Nearly ten thousand people packed the sixth edition of the Game Changers Forum, with former US President Barack Obama as the headliner. Yet the conversation that stuck with many in the room came from Portuguese business leaders, and it was about something very practical: how AI economic acceleration could finally move Portugal’s productivity. The message was upbeat, with conditions attached.
AI as a Game Changer, according to four CEOs
The AI panel brought together Ana Figueiredo (MEO), Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade (EDP), João Pedro Oliveira e Costa (BPI) and Pedro Carvalho (Generali Tranquilidade), moderated by Pedro Brito of Nova SBE.
Figueiredo started with a blunt diagnosis: Portugal has a long-standing productivity and competitiveness problem. In her view, AI is the greatest economic accelerator of this generation, as long as it makes companies more competitive, the State more efficient and people more skilled. Ambition and execution will decide the outcome.
Stilwell d’Andrade called AI revolutionary, though it can be a threat or an opportunity depending on how you meet it. Either way, he said, it will shape Portugal’s prosperity in the coming years.
AI in business: small companies, bigger reach
For Oliveira e Costa, this matters most for a country full of SMEs. AI in business can level the field: a ten-person company outside Lisbon could compete with one that has a thousand staff. He called it a historic opportunity, to be faced “without fear, with courage and with purpose.”
Carvalho listed three steps for Portugal to benefit: use the installed energy capacity, adopt AI at scale, and share the new prosperity so everyone gains.
Is Portugal’s infrastructure ready?
Figueiredo described an “AI grid” with three layers: energy, computing and connectivity. On connectivity, Portugal does well. Fiber reaches around 95% of the territory, above the European average, and submarine cables from the Americas, Africa and Europe land on its coast. Computing is another story, and she said the country still has a long way to go. Without long-term investment in capable, secure networks and European digital sovereignty, Portugal risks watching others build AI.
Oliveira e Costa ended with a challenge to the audience: hope is missing, enough conferences, and change starts with indignation, then execution inside companies.
Beyond AI: leadership and ambition
Other panels echoed the same urgency. Carlos Moreira da Silva said Portugal ranks poorly on management quality and productivity, and urged less dependence on rents and subsidies. Visabeira’s Fernando Daniel Nunes pointed to slow decisions and bureaucracy as bigger obstacles than geography. And on leadership, speakers kept returning to one idea: nobody succeeds alone, so surround yourself with talent.
What to take away
The Game Changers Forum offered few easy answers, but the direction was clear: infrastructure, ambition and execution have to move together. If you like following global tech news, this is a conversation that will keep going. And if you want to join those discussions in person, digital innovation events are a good place to start.
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