Jaka Bavdek Builds 8x Social Around Human Work AI Still Needs

8x Social is developing an AI-native platform to recruit, train, deploy and measure people for workflows that still require human judgment, from content moderation to sales. The San Francisco and New York-focused push reflects a broader market shift: automation is rising, but companies still need structured human execution to finish the work.

Why it matters: - AI companies still need people for work that depends on judgment, creativity, localization, review and relationship-building. - 8x Social is trying to turn that human layer into software-like infrastructure. - The model could help AI-driven businesses scale operations that cannot be fully automated.

What happened: - Jaka Bavdek, co-founder and CEO of 8x Social, is building an AI-native human orchestration platform. - The Delaware-based company is designed to acquire, train, evaluate and deploy people at scale. - 8x Social currently uses the model in managed user-generated content campaigns for technology brands. - The company works with clients across artificial intelligence, financial technology, consumer technology, data, productivity and software markets. - Bavdek said companies can automate more than ever, but still need trained people to create, test, review, localize, sell and improve what AI systems produce. - The company’s next planned vertical is 8x.sales, which would apply the same orchestration model to distributed sales work. - 8x Social is also exploring quality assurance and user research as additional use cases.

The details: - The planned 8x.sales business would train, certify, assign and evaluate sales representatives. - Bavdek said the initial use would support 8x Social’s own growth before becoming a commercial platform for customers. - The company’s broader system is built around contributor acquisition, onboarding, training, performance measurement, quality control and delivery. - 8x Social also plans reporting tools that let customers track contributor performance, workflow execution, content output and quality-control metrics in real time. - Bavdek founded e-Matura before 8x Social, a digital exam-preparation platform that expanded from Slovenia into multiple European markets. - Bavdek later worked through Epistemy on AI-enabled education and training products used by learning organizations for case-interview prep, standardized test prep, negotiation practice and language-learning feedback. - Max Mugnaioni, principal at Entrepreneurs First, said Bavdek has consistently focused on making human capability easier to train, measure and deploy.

Between the lines: - 8x Social is betting that the next operational advantage for AI companies will come from managing humans as systematically as software. - The company’s pitch is less about replacing labor and more about standardizing the parts of labor that still require people. - That positions 8x Social in a growing category: infrastructure for distributed human execution.

What's next: - Subject to ordinary business and legal requirements, Bavdek’s proposed U.S. activity would focus on product development, enterprise customer growth, fundraising and team-building in San Francisco and New York. - 8x Social will keep building its contributor-management and reporting tools. - The company is expected to expand from content work into sales and potentially into QA and user research.