Artificial intelligence is the priority global topic. With its potential to automate and enhance tasks and data usage, large companies, and even countries, find themselves today in a true race to become the reference in this competition – which takes the subject far beyond debates about technology and turns it into a matter of geopolitics.
According to Renato Avelar, partner and co-CEO of A&EIGHT, a high-performance end-to-end digital solutions ecosystem, a technology as powerful as artificial intelligence should be viewed as analogous to the defense industry. “AI has become a strategic factor in the competition for global hegemony, directly impacting geopolitical relations, such as the tensions between the United States and China, where the former even restricts the purchase of chips by the Asian giant, essential for the development of new software, for example,” he explains.
One of the most recent examples came with the launch of the Chinese AI DeepSeek, a competitor to Open AI, the creator of ChatGPT. Launched in January, the R1 model shook the American market with a $1 trillion drop in tech startups, according to the Nasdaq 100 index, which includes the main American tech companies. Just under a week later, the Chinese tech giant Alibaba announced a new version of its model, Qwen 2.5, which, according to them, is superior to its Chinese competitor, demonstrating this practical competition for global governance through AI.
For the executive, the competition between big techs and startups for AI advancement is likely to intensify in the coming years. “The technology has already undergone major transformations between 2023 and 2024, but the 2025-2027 triennium promises to be a period of even more changes for the sector, especially with AI,” he assesses. Check out the main topics the industry should focus on in the coming years below.
AI beyond chatbots
AI will continue to evolve beyond chatbot applications, expanding into sectors such as retail, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, transportation, and the arts. Advanced models will enable greater personalization and task automation, while predictive analytics and intelligent decision-making will become increasingly sophisticated – given that the focus of major tech companies is to become leaders in data analytics.
However, according to Avelar, we should currently understand artificial intelligence as something similar to the discovery of electricity. “We have a powerful tool in our hands, but it is still under development, and we are gradually understanding its capabilities better,” he explains.
He adds that following this reasoning, it’s as if we are still at the light bulb stage. “In other words, there are already innovations in various fields using this technology, but both companies and governments need to have better mastery of the tool to create more with it—it’s like a new economy emerging and dictating what the future will look like.”
Therefore, according to the expert, it’s necessary to discuss the parallel between transformation and optimization through artificial intelligence. “When we talk about optimization, we focus on increasing operational efficiency, reducing costs, and maximizing revenue through scale, without affecting the core of operations. Transformation, on the other hand, completely changes the company’s business model, affecting final products as well as the company’s core business,” he reflects.
Thus, it’s possible that chatbots, despite being popular, may lose relevance, as their practical impact in daily life has proven limited. “With the growing complexity of human-technology interactions, new models of intelligent assistants capable of offering more contextual and personalized responses will gain ground,” says Avelar. For him, companies that manage to develop assistants with greater comprehension and personalization capabilities will have a significant competitive advantage in the coming years,” explains the executive.
In this scenario, onboard companions, for example, promise to be a technology with high practical application for companies. The co-CEO emphasizes that this tool could be used in virtually all fields, speeding up medical diagnoses, predicting the likelihood of winning legal cases, and even designing scenarios for financial operations to increase profits.
Large Language Models (LLM)
The trend is that predictive flows will advance significantly, leaving behind the dependence on a single generic agent. In the future, AI models will feature architectures based on specialized agents, enabling more effective interaction. Instead of a single chatbot, a main agent will distribute questions to automated specialists, optimizing responses and making the technology more efficient and adaptable to different contexts. This will bring major advances in complex processes, such as technical support, market analyses, and personalized recommendations on digital platforms.
The A&EIGHT partner also emphasizes that new operating systems will be built to be operated by humans and artificial intelligence simultaneously. “With that in mind, system integration, including using AI instead of traditional APIs, will make all the difference. This technology could be used for much more technical and operational tasks, while human work will focus more on curation and quality analysis rather than task execution itself,” he points out.
The evolution of LLMs will also impact education, where learning assistants will be able to adapt teaching materials according to students’ progress and difficulties. In the legal sector, advanced systems will analyze documents and suggest strategies based on historical precedents.
Therefore, according to Avelar, professionals who don’t want to lose their jobs should embrace artificial intelligence first. “It is likely that there will be professionals relocated or unemployed in this scenario, but this won’t happen due to the replacement of human labor by technology, but rather due to a lack of adaptability, both in the short and long term.” In other words, the global discussion will focus on how to promote human inclusion in digital processes. “AI will not replace professionals but will offer tools that increase their efficiency, allowing them to focus efforts on strategic decisions,” notes the co-CEO.
Cybersecurity in focus
With the rise of digital threats, even among countries, cybersecurity will become one of the fundamental pillars of AI evolution. Solutions such as biometric authentication, quantum encryption, and AI-based security will gain traction to protect infrastructure and sensitive data globally.
Sectors such as e-commerce will need to strengthen their security strategies to face growing risks, adopting predictive fraud detection models and automated cyberattack response systems. “Today, there are already digital criminals who copy websites in a few hours, list nonexistent products, and advertise on social media with fake and extremely convincing celebrity avatars. To avoid this type of fraud, e-commerce tokenization intelligence, scam detection, and, above all, severe penalties for cybercrimes will be necessary,” reinforces Avelar.
Financial organizations, on the other hand, will need to invest in AI to enhance protection protocols, reducing exposure to data leaks and phishing attacks. “Cybersecurity will be one of the critical pillars in AI’s evolution. With the rise of digital threats, technology will play a key role in creating intelligent barriers against cyberattacks, both in the private sector and in the context of disputes between global powers,” highlights the professional.
Macroeconomic Scenario and Investments
The global economic environment will also play a crucial role in AI development. The rising cost of financial capital should create challenges for tech companies, requiring startups and large players to demonstrate economic sustainability to secure new investments. Despite this scenario, the AI market is expected to continue expanding, offering opportunities for innovations and the enhancement of existing solutions. “Large corporations will need to adapt their business models, focusing on AI as a competitive differentiator,” analyzes the co-CEO.
In the job market, AI’s advancement may reshape it with the creation of new roles requiring specific qualifications. The most recent case was META, which made changes to its workforce, especially investing in professionals specialized in artificial intelligence.
Thus, companies will need to invest in professional training to ensure their employees can make the most of new technological tools. “The job market will not lose positions due to AI, but it will be reconfigured, and professional qualifications will be essential for this new reality,” concludes Avelar.
