AI is redefining corporate agility, but the true competitive differentiator will continue to be human insight.
*By Maria Luiza Reis
Recently, I participated in the Horasis Meeting Brazil 2025 in São Paulo. This event, one of the world's leading forums on leadership and innovation, brought together over a thousand representatives from governments, businesses, and international organizations this year to discuss how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping our economies and the very way we think about the future. Among the ideas that emerged from the conversations, one became central to me: AI does not replace those who know how to use it.
For many people, the discussion about the role of AI in the corporate world, in companies and governments, is already worn out because it has been reduced to the replacement of human tasks by machines. The real challenge, however, lies in integrating technology and human thought strategically and ethically, using algorithms to enhance decisions, not to automate without criteria. In other words, being agile in this new context does not only mean responding quickly to changes, but learning to respond intelligently—understanding contexts, connecting information, and anticipating impacts. It's not a mere give-and-take, a simple substitution.
The study “Business Transformation: Technological Innovation, its Use and Impacts on Brazilian Industry,” conducted by the Brazilian Association of Software Companies (ABES) in partnership with IDC, analyzed trends in the Brazilian software and IT services market and shows that 771,300 companies intend to increase their investments in AI by 2026, focusing on data analysis, process automation, and digital customer service. However, only 381,300 companies claim to have a clear strategy for data training and governance. I bring up this data because this gap is revealing, since technology is advancing faster than our ability to understand it and, especially, to prepare people to operate it consciously.
This observation permeated the discussions of the panel “AI as Innovation’s Co-Creator,” in which I participated. We talked about the use of AI as an ally in rebuilding dialogue between citizens, governments, and organizations—not as a substitute for human listening, but as a co-creator.As an amplification tool, AI, when applied responsibly, can transform the "noise" of scattered data into actionable knowledge, identifying behavioral patterns, latent needs, and opportunities for improvement that the isolated human eye would hardly capture.
By implementing AI capable of analyzing thousands of free citizen expressions – from social media posts to complaints on open channels – governments can create a precise and impartial map of the real needs and sentiments of the population. The algorithm is able to process this "chaos" of information, identifying patterns, urgencies, and demands that would otherwise go unnoticed. With artificial intelligence, we can truly listen to cities, identifying that a neighborhood suffers more from a lack of public lighting than from litter in the streets, or that the demand for a recreational square is greater than for a new traffic light, for example. This is citizen empowerment and administrative efficiency. The technology applied in this scenario would allow us to listen without directing, understanding the problem in its essence, without diverting it to a different place.
In this way, AI ceases to be a bureaucratic tool and becomes a bridge for genuine dialogue, transforming the scattered voice of the population into a map of clear and prioritized actions for public managers.
However, the value of technology lies not in the quantity of data it processes, but in the quality of the questions we ask it. Algorithms are efficient at recognizing correlations, but they don't understand the why of things. This is a uniquely human skill—and it is there that the true competitive advantage resides. The ability to interpret contexts, weigh consequences, and make purposeful decisions will be what distinguishes truly innovative organizations from those that merely adopt new tools.
The corporate agility of the future will not only be technical, but Cognitive and cultural. To keep up with the changes, companies will need to develop leaders prepared to think with technology, not just about it. This requires investment in digital education, diversity of thought, and the creation of environments that encourage responsible experimentation.
According to the same ABES study, the Brazilian software and services market is expected to grow by approximately 111% by 2025, driven by the digitalization of businesses and the expansion of AI-based solutions. The country has made significant progress, but the next step is to consolidate a digital culture capable of uniting efficiency and empathy, precision and purpose.
AI can predict what comes next — but only humans are capable of deciding what should come next. When machines learn, it is up to us to think more deeply: with more ethics, more curiosity, and a greater awareness that each technological advancement is, above all, an opportunity to reaffirm the value of human intelligence.
*Maria Luiza Reis is an advisor to the Brazilian Association of Software Companies (ABES).
Notice: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
Article originally published on the IT Forum website: https://itforum.com.br/colunas/maquina-aprende-humano-pensar-melhor/
