Today Software Magazine September Edition Launch

On September 23, we had the pleasure of hosting the launch of the latest edition of Today Software Magazine at our office. Bringing together technology professionals, industry experts, and members of the local IT community, the event explored one of the most relevant topics in today's technology landscape: how to harness the power of Artificial Intelligence while ensuring that people remain at the center of decision-making and innovation.

The evening featured a series of insightful presentations covering AI adoption, cybersecurity, trust, data engineering, leadership, and the evolving relationship between humans and intelligent systems. The event concluded with an engaging panel discussion that encouraged attendees to reflect on how organizations can successfully balance automation with human expertise.

Radu Miclăuș, General Manager at Betfair Romania Development, welcomed our guests and highlighted the importance of technology communities and continuous learning and curiosity. He also spoke about the growing role AI plays in our industry and the importance of creating environments where people can learn from each other, experiment, and innovate together.

As the host of the event, Betfair Romania Development was proudly represented by a few colleagues, who shared insights drawn from their day-to-day work across engineering, cybersecurity, leadership, and AI adoption.

Building AI Fluency at Scale

The first technical session, Developing AI Skills at Scale was presented by Anca Brădișteanu, Senior Engineering Manager at Betfair Romania Development, alongside Adrian Maciuc, QA Engineer and active contributor to our AI learning initiatives.

Their presentation explored how organizations can successfully develop AI capabilities across diverse teams, moving beyond isolated experiments and enabling widespread adoption. Drawing from practical experience, they shared lessons learned from building AI communities, encouraging peer learning, and helping employees integrate AI tools responsibly into their daily work. The session demonstrated that successful AI transformation depends as much on people and learning culture as it does on the technology itself.

AI Oversight and Cybersecurity

Rareș Preda, Cyber Threat Intelligence Team Lead at Betfair Romania Development, tackled one of the most pressing questions in AI adoption: what human oversight really means when AI moves faster than people can follow.

In his AI Oversight and Cybersecurity presentation, he examined recent incidents where controls worked as designed and a human was in the loop, yet it made little difference to the outcome. The article highlighted how AI is reshaping attacks, from self-rewriting malicious code to lone actors operating at nation-state scale, and why defenders increasingly need AI just to understand what happened.

As AI becomes embedded into more business functions, Rareș argued that oversight itself must be rethought, not just reinforced.

Evolution of Teams and Attention Management

Leadership and organizational development took center stage with Dan Boncuț, Senior Engineering Manager at Betfair Romania Development.

His presentation, Evolution of Teams and Attention Management, explored how modern teams navigate increasingly complex environments characterized by constant information flows, competing priorities, and changes.

Dan discussed the importance of focusing attention intentionally, creating space for meaningful work, and helping teams develop sustainable practices that support both performance and wellbeing. The session resonated strongly with attendees facing similar challenges in today's fast-moving technology landscape.

Expert Panel: Keeping People at the Center of AI

The evening concluded with a panel discussion on the central theme of the event: Human-in-the-Loop: Keeping People at the Center of AI

Moderated by Ovidiu Mățan, the panel brought together three speakers, among them two of our colleagues, Adrian Maciuc and Rareș Preda.

Rather than debating whether humans should remain involved, the panel focused on where human involvement creates the most value. As AI takes on more of the tasks of generating software, processing information, and creating content, participants agreed that attempting to review every AI-generated step is neither practical nor sustainable. Instead, people must focus on setting direction, exercising critical judgment, understanding consequences, and making informed decisions at key moments in the process.

Adrian Maciuc emphasized the importance of communities, peer learning, and experienced trainers in helping people understand not only how to use AI, but also its limitations. A key takeaway was that true understanding comes from discussion, research, and human guidance, not solely from asking AI systems to explain themselves.

Security, trust, and long-term implications were recurring themes throughout the conversation. Rareș Preda highlighted AI's tremendous practical value, including its ability to analyse vast amounts of information that would otherwise be impossible to process manually. However, he also warned against developing what he described as "cognitive debt" by relying on AI-generated outputs without truly understanding them.

The panel concluded that as AI continues to evolve, adaptability, continuous learning, and a deliberate definition of what "human in the loop" means in practice will become essential. Ultimately, the discussion reinforced a common view shared throughout the evening: the future is not about controlling every step AI takes, but ensuring that people remain responsible for the direction, judgment, and decisions that matter most.

A reminder of how important communities are

Hosting the September edition launch of Today Software Magazine was a great opportunity to bring together professionals from across the local ecosystem for an evening of learning, discussion, and community building.

Most importantly, the conversations reinforced a message that resonated throughout the evening: as technology evolves, success will not be defined solely by the capabilities of our AI systems, but by our ability to keep people at the center of innovation.

We thank Today Software Magazine, all speakers, panellists, and attendees for contributing to this edition and for helping strengthen the Cluj tech community. We look forward to continuing these conversations and welcoming the community back to future events.