The next decade of business in Brazil will be marked less by new technological advances and more by a profound change in the way companies and leaders make decisions. This is the assessment of Fabio Gandour, PhD in computer science, with 28 years at IBM, who is now close to Brazilian companies with greater analytical maturity, such as DataCrazy.
“Brazil is the world champion of guesswork, and this is no longer compatible with the next cycle of technology”, says Gandour. According to him, the country is entering a phase in which decisions based on intuition tend to lose space to models supported by data, mathematical models and artificial intelligence applied to the real business context.
For Gandour, artificial intelligence will no longer be perceived as something extraordinary and will begin to operate in an increasingly integrated, almost invisible way, in the daily lives of companies. "AI even tends to change its name. It will become so present in the decision-making process that the origin, whether it is artificial or not, will no longer matter. The focus will be on whether it is being used well", he explains.
Technology without method increases risks
Despite the accelerated advancement of AI, Gandour warns: the indiscriminate adoption of technology can deepen inequalities between companies that think methodically and those that completely outsource their thinking to machines. "Getting ahead does not mean adopting technology faster, but using it judiciously. Technological FOMO tends to generate more noise than results", he comments. In this scenario, according to the scientist, method, validation and clarity of reasoning continue to be competitive differentiators, even in a highly automated environment.
Prompt engineering becomes strategic competence
One of the most underrated points in the current debate about artificial intelligence, according to Gandour, is prompt engineering, which is the ability to formulate good questions to extract reliable answers from AI systems.
"Prompt is, essentially, a question. And the way that question is asked completely changes the answer", says Gandour. For him, there is no perfect question, but there are poorly formulated questions, which significantly increase the risk of wrong decisions. “Knowing how to ask questions well has become a central skill in organizations,” he says.
CRM data gives context to intelligence
The quality of the questions is directly linked to the quality of the data. Gandour highlights the role of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) in this process. "Customers are not the same, they are different. When you ask generic questions based on generic data, the answer tends to be generic", he highlights.
According to him, the value of CRM arises when the data stops being used only for reports and starts to feed contextualized decisions. Real intelligence comes when good questions are asked about data that represents real, distinct customers.
Brazilian companies already operate in this new model
This level of maturity helps explain Gandour's approach to companies that already operate with this logic, such as DataCrazy, a Brazilian startup from Balneário Camboriú that integrates data, CRM, automation and artificial intelligence to support business decisions.
“Innovation today does not only depend on technology, but on method and responsibility in the application of AI”, says the founder and CEO of DataCrazy, Andreone Ribeiro. “Our focus has always been on using data and artificial intelligence to help companies make better decisions, and not just to follow trends”, he adds.
The rapprochement between Fabio Gandour and DataCrazy reflects a convergence of vision on the future of artificial intelligence in Brazil and the prospects for the next decade. The parties are preparing a strategic collaboration, which should take shape throughout 2026, involving debates on the responsible use of AI, data-driven decisions and the long-term impacts of technology on the business environment.
“More than specific solutions, what is at stake is the way Brazil will think about technology in the coming years”, concludes Gandour.
