creates a schedule automatically which alters if something changes.

The 39-year-old said: “With the advancement of technology, I started using an AI management robot that schedules tasks and appointments for me from a large number of things to do.

“I open the programme, and it tells me what to do. This way, I don’t spend time trying to remember tasks and appointments. A human assistant can do all of this but it would take far more time and there would be more chance of them making mistakes – especially if they are new.

“AI is not infallible but if it makes a mistake it is generally down to my error. I have not looked back since ditching my human assistant – using AI for all these day-to-day tasks makes life so much easier, quicker and saves me a fortune.

“Others are already doing it and I was by no means the first. And once people start to realise what is possible, I think that many personal assistants will find themselves out of a job.”

Leonid – whose firm is based in London and operates across Dubai – does not believe this advancement of technology is a bad thing – even if it results in some people losing their jobs.

This is because he says society must “continually become more productive” if it is to advance and grow. He also believes the jobs lost to AI will be “more than” compensated by ones created by new industries.

“I will never stand in the way of technological advancements because they are essential for the advancement of society,” he said.

“We live in a constantly changing world that has always created more opportunities for people throughout human history. This has always been good for people because it gives them more opportunities to learn new skills and become more productive.

“This is why it is so essential for people to learn new skills so they can do things that robots can’t.

“You can train a robot to run a calendar but they cannot be creative in the way humans can be. This is what our focus should be and is the way to make a richer, more productive and happier society.

“So now, my assistant can use robots to be more productive and she is able to run the schedule of several people – this is the impact of AI.”