This is the second post in Trust Insight’s trilogy on Web Summit Rio 2025.
The technological buzz that echoed through the pavilions of Web Summit Rio left one palpable certainty: artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a distant future — it is the driving force behind business strategies and the element redefining today’s technological landscape. The event unveiled practical applications of AI and real-world experiences that are already shaping the business present.
One of the first crucial lessons, distilled from the discussion “Strategy Over Trends: How to Build Consistency in a Chaotic World”, featuring João Clark (CMO of Sicredi), Daniele Lazzarotto (CEO of Cordão), Gabriel Oliveira (CEO of MOTIM), and Renato Pezzotti (Journalist at UOL), was the urgency of rooting brands in solid strategy. In a market saturated with fleeting trends, consistency and emotional connection emerge as key pillars for building trust and long-term recognition. Viewing marketing as a strategic investment — vital for an organization’s overall health — resonated as an imperative for companies seeking relevance through technology in the present moment.
Following this, the talk “The Tech Playbook for Building Beloved Brands”, with Lucas Herscovici (Chief D2C Officer at AB InBev) and Camila Nunes (CMO Brazil at Amazon), unveiled the technological tactics that global giants already master to create lasting consumer loyalty. Personalization at scale — or, for the more enthusiastic, hyper-personalization — combined with smart segmentation and the creation of memorable moments (who doesn’t recall the Zé Delivery or Prime Day cases?) illustrates how technology is being orchestrated today to reinvent the customer journey and generate valuable organic word-of-mouth. The key takeaway here lies in user experience (UX): behind the scenes, operations may be complex, but in the final interaction, simplicity and fluidity are non-negotiable for strategic success.
Echoing the central discussions of Web Summit Rio, artificial intelligence already pulses at the heart of countless innovations. Matias Muchnick (Founder/CEO of NotCo), in his talk “The AI Foods You Never Knew You Needed”, transported the audience to the forefront of the food industry revolution. The boldness of NotCo, a Chilean foodtech focused on plant-based innovation, in using AI to create unexpected products — replacing traditional ingredients with unthinkable alternatives — reinforces the disruptive power of artificial intelligence in the present. Did you know that the flavor of milk can be recreated from a mix of cabbage and pineapple? Discoveries like this are made possible by AI’s computational creativity.
Finally, the perspective of Maren Lau (Head of LATAM at Meta) in “AI for All: Creating Opportunity for Everyone”, delivered at Web Summit Rio, resonated as a call for the democratization of AI. Meta’s commitment to popularize AI tools, making them accessible for small and medium-sized businesses to leverage their strategic potential, signals a fundamental shift in the distribution and adoption of this transformative technology in Brazil and globally. The company’s vision is to embed AI into daily business operations, empowering new growth strategies and expanding opportunities.
Web Summit Rio 2025 painted a vivid picture of a present where well-defined strategies, technology-enhanced customer experiences, and the tangible application of AI are no longer glimpses of the future, but rather the pillars sustaining innovation and setting the pace of business success in Brazil’s competitive market.
Technology companies, management consultancies, and financial institutions seeking insights into the latest trends in artificial intelligence and strategic transformation can find in Trust Insight a solid partner to navigate the present and build the future powered by these technologies.