In a world that talks increasingly about the risks of artificial intelligence, but rarely about the real opportunities it brings, AI is often perceived as a threat capable of taking over today’s jobs, controlling us, or even replacing us. But what actually lies behind these myths? What is real, and what stems from a misunderstanding of a technology that is still at the beginning of its journey? Andra Nicolau — entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of LYS Labs, a global Web3 platform that transforms blockchain data into reliable information for AI-powered financial markets — speaks about all of this, as well as about her passion for technology.
With a career built between Silicon Valley, London, and Bucharest, Andra dismantles the most widespread myths about AI, from the idea that it is a conscious entity to the fear that it will steal our professional future. For her, artificial intelligence is not a threat, but a tool that, when used thoughtfully, can help us save time, learn faster, and radically improve our quality of life.
Andra, you work in a field of technology and artificial intelligence that is developing rapidly. What are the biggest, let’s say, myths or misunderstandings you’ve encountered about AI, and how do you debunk them?
I would start by saying that, in general, technology is misunderstood, and what we don’t understand triggers fear in us. I would give a concrete, frustrating example: when you make a bank transfer and the money doesn’t arrive in 3–5 days, you start looking for information, making phone calls, hoping to find out something, and the bank tells you something about correspondent banks and SWIFT… things we have no idea about. And when we don’t understand, fear steps in and, sometimes, we even freeze.
On the other hand, we also have media outlets that generate sales by feeding the public fear and sensationalism, which translates into more clicks and more revenue. That’s why ordinary people have become increasingly worried about AI and its capabilities.
To clarify a first myth: AI, at the moment, is not a conscious technology. It is simply an algorithm that some technology developers have “fed” with different types of knowledge, and this algorithm processes the information it receives. If you tell it to say that God exists, it will tell you that God exists. If you tell it to say that God does not exist, it will tell you that God does not exist. In this sense, it doesn’t have its own thoughts or objectives — it only reflects the choices and intentions of the developers of those algorithms.
Another myth is that AI will become all-powerful. Here, again, many details need to be clarified. AI will not float in the air and tell us how to live, how to eat, or how to breathe. It will most likely look exactly as it does today (somewhere in our phones, in our laptops, in the apps installed on these devices), only the way we receive answers from these applications will be different.
For example, if we want to create a video with multiple photos taken with friends to share for someone’s birthday, AI will be able to do that in a few seconds, instead of us spending hours editing the content. A more concrete analogy is how, back in the day, we spent hours making CDs with MP3s, and now we have an algorithm (AI) on Spotify that gives us recommendations in a few milliseconds. That’s what everyday life will look like.
The same goes for Instagram or TikTok — already a large part of the content is generated by AI, at the level of what we are shown every time we log in. A highly specialized algorithm has learned our habits and shows us what it thinks we will like.
Another myth is that AI learns on its own. This is not true either. It is a rather manual process, in which engineers need to constantly adjust the algorithm with new information. Without this human intervention, AI does not progress.
Probably the biggest myth, and the biggest fear, is that AI will take all our jobs. Jobs, in the form in which they exist today, will simply take other forms, just as has happened over the last 100 years. Just as before there was a lot of manual work with paper and pen, and then that work was digitized, now it will be automated by artificial intelligence. At least in Romania, I think this transition will be welcome, especially when it comes to the bureaucracy that slows us down on absolutely all fronts.
But just as digitization created a lot of jobs, especially in IT, AI will also generate new types of professions. It’s true that we will have to accumulate new skills and retrain. How do we “prompt” an AI correctly? How do we train our own personal AI model? How do we give it instructions to generate videos as close as possible to our creative vision? How do we use existing tools to make our day-to-day work easier? These are the questions to start from.
AI will never replace chefs, for example, just as taste cannot be replicated by robots, but it will be able to offer them ideas for creative recipes that perhaps a chef would never have thought of. In general, AI will not be able to replace roles that are based on using human senses: taste, smell, touch. Sensors capable of reproducing the sophistication of a human have not yet been created. Nor can our brain be replicated by AI, as it is an extraordinarily complex apparatus, which we still have a long way to go before fully understanding.
