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Spargle meets Ton de Jong
Fractional CTO @ Milledoni
Documentary: The last dance
Podcast: ‘Mindscape’, Sean Carroll
Book: Grand Hotel Europa by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
“The human element is essential, especially when it comes to determining direction and adopting new, innovative approaches.”
What is your current role?
Currently, I’m a fractional CTO at Milledoni, a gift-giving platform where you can find inspiration for the perfect gift, with recommendations provided by a community of gift spotters. Milledoni was conceived in 2013 by Spargelist – and my wife – Federica Foroni Lo Faro. What makes our platform unique is our advanced tagging system, which helps users quickly discover gifts that truly fit a specific person or occasion.
We’ve now entered a new phase: integrating generative AI into our platform to enhance gift discovery, while expanding Milledoni across Europe. Our goal is to combine the emotional intelligence of our community with the power of AI – and make meaningful giving easier, more inclusive, and more human than ever.
How do you use generative AI at Milledoni?
After much analysis, we have created a roadmap with focus areas for GenAI, such as spotting gifts via the web through AI, enrichment of content, smart tagging, conversation via chat and customer targeting. But the backbone of Milledoni is still its sophisticated matching algorithm, which we are improving with GenAI for the beta launch of the new site.
GenAI works well on certain tasks, but not so well on others. A structured data model remains essential to be sure that when it retrieves data the results are accurate enough. The GenAI solution needs to be ‘curated’ in such a way that it excels at a certain subject, in our case the gift giving experience. This can be fairly easy, for example by providing appropriate ‘prompts’, but it can become more sophisticated by providing it with specific contextual input or even training the model on specific data. And you have to manage the risk of misinformation towards the end user, for instance by having multiple AI agents checking each other’s output. In practice this often requires a combination of traditional code and Large Language Models. Having said that, the evolution of these models is happening so fast that you also need to anticipate new models that are able to resolve problems that you cannot resolve at this moment.
On the development side, AI is incredibly useful as well. I am currently using Cursor, and these kinds of tools help us program faster, allowing us to achieve more with fewer resources. There are huge opportunities in store for companies, and it would be a risk not to at least investigate what GenAI could mean for their business.
What is your background?
I studied Applied Physics in Delft, specializing in computational physics. I even shortly touched on the subject of neural networks. This was in the early 1990s when AI was not as advanced as it is today. Since then, AI has grown tremendously in scope and has become a much more prominent field. When I started, it was mostly academic and experimental, but now it is the backbone of many technologies and products we use every day.
After my studies, I went into consultancy, which was a typical path for someone with a technical background at the time. I worked for Accenture, a firm that handled IT projects, where I gained a lot of experience. One of my last projects there was building an internet portal. This was in the early 2000s when the internet emerged rapidly, and we were in the pioneering phase of the web. That was a key moment for me because it showed me how technology can have a huge impact on society. In 2008, I started working as a freelancer, and since then, I have always focused on the intersection of business, technology and data.
“I am not primarily focused on hardcore technology. What excites me is translating a company’s needs into technical solutions using data.”
What attracts you to the intersection of business, technology and data?
What I find so interesting about this combination is that you are constantly looking for solutions to real business problems using technology and data. I am not primarily focused on hardcore technology – that’s not where my passion lies. What excites me is translating a company’s needs into technical solutions using data.
What challenges do you encounter in making that mix work smoothly?
One of the biggest recurring challenges is that business professionals and technical experts often don’t fully understand each other. Business people focus on business problems and are often unaware of the complexities on the technical side, such as how long certain developments take. On the other hand, developers and engineers understand the technical logic but may struggle to see the broader business context, making it hard to prioritize effectively.
There’s also a tendency to focus on the latest, most exciting technologies without a solid business rationale behind them. Building that bridge – translating a business need into a technological solution – is what I mostly enjoy doing. I’d say it’s a kind of specialization in itself.
How do you see the future of technology, especially generative AI?
I believe we are going to see a massive democratization of technology. Tools that are currently mainly accessible to tech specialists will become increasingly available to business professionals as well. Generative AI will play a significant role in this shift. Tools like Cursor will allow companies to respond more quickly to changes and innovations, fundamentally altering the way we develop products and services. I see a future where many business roles will use generative AI tools to create digital products themselves. There’s a real democratization of digital product creation happening over the next few years.
“Technology alone cannot fully provide the creativity, intuition, and valuable context that people bring to the table.”
What remains the role of the human factor in this process?
Although generative AI offers incredible opportunities to accelerate and automate processes, the human factor remains crucial. AI can help generate ideas and develop concepts, but it still falls short in the creative process – which makes sense, because AI models were trained on existing ideas and concepts, not trained to create new ones.
The human element is essential, especially when it comes to determining direction and adopting new, innovative approaches. Technology alone cannot fully provide the creativity, intuition, and valuable context that people bring to the table. So, the value of human input remains indispensable.
So you see that as a trend for the future. Do you have any specific predictions for the coming year?
Generative AI systems are not yet super advanced, but they are improving rapidly. One trend we are seeing now is “vibe coding,” where non-programmers use tools to create applications themselves. The problem is that these tools often don’t account for things like security or unintended scenarios, which is a risk when applications are released without paying careful attention to this. But that’s only a matter of time, and I see it improving quickly.
As a CTO, I’m always exploring new tools and trends. Every month, new developments emerge, and I’m constantly amazed at how fast things are moving. We are becoming increasingly capable of turning creative input into well-functioning solutions.
At Milledoni, do you have the freedom to experiment with new things?
Yes, you can quickly develop a proof of concept and test whether something works. If it doesn’t, you try something else. It’s a trial-and-error process. My goal is to use the experience I gain at Milledoni for other projects and fractional roles.
A large part of my job involves staying up to date with the latest news and testing what works best. This means constantly tracking developments, trends, and changes in my field. I do this by regularly reading news sources, blogs, and reports, but also by observing what colleagues and competitors are doing.
“If you’re only focused on sharing your own perspective, you often miss out on really great ideas from others.”
Do you have a favorite documentary, podcast, or book?
When it comes to documentaries, I’d say The Last Dance. It’s a documentary about Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time. It’s not only fascinating because of the spectacular footage of his games but also because of his incredible work ethic and his drive to stay the best. I found that really inspiring.
As for podcasts, I listen to Mindscape a lot, a podcast by Sean Carroll. He’s a physicist and interviews people on topics like physics, philosophy, art, ethics, and even AI. It’s always super interesting. Another great podcast about AI is AI Report – a must-hear for anyone interested in AI.
For books, I’d recommend Grand Hotel Europa by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer. It’s a beautiful novel set in Italy, dealing with current societal themes. It resonates with me because I spend a lot of time in Italy and I’m married to an Italian. It’s definitely worth reading.
And what is your life motto?
One of my favorite quotes is: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” It comes from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. I think it’s a valuable lesson to first listen carefully to others before expressing your own opinion. It’s something I also apply in my role as a CTO. If you’re only focused on sharing your own perspective, you often miss out on really great ideas from others. Especially in the age of social media, where people are quick to voice their opinions without truly listening. It’s important to really listen to each other, especially when working in a team.
