I Got to Become a Startup Investigator at Iceland Innovation Week 2025
To properly determine the current state of AI in “taking over the world.”
Will AI steal all of our jobs? Will it write all of the articles that I’m supposed to be writing? Or will it just give us the new generation of so-called “AI influencers” on LinkedIn that nobody ever asked for?
As we hear the term “Artificial Intelligence” literally everywhere nowadays, I can’t help but wonder — is this buzzword part of a hype, or is it something that is actually revolutionary for our society?
I mean, no doubt, Artificial Intelligence technology helps us automate tons of tasks, and it really makes our jobs more efficient.
But we, the normal humans, have every reason to question why AI is soo overhyped these days and what’s the actual benefit of creating this buzz.
Thinking about this topic made me wonder what other international expert’s opinions are about the actual role of AI these days.
So, I got in touch with the team of the Iceland Innovation Week startup festival to address this issue.
They invited me to their fancy event that happened a couple of weeks ago and gave me an opportunity to conduct investigative interviews with various experts in a very serious 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 located right in the city center of Reykjavik.
The team of Iceland Innovation Week was extremely welcoming. They connected me with 4 perfect interviewees to conduct this serious investigation and uncover the whole AI mystery.
Those investigative interviews were quite interesting, and in this article, I’d like to give a sneak peek of what we spoke about.
PS. The actual recordings of these investigative interviews will go live on the Startup Blender podcast. You can find links to episodes in this article.
Topic #1: How to Spot an AI Generated Content Like A Pro?
Ft. Isaac Schultz
The first interview was all about investigating the trend of online creators massively producing AI-generated content and sharing them with their audiences.
Isaac Schultz is a Science Writer at Gizmodo, and he has written lots of interesting articles about trends of AI-generated content and its impact on our online habits.
In this session, we spoke about how AI tools have changed the way folks produce content on the internet, the biggest problems and challenges we’re facing because of the mass adoptions of LLMs, and key differences between human-written authentic content vs AI-generated articles.
🎙️ The interview is available on the Startup Blender podcast. Check it out.
Topic #2: Can We Actually Build a Startup Without a “Groundbreaking” AI Feature In 2025?
Ft. Amy Horrocks
In the second interview, I wanted to take a look from another perspective and understand why literally every single startup nowadays promotes their AI features, even if their product doesn’t need one.
For that, I thought it would be relevant to interview VC and get their point of view. So, in this session, I invited Amy Horrocks from the Georgian VC to understand her take on this topic.
We spoke about the “pressure” founders feel these days to endlessly talk about their “AI capabilities,” the most common use cases of startups implementing AI technologies into their products, and examples of startups that don’t follow this trend but still manage to find success in their field.
🎙️ The interview will be uploaded on the Startup Blender podcast. Stay tuned.
Topic #3: How Long Until the Normal Jobs Are Gone?
Ft. Sveinn Sigurður Jóhannesson
Speaking of startups, it is also really interesting to understand the state of early-stage company operations with new automation and AI solutions to make processes more efficient.
To learn more about that topic, I invited Sveinn Sigurður Jóhannesson, the Co-founder of GreenFish, which is an AI research and deployment company developing next-generation tools for the fishing industry.
Our conversation covered topics like AI automation for startups to improve their processes, areas of business that are most affected by introducing these new tools, and common misconceptions people have about “AI taking over the world.”
🎙️ The interview will be uploaded on the Startup Blender podcast. Stay tuned.
Topic #4: Why Is LinkedIn So Weird Nowadays?
Ft. Anna Margrét Gunnarsdóttir
Finally, I wanted to understand the impact that the emergence of AI tools has on social media and our online habits.
Most famously, LinkedIn is a platform where we clearly see the rise of AI-generated content and comments that make this platform what it is.
To learn more about that, I invited a Founder of HERFERD marketing news outlet, Anna Margrét Gunnarsdóttir, who is an expert in corporate communications and marketing at scale.
In this session, we spoke about the evolvement of LinkedIn over the years, the general perception of “toxic thought leadership” online, and the actual benefits of using this platform for expanding your network and building your career.
🎙️ The interview will be uploaded on the Startup Blender podcast. Stay tuned.
Wrapping Up
Conducting these interviews at Iceland Innovation Week gave me a clear idea that the emergence of any kind of new, “groundbreaking” technology will certainly cause some kind of hype and anticipation of what will happen next.
However, if we look at the actual use cases of AI tools in different industries, they really help us become more efficient at what we do, giving us the ability to focus on more creative and strategic endeavours.
It is clear that these tools become part of our daily routines, and learning how to properly use them will only make us better at our jobs.
Massive thanks to the awesome Iceland Innovation Week team and guests for helping me put this investigation together!!
…my journey as a Startup Investigator is not over yet. In fact, it’s just getting started. See you at other startup events with some brand new cases in the future!