What I propose is that we adjust our perspective and think about how we could use these capabilities to improve our lives. How can we use AI to learn new things, even at advanced ages? How can we use AI to become healthier? How can we use AI to debate philosophical ideas? How can we optimize our time with the help of AI so that we have more free time for the essential, human things, such as time spent with loved ones?
One of the recent debates, especially regarding the labor market, is replacing the workforce in different fields with AI applications or robots. Many people fear that AI will take their jobs, as you mentioned. What is actually real — in the sense of what types of jobs or processes will disappear?
In general, everything related to analysis has already started to be replaced by AI. It’s true that we can’t compete with an algorithm that has a processing capacity 1,000 times greater or faster than the human one. If we need to read 30 books to become experts in a field, AI can read and interpret them in milliseconds.
This is especially valid for fields that involve exact data, such as financial or scientific analyses, where there is less room for interpretation. AI has advanced enormously in the last 20–30 years, especially in the medical field. New diagnoses and solutions are being discovered for diseases that people have not managed to solve until today.
This progress is beneficial for humanity. Over time, we should have solutions for cancer and other conditions that are currently fatal. In this sense, doctors will not be replaced by artificial intelligence — they will be supported by it, to establish faster and more precise diagnoses.
Another example is the legal profession or the juridical field. Lawyers will not be replaced by AI, but there will be enough applications that will offer legal help to ordinary people, as a complement to a lawyer’s activity. Or in the legal field, where lived human experience is necessary in order to judge different situations. AI can have a lot of historical context, but it cannot make decisions that belong to a deeply human subconscious level.
On the creative side, there is, again, a lot of fear. Here, indeed, we are talking about a revolution, in the sense that media content can be created with the help of AI at a fraction of the time and costs compared to before. If, in the past, you needed two weeks and three models for a photo shoot, now you can generate the same type of content with Sora or Midjourney in a few minutes.
Of course, you will feel the difference between something made with AI and something made in the classic style. But if we think about old films, which had lower quality and “specks” on the image, now everything is in HD. Before special effects studios like Pixar existed, all effects were created manually. That’s how I see the transition in creative industries. Producers will use AI, but they will not be completely replaced by it.
Let’s also look at it from another perspective. In Romania we have many farmers. It’s possible that, in the future, robots will be developed to help them work their land in an automated way. But AI will not be able to fully replace a farmer’s experience. On the contrary, that farmer will now have more time available, which they can use for other activities.
In this sense, all repetitive processes will be automated. In China, for example, there are car factories that operate completely in the dark, because they are 100% robotized and robots don’t need light to work. But these robots need people to maintain them and to control the quality of the products created. Jobs haven’t disappeared — they have been adjusted.
And also, in an increasingly automated world, what remains essentially “human” and cannot be replaced by AI?
As I said earlier, we still don’t have the sensors needed to replace everything related to human sensations: taste, smell, touch, sound. Experiments are being conducted in this direction, but the results are, for now, too precise, too cold: a sculpture that is too perfect, a painting that is too sterile. You can feel that it is something created by a robot, because that “je ne sais quoi,” that unique taste or feeling, cannot be replaced.
Likewise, jobs based on emotional intelligence cannot be replaced: therapist, primary school teacher, babysitter, social services, nurses. AI will help these professionals, but it will not be able to replace them, regardless of what Hollywood says.
AI cannot replace friendship, although there is currently a startup trying to create a day-to-day digital companion (it is not very well received, however). Still, AI can be an alternative for elderly people who have no one to talk to. There are already a few companies that offer tele-services through which lonely seniors can call to talk to someone. Here I think there is a positive impact, because better alternatives do not yet exist, and some nursing homes are a complete disaster. Even so, these tele-services cannot replace the company of a human being.
Lastly, AI cannot replace everything that involves manual work, artistic performances, athletics, surgical operations, cooking (non-repetitive). These fields require lived experience, which AI does not have.
How do you realistically see the role of AI in our day-to-day lives in the next 5–10 years?
I think that, in the next 5 to 10 years, we will notice a significant difference. In 5 years we will advance a lot in the medical field and I expect to see much greater efficiency. The same in the financial field — I think a lot of the friction that currently exists in this industry will be eliminated.
