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In this episode of the E-commerce Leader Series, Ciske Smit sits down with Michaela Krizkova, CEO of PCF Souvenirs (The Postcard Factory) — the largest souvenir company in North America, and the only one operating across both Canada and the USA. Michaela's path to the top is anything but typical: she arrived from the Czech Republic with an economics degree from Prague, joined PCF as an IT business analyst to document processes, and kept spotting inefficiencies until she'd automated her way through the warehouses, IT, marketing and finally sales — all the way to CEO.
That origin shapes a refreshingly human-first philosophy. Michaela's view is that the biggest bottleneck to growth isn't technology — it's building the right team with the right mindset. Her rule, and the line that anchors the whole conversation: "if you're not replaceable, you're not promotable." She actively encourages her people to automate their own repetitive work, because the ones who free themselves from the daily grind are the ones who earn the capacity — and the promotion — to do higher-value work. It's a reframe that turns the usual fear of AI on its head.
Ciske and Michaela dig into the genuinely hard problem sitting in front of the business: inventory and forecasting for more than 15,000 products across distribution centres in two countries. As Michaela explains, you can't look at stock from one angle — you have to weigh quantity, category, design (are these SKUs interchangeable or is this the one you can't run out of?), human insight on territories and sales reps, and the purchasing view of consolidating orders across vendors and hitting minimum order quantities. It's exactly the kind of cross-domain reasoning that overwhelms a human brain, and it's the next frontier she wants AI to help with.
She's candid and practical about where AI already earns its place: Claude for her developers and for polishing procedures and strategic plans, Scribe for documenting processes, and AI-driven recruitment to find the right salespeople. On the creative side, she's clear that AI is a tool, not a threat — it accelerates the art department without replacing the artists (and she flags IP as the thing to watch). Her advice to other CEOs is disarmingly simple: reframe every problem as a goal for improvement, don't underestimate what AI can do for your business even when you think it isn't relevant, and bring your people into the decision early so adoption actually sticks.
The conversation also gets thoughtful about AI's downsides — the privacy and manipulation risks few people are watching closely, and the danger of a generation outsourcing its critical thinking to machines. Michaela's throughline is consistent: use AI to let people work with their brains, not their hands, and never lose the human aspect that no model can replace.
Whether you're running a complex, high-SKU operation, leading AI adoption with a lean team, or working out how to grow without losing your culture, this episode is full of grounded, human-first wisdom.
What you'll learn in this episode:
- How Michaela went from IT business analyst to CEO by automating inefficiencies
- Why the right team — not technology — is the real bottleneck to growth
- The "if you're not replaceable, you're not promotable" mindset for AI adoption
- Why inventory forecasting is a cross-domain reasoning problem
- The practical AI tools a lean team actually uses day to day
- How to reframe problems as goals for improvement
- Getting AI adoption to stick by involving your people early
- Why AI is a tool for the art department, not a replacement for artists
- The underrated risks: privacy, manipulation and lost critical thinking
- Why building the right team is the one thing that makes the dream possible
Key takeaway:
Michaela's message is that AI works best in service of people, not instead of them. The leaders who win won't be the ones who chase automation for its own sake — they'll be the ones who build a team with the mindset to automate the routine, free up their own capacity, and spend their energy on the judgement, communication and creativity that machines can't replicate.
Her parting advice says it all: it's about the team, not you. You can have the vision and make the decisions, but you'll never build something great alone — so build the team that makes the dream come true.
Connect with Michaela Krizkova & PCF Souvenirs:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaela-krizkova
Website: https://www.pcfsouvenirs.com
About Luca
Luca is an AI operating system for e-commerce leaders — connecting marketing, finance, operations and data into a single intelligence layer that helps founders make faster, sharper decisions.
🔗 Connect with Luca here:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ask_luca
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asklucaai/
Website: https://ask-luca.com/
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