We have confidence, but we’re lacking everything else*
2025 leaves no room for doubt: AI is not just a technological revolution, but an unprecedented economic phenomenon. The valuation of investments has reached historic levels and channeled resources on a scale that even the US had never seen before. Never has so much capital, power, and ambition been concentrated in a single sector. OpenAI, Google, NVidia and Tesla are leading a race where the sums involved exceed those of any other industrial or digital transformation. Meanwhile, China, having just entered the “Year of the Snake”, is challenging US supremacy with models such as Alibaba’s DeepSeek-V2 and Qwen-2, helping to redefine a new global dynamic.
And in Europe? With a renewed presidency in the Council of the EU and at the time of the much-debated “Compass for Competitiveness”, we continue to ponder over reports with hundreds of pages (Draghi or Letta) on how we prohibit, regulate, or certify. But what about creating? While we dissect the future of the European economy in depth, theory continues to run ahead of innovation, without turning into reality. Portugal, for its part, remains hostage to the same hesitations that mark the European debate, oscillating between the need to act and the fear of taking risks. Or, as Jorge Palma sang in 1982, with “one foot on the galley and the other on the bottom of the sea”.
As the co-founder and CEO of a Portuguese technology company, I know that SMEs, representing more than 99% of the European business fabric, are the basis of competitiveness. And this competitiveness is not built with reports, but with action. Innovating requires investing with strategic vision, taking calculated risks, and creating an ecosystem that allows companies to thrive without being crushed by international giants. The real challenge is not just to keep up with the technological revolution, but to ensure that Portugal and Europe play an active role in leading it.
With this vision, we launched Quidgest’s first International Observatory. By bringing together perspectives from 35 countries, we have achieved a global view of AI’s challenges and opportunities as a driver of digital transformation. From this analysis, it became clear that the world already trusts Portuguese technology—but everything else is missing.
The data is precise. The Observatory reveals that 64% of respondents trust Portuguese technological solutions. However, this trust does not translate into investment: 63% of organizations allocate less than 10% of their budget to national technology, and only 2% invest more than 75%. This gap between confidence and investment extends to Europe: our most promising startups are absorbed by foreign multinationals, and our best talents search for academic and professional recognition abroad. We create innovation, but we don’t capture the value it generates. We develop technology, but we don’t control the platforms where it is applied.
The EU invests around 300 billion euros annually in R&D, 270 billion less than the US, which invests close to 600 billion. This deficit jeopardizes our technological independence and, with it, our future. In AI, the gap between knowledge and application is even more evident. According to the same Quidgest Observatory, 44% of AI knowledge is concentrated in IT teams, but only 28% of employees know how to use it operationally. Furthermore, only 18% of companies have digital transformation agents capable of leading strategic projects.
If AI can drive productivity and innovation, why is it still a mystery to most teams? Because there is a lack of strategic vision, investment and, above all, a sense of urgency. The challenge is not the quality of our technology, but what we do with it. Europe has become an expert in innovation in theory, but continues to face challenges in its practical application. While the US and China are leading the development of AI and shaping the future, we are concentrating our efforts on regulation and ethical debate, without yet managing to turn knowledge into production at scale.
Nevertheless, for those who build their future here and contribute to its growth, Europe is also the continent that values inclusion, sustainability, and quality of life. We are pioneers in green technology, smart cities, renewable energies and data protection. We have created open innovation networks, leading universities,s and public services that guarantee security and rights for all. If we have all this, why can’t we turn this differentiating base into an engine of global competitiveness?
Portugal has its strengths as well. We are a country with an unparalleled ability to adapt, create with few resources, and connect cultures and markets. The world already recognizes us as hosts of the Web Summit, the country of CR7, José Saramago, Paula Rego, or António Guterres – names that project our brand in areas as diverse as technology, sport, literature, art, or diplomacy. We have talent, an increasingly strong innovation network, and a unique strategic location. But it’s not enough for the world to recognize our potential. We need to turn it into sustainable growth, into technology that we create and control, into companies that not only serve markets, but lead them, without relying exclusively on subsidies or external support, but creating a robust ecosystem capable of generating value on its own.
We can be more than just good students of Europe – we can leave the bins behind, turn confidence into action and end the passivity of Jorge Palma’s verse: “Ai, Portugal, Portugal, as long as you wait, no one can help you.”
This article was originally published in HiperSuper.