On a personal level, I think many more people will adopt ChatGPT as their main way of searching for information, instead of Google. Also, many will use AI to create funny things to share with others (for example, we already see videos where dog owners create content in which their animals “cook,” clean, or wash laundry).
In 5 years we will start seeing more TV ads for small household robots. These robots will have purposes such as cleaning, washing clothes, etc. They will not yet be autonomous and not very efficient, but I think we will see a clear movement in this direction.
Also, autonomous cars (self-driving cars) will reach other corners of the world. In San Francisco you can already take a taxi without a driver, and I think this technology will expand to other big cities. In 10 years, maybe even in Romania we will see such taxis.
On a personal level, we will have personalized agents that understand our preferences and work for us in all directions: they make appointments, organize notifications, manage finances, travel, etc. Similarly, at work there will be agents that optimize everything related to calendar, email, communication, and other tools we use day to day.
On the entertainment side, I think we will also see new platforms with content natively generated by AI — I already gave the example of dogs cooking, which could exist on a version of “AI TikTok.”
What types of AI applications, like ChatGPT, do you use daily beyond the professional area, and for what kind of information?
I use ChatGPT, Grok (an AI created by Elon Musk), and Perplexity a lot. Usually, I ask for more opinions instead of relying only on ChatGPT. I look at what answers each gives and then I choose, intuitively, the one that seems most aligned with what I want to obtain.
For example, ChatGPT seems better to me at generating philosophical content, while Grok is much more academic and scientific. I was recently in Korea and I saw a statue of Buddha; I wanted to learn more about Buddhism and I had a conversation with ChatGPT on this subject to discover new things. I use Grok when I want to find out information related to wellness, for example what “beauty myths” are and what is truly valid.
I also use an app called InsideTracker, where I enter my blood test results, and the app gives me an overview of my health and my progress over the years.
Besides that, AI also does many things “behind the scenes,” so to speak. For example, Gmail, which I use daily, already has elements of artificial intelligence integrated. The same with the iPhone, which has certain algorithms that increase our productivity. A concrete example: when I search for a photo with a document, for example my passport, and I no longer know when I took the photo or where I saved it, I simply type “passport” in the search bar in the Photos app and the image appears — a feature available at least on newer iPhone models.
I also used Wix’s AI for my photography website. I’m not good at website design, but with the help of AI it is much simpler to generate something in a relatively short time. I think it’s brilliant for people who have a creative hobby and can’t necessarily afford a website designer.
Regarding your field of activity, you built a global company in a very specific area of AI. LYS Labs is a Web3 company that transforms blockchain data into secure information to be processed for AI-powered financial markets and also processes and operates in the crypto field. How did you get here, and what was the most difficult moment along this road?
I lived in the U.S. for almost 20 years over time. I went to university in Silicon Valley, where I also started my career in the IT industry. Eight years ago I focused on the crypto sector in the IT industry, and two years ago AI started to grow in popularity, especially in the crypto world, and that’s when I ended up working at this interesting intersection between the two fields.
The way I got into crypto was more luck than something planned. After I left San Francisco, I moved to London, where I wanted a fresh start. I used my network of contacts and I discovered some of the most interesting fintech companies in London. I went to their offices and saw what roles were available.
One of these firms was active in the “blockchain” sector in 2017. I got in touch with the company’s HR department and had a productive discussion. The company didn’t have a very formal hiring process — I simply started talking to team members and found a role in an “organic” way.
After a week of networking with the team members, I received an offer, and that’s how my first role in the crypto field began. From there I spent eight years in different roles, in smaller and larger projects. Eventually, I met the team in Bucharest, which was already working on an initial concept for what is today LYS Labs, and I joined them as a co-founder because we had very good synergy.
At LYS Labs I also started exploring the intersection between AI and crypto. My knowledge of AI, up to that point, was quite rudimentary. I started learning as much as I could about this subject, and now, two years later, I’ve reached this point.
In this technical field where you operate, in artificial intelligence and blockchain technology, where speed is essential, how do you maintain the balance between rapid innovation and technological quality control?
