Web Summit Lisbon 2023: Where the Future Meets the Present
From November 13 to 16, 2023, Lisbon hosted the most emblematic edition of the Web Summit. More than 77 thousand people from around the world gathered at the MEO Arena and the Lisbon Exhibition & Congress Centre to discuss what’s coming next in technology, business, and society.
I attended as part of a technical mission from Algar Telecom — a unique opportunity to absorb global trends and bring strategic insights back to the Brazilian IoT and telecommunications ecosystem.
Artificial Intelligence: The Central Theme
AI dominated absolutely every conversation. But what caught my attention wasn’t the hype — it was the maturity of the discussion:
- From Personalization to Anticipation: AI usage has migrated from recommending content to anticipating needs. Companies no longer just want to understand what a customer did — they want to know what the customer will do.
- Global Regulation as an Imperative: There was no consensus, but one certainty — AI regulation must be global. Any fragmentation creates competitive imbalance. For comparison: the US will invest in AI roughly the same amount it invests in Defense.
- AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement: The phrase I heard most: “AI won’t replace people. People using AI will replace people who don’t.” It’s one more tool in the box — the focus should be on using it to work faster and better.
Startups That Stood Out
The startup ecosystem presented solutions that go far beyond the obvious:
- Inspira — Brazilian legaltech, winner of the 2023 Pitch Competition, using AI for legal content.
- Buddieapp — relationship platform for the elderly and caregivers, from Israel.
- HIT — Spanish startup using AI to detect payment fraud.
- Luckie Tech — Portuguese company developing blockchain-based gambling games.
The hottest niches? Social commerce straight from TikTok and Instagram, GenZ social networks (anonymity and micro-communities), carbon credits, AI-driven medical opinions, and DNA-based health tips.
Business Insights
A few lessons I took into practice:
- Customers want solutions, not products. The mix of startups and large corporations adds high value when it solves a real problem.
- “No business should ever be lost.” If the solution doesn’t exist, build it.
- Scalability is essential. If it doesn’t scale, there is no perceived value.
- Watch out for pricing based on real needs — not on what the market says things cost.
- Many international companies want to enter Brazil but fear the tax and legal complexity. That’s a barrier and an opportunity at the same time.
- Sponsor-funded content could make free telecom plans viable in the future — advertising-funded connectivity is coming.
- Card machines are under threat from digital wallets (Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal).
The Energy of Lisbon
Web Summit isn’t just talks. It’s the hallway. It’s the conversation at the booth. It’s the Night Summit across Lisbon. It’s where a telecom engineer from Uberlândia can trade ideas with a startup founder from Tel Aviv and walk away with a completely new perspective.
The 77 thousand attendees prove one thing: the future doesn’t wait. It gets built at events like this one — with diversity, intense debate, and the courage to look ahead.