About
About Luka Abramović
I do the forward-deployed job end to end. I find the customer, run discovery, scope and sell the work, then build the AI inside their workflow and stay through launch. Selling what I build keeps me honest about what is realistic to promise. Building what I sell means I know how to prove it.
Since 2023 I have led every Adamant Code engagement this way, for clients in the US, UK and EU. That includes AI search that shows engineers the exact page and paragraph behind every answer, a voice agent taking real calls in Danish, an AI coach built on 25 years of coaching methodology and a two-year internal platform a team of 44 runs its operations on.
Before that I was a full-stack TypeScript engineer, and before that a marine engineer on container ships and LNG carriers, where I taught myself to code off watch on about 10 MB of internet a day.
- Based in
- Rijeka, Croatia · CET
- Role
- Founder & AI Engineer
- Company
- Adamant Code d.o.o. ↗
- Clients
- US, UK and EU
- Languages
- Croatian, English
- Education
- Marine Engineering, Rijeka
The story
From the engine room to AI engineering.
- 2014 – 202001 · Engine room
I studied Marine Engineering at the Faculty of Maritime Studies in Rijeka from 2014 to 2017. From 2017 to 2020 I worked at sea as a marine engineer on container ships and LNG carriers, ending as 3rd Engineer with MOL LNG Transport (Europe) Ltd: safety-critical machinery, operated and maintained with multinational crews.
In the engine room, MOL LNG Transport (Europe) Ltd. Safety-critical machinery, multinational crews. - 2017 – 202002 · Learning to code off watch
I taught myself to program in the hours off watch, from books, courses and videos downloaded on a ship with around 10 MB of internet a day.
Read the longer version on Medium ↗ - 202003 · First software job
Junior Software Developer at Metal Shark Boats Croatia, building tools across the company's ERP ecosystem.
- 2021 – 202404 · Full-stack engineer
Software Engineer at Kantun Devs in Rijeka, where I helped build the online ordering system for Dickey's Barbecue Pit, used by 300,000+ people a month.
- 202305 · Founder
I founded Adamant Code, won the first clients myself, then hired and led a distributed delivery team while running sales and discovery personally. Since then: 600+ sales and discovery calls, 13+ AI and software builds, a two-year platform partnership that grew from a first build, and 37 five-star Upwork reviews out of 37.
Calls and builds counted September 2023 to October 2026. Upwork reviews October 2023 to October 2026.
- Next06 · December 2026
After three years running a small AI studio, I want to spend all my time on the part I'm best at: working with customers and building what fixes their problems, on one product with a strong team. I'm open to forward deployed and AI solutions roles from December 2026.
Read my CV →
Understand the system you are operating in before you change it, and make sure the person responsible can verify the result.
What I believe about building AI
Three rules I build by.
Production beats the demo
The first demo is the easy part. I build for permissions, source evidence, latency, booking state, retries and the edge cases real users bring.
Know where AI stops and people take over
Good AI systems know their limits. I design the point where a person takes over as carefully as the automation itself.
Report the method with every number
I report results with the method attached: what was measured, what was estimated and what was not tracked at all.
Podcast
Building Believable AI Coaches with Luka Abramovic
I talk through the decisions behind Leelou AI: how architecture, data structures and behaviour design were shaped to extend what coaches do rather than imitate them, and what repeated coach-led testing changed in the product.
- Turning a 25-year methodology into product behaviour
- Memory, accountability, reporting and guardrails
- Where AI hands the conversation back to a person
Writing elsewhere
- From 10 MB/Day to a 6-Figure AI AgencyThe founder story: learning to code at sea, finishing the cadetship before switching careers, and the road to running an agency.Medium ↗
- What makes a great AI freelancer? The same things that always didThe edge in AI work comes from judgment, workflow design and honest client communication, not from access to better tools.Fiverr Community · May 2026 ↗
- Custom Software vs Off-the-Shelf. Integrate, Replace or Build?A decision framework for businesses outgrowing their tools, one of 96 long-form articles on the Adamant Code blog.Adamant Code · September 2026 ↗
Recognition
- Upwork Expert-Vetted (top 1%) and Top Rated Plus
- Fiverr Vetted Pro
- Verified client reviews on Clutch
- 5 LinkedIn recommendations from founders and CEOs
Work with me
Bring me the hard problem.
Based in Rijeka, Croatia, working with teams in the US, UK and EU. Email me what's stuck and I'll tell you what it would take to fix it, including when the answer isn't AI.
I'm open to forward deployed and AI solutions roles from December 2026. Read my CV ↓