Everything we do at LYS Labs starts from an extremely high quality of the products we build. Each component is designed and optimized so that we deliver the highest level of quality at every step. Sometimes, this means launching products a little later. It is indeed an art to choose the right moment for launch, because nothing will ever be perfect and completely ready. There are always optimizations that can be made, but usually those optimizations are not critical.
We operate with a Silicon Valley mindset, where people say “fail fast, fail forward.” In other words, even if something fails along the way, we want to learn as quickly as possible from that failure and reorient toward solutions.
Also, after spending a period in this industry, you get used to a much more alert pace in everything related to delivering products. You can’t survive if you don’t operate with a constant sense of urgency.
How would you explain, in one simple sentence, what a “financial AI agent” does, and why should ordinary people pay attention to this phenomenon?
For ordinary people, a financial agent is what we today call a “robot” that has autonomy to carry out certain operations in an automated way. A concrete example of autonomous “robots” we already have is paying bills automatically.
When you link your bank account to Electrica or Engie so that money is withdrawn automatically from your account, you are basically already using some rudimentary algorithms. These algorithms will become more and more intelligent over time — for example, they could predict your electricity bill amount based on your consumption over the last 12 months. In this sense, they make an intelligent prediction and can notify you in advance of the estimated amount.
This can be an example of an agent that works for your benefit. Ordinary people should pay attention to such tools because they can be extremely beneficial and can save us a lot of time that we otherwise waste. Especially in countries like Romania, where certain operations can take days. If adopted widely, these agents can reduce processing times by 90–95%.
What is the difference between “consumer” AI (which we use daily through apps) and financial AI, which you work with at LYS Labs?
Essentially, the concepts are similar. There is an algorithm to which you give data, and that algorithm gives you something in return. In consumer AI, like ChatGPT, the result is an answer to the question you formulate (you prompt). In the financial world, it can also be an answer to a question, but related to the financial domain.
For example, if you wanted to find out stock market prices or where to invest certain amounts, you could communicate directly with agents built on our infrastructure. Consumer AI is trained on a much larger and more varied dataset. We provide more specialized data, optimized for AI dedicated to the financial sector.
How do you think AI will change our relationship with money, from investments and savings to the way we make daily transactions?
AI will make everything more automated and optimized. The research time regarding investment decisions or other financial decisions will be compressed by 90–95%. In many cases, agents will make decisions in an “invisible” way, where you, as a user, won’t see all the operations, only the final result. This way, we gain more time to focus on other things, such as… how to spend the money generated by AI for us.
Also, AI can break down very complex concepts into simpler, easier-to-understand terms and can discover opportunities that would otherwise have been impossible to identify, because we have a limited capacity to find and absorb information. With AI, these limitations no longer exist.
Will ordinary people, not just large institutions, be able to access personal financial AI agents? What would that look like in reality?
Yes, anyone will be able to build their own financial agent. There are several possibilities regarding what this future could look like. For example, those who are more tech-inclined will be able to build a personal agent with just a few clicks. Others will offer services to create these financial agents as third parties.
For instance, the bank where you have an account could offer personalized agents for each user. Or there could be an app on your phone that you install, you connect multiple personal accounts, and from there your personal agent is automatically initiated. There will probably also be options directly in the browser, not necessarily on the phone.
You are an international citizen and you have been shaped in several different cultures. You were born and raised in Romania until adolescence, you studied from high school and during university in the U.S., where you also started working, in the most important and competitive environment for technology development: Silicon Valley. How did the “nothing is impossible” culture there shape you, and what parts did you bring back to Romania?
For me, the time spent in California was essential. If I had been in Romania, I don’t think I would have had the psychological preparation necessary to believe that I can build a career in crypto or AI, even if I studied, let’s say, Economics. Here, there is a tendency to remain on the same profile all your life, with small variations.
But the jump toward something risky, like crypto, is harder to make, especially as a woman. In contrast, being in Silicon Valley, where the impossible happens almost daily, other perspectives open up. If you dream of going to Mars, it’s okay — there is a group of people there who believe the same thing. If you want to open a factory in space or put a DJ in space, that’s also possible (both are projects that different entrepreneurs are currently working on).
