🚀 Our Visit to the World Summit AI Amsterdam 2025
Last week, we had the opportunity to attend the World Summit AI 2025 in Amsterdam — one of the most inspiring gatherings of global AI leaders, innovators, and thinkers. The event brought together tech visionaries, researchers, and industry pioneers to discuss how AI is reshaping the way we think, work, and create. In this article we summarize the highlights and main talking points.
🌍 Technological Optimism and Responsible AI
The conference opened with a strong message of technological optimism: “No one in here has bad intentions.” This set the tone for a discussion that balanced enthusiasm for AI’s potential with awareness of its ethical and societal implications.
Journalist Karen Hao framed AI’s evolution brilliantly — comparing the rise of AI empires to historical ones, reminding us that while AI can accelerate progress, it also demands vigilance around data, labor, and intellectual property. Her call for critical thinking was clear: data exploitation and privacy erosion are real risks we must confront.
đź’ˇ Strategic Leadership in the AI Era
A standout moment came from Kamini Aisola (Amazon Web Services), who emphasized the “working backward” approach — starting every AI initiative with the customer and validating it through internal press releases (PR/FAQ). Her advice: test broadly, align internally, and stay customer-obsessed.
From PepsiCo, Magesh Bagavathi introduced the idea of “Connected Brilliance” — a state where AI becomes democratized across all roles, empowering employees through personalization and smart prioritization. EY’s Edwina Fitzmaurice added that AI is a mindset shift, not a tool, encouraging creative collaboration even beyond traditional tech boundaries.
⚙️ The Rise of AI Agents
One clear theme across the summit: AI agents are everywhere. From low-code templates to advanced custom-built systems, companies like Incentro showcased frameworks such as the Agentic 9-grid for guiding adoption at personal, departmental, and organizational levels.
The takeaway? The AI-powered workplace is shifting from “assistants” to autonomous agents capable of transforming workflows and decision-making processes.
🔥 “Become a Chief Momentum Officer”
Futurist Jason Snyder inspired the audience with one of the most memorable lines of the event: “Growing momentum is your prime objective.” He illustrated the gap between Clock 1 (AI progress) and Clock 2 (company pace) — a powerful reminder that organizations must accelerate and break down complex challenges into actionable tasks.
His mantra, “Tasks over tools”, echoed throughout the summit: define the why, deconstruct the how, and iterate fast.
🧠The Future of Work
AI’s role in reshaping the workforce took center stage. Peter Guagenti (EverWorker) outlined a clear “crawl, walk, run” approach to AI adoption — moving from human assistants to human-agent collaboration and finally to agent-led operations.
He envisioned an AI-First organization where automation boosts marketing efficiency, revenue per employee, and product development speed. This evolution is not just about efficiency, but about unlocking new creativity, capacity, and intelligence.
🎨 AI and Creativity
AI is no longer confined to data or automation — it’s becoming a creative partner. Movie director Jason Zada shared how he used AI to co-create Mandingo World, an immersive audiovisual universe blending storytelling, set design, and machine-generated visuals. His key insight: “Pre-production is the new post-production.” Creative workflows are shifting — and AI is at the core.
🧩 Our Key Takeaways
The summit distilled into seven actionable principles:
Create real value — Focus on tangible outcomes, not hype.
Embrace mindset shifts — Technology changes perspectives before processes.
Personalize everything — The future of AI is individual.
Start small, scale smartly.
Prioritize short-term wins to maintain momentum.
Stay agile — build, test, and iterate.
Own your data — sovereignty matters.