Such freedom in the way of thinking is extremely “refreshing.” Somehow, all the dreams you have from childhood can be realized, assuming, of course, that the laws of physics allow it.
Here, in Romania, everything seems harder to me: from having a conversation with someone and being taken seriously, to building a team that believes in the same ideals, or progressing through the monumental bureaucracy that makes some initiatives almost impossible. Fortunately, Romania has advanced, and now everything is “remote.” If you want to find investors, you don’t necessarily have to be in the U.S.; you can have engineers in Romania. Likewise, you can travel by plane anywhere relatively quickly and cheaply, because travel restrictions are no longer what they were 10–20 years ago. Still, the speed at which you can progress in Romania does not compare to what you have when you are at the heart of progress.
Currently, you travel a lot and you split your life between continents and countries with very different cultures, including in terms of technological development or working style. Europe, Romania especially, the United States, Asia… How do you perceive these differences, and where do you feel closer to who you are and to the idea of “home”?
Romania will always be my home of the soul, because this is where I was born and raised. A part of me is also found in San Francisco, where I lived through many formative experiences. It is a city where, as I said, ideas have no limits and everything seems possible.
On the other hand, I also feel at home in London, where I lived for a few years — a city with more culture, art, and deep thinkers than you generally find in America.
Professionally, I think I feel most “at home” in America, because there is a culture of “hustle,” productive agitation, and speed there, which I like. People, in general, have a more pronounced attitude oriented toward immediate action than in other places. Of course, there are differences in America too: between New York and Miami, for example. New York is a city full of ambitious people, and Miami is much more relaxed.
Outside of those places, I like Asia very much for relaxation. I weave this chaotic lifestyle with escapes into the jungle, where there is no signal of any kind.
What is the most valuable thing you learned from a professional failure?
The most practical lesson is that everything always takes longer than you estimate it will. Any plan, any deadline is, in fact, an illusion. Besides that, you need to know when to accept that something doesn’t work and try something else. If you gave 100% of yourself and there were no results over a relatively long period, at some point you have to accept defeat and look for other directions.
When you think about success, what does it mean to you beyond numbers?
There is success on a personal level and success on a professional level. On a personal level, I feel successful every day. I wake up, I’m healthy, I have energy, I have family and friends, and I have managed to get here.
On a professional level, I measure success through what I have created, alone or together with a team. What products have we launched? What innovations have we brought? How many people use what we put on the market? Have we built something relevant, useful? These are the questions that dictate how much success I have in different initiatives.
How do you keep your balance between the pressure to perform and your own well-being?
Over the years, I have developed all kinds of wellness routines that help me maintain the level of energy necessary for this lifestyle. Sleep is the most important, so regardless of what time zone I’m in, I try to get quality sleep.
I also maintain a fitness routine and I try to train even when I’m traveling. Besides sleep and fitness, I also take certain supplements such as creatine, collagen, and many others that I choose depending on the results of blood tests, which I do regularly.
Who are the mentors or role models that inspired you on this path?
I have always been inspired by people’s ideas and attitudes, not necessarily by people as a whole. It was hard for me to find a person whom I would consider inspirational from every point of view. Rather, I found different traits in different people that inspire me.
For example, Reese Witherspoon seems to me like an exceptional businesswoman. Martha Stewart has remarkable perseverance — even with her history, she continues to create and hasn’t retired, as others do at her age. Steve Jobs had an obsession with perfection and attention to detail, but I think there are also artisans in Italy who have the same obsession with details, only they apply it in other directions. Lewis Hamilton was, again, a source of inspiration through his desire to win and dominate. In general, I try to look for inspiration in different places and apply those ideas in my world — the world of technology.
If you could talk to yourself at 20, what advice would you give yourself?
I would tell myself to try to put any problem on paper and write it as clearly as possible, instead of ruminating mentally. It seems to me that over the years I have spent far too much time analyzing certain things in my head, instead of identifying exactly the source of the problem and then looking for solutions.
It’s a rather “masculine” approach, because men tend to be more solution-oriented, but I think it is an extremely useful method — one that would have saved me many headaches along the way.
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