Web Summit 2025 has evolved into a global milestone where industries, builders, and thinkers pause to reflect on the direction of technology. This year brought together thousands of visitors, remarkable speakers, ambitious tech companies, international press, long-term partners, and innovators ready to meet new opportunities. What once started as a niche gathering has now grown into a central pillar of the global tech ecosystem.

Jimo was there, and here’s what stood out to the team!

From left to right: Thomas Moussafer and Raphaël Alexandre, co-founders at Jimo, Amélie Combe, CMO at Jimo and Andy Mpondo Black, co-founder at Jimo

1. Web summit as an annual event

Every year, Web Summit attracts an unmatched concentration of talent and ambition. Thousands of attendees travel to Lisbon to hear leading speakers, discover rising startups, engage with powerful partners, and follow stories amplified by global media outlets. The event is intense, creative, fast-paced, and designed to make people meet the ideas shaping the next decade.

Web Summit has become a place where global perspectives collide, and that is precisely what makes it irreplaceable.

🔎 Web Summit 2025 Insights

• 71,386 attendees from 157 countries, the biggest and most diverse crowd Web Summit has ever welcomed,

• 1,857 investors, a massive 74% increase from last year, showing that in-person deal-making is clearly gaining momentum again,

• 2,725 startups participated, with 40% of exhibiting startups founded by women. Unsurprisingly, AI dominated as the most represented industry,

• according to Crunchbase, startups from last year’s program have already raised $715.5 million in post-event funding.

2. The evolution of global tech conferences

Global tech conferences have changed dramatically over the past decade. Instead of acting as simple exhibition halls, they have become strategic arenas. Web Summit represents this evolution better than any other event.

Panels are sharper. Debates are more geopolitical. Industry challenges are confronted publicly rather than behind closed doors.

In 2025, leading speakers shared insights that shaped corporate agendas, while thousands of visitors observed how digital sovereignty, cybersecurity, AI governance, and creative rights are becoming global priorities. The presence of international press ensured that these discussions reached audiences far beyond the venue.

Today, Web Summit feels less like a conference and more like a global decision room where industries, governments, and innovators meet to define what comes next.

3. Key trends spotted at Web summit

AI enters real operations

AI was everywhere. Companies are not promoting AI marketing agents that can write SEO articles while you sleep anymore.

Many companies demonstrated AI-first products, proving it is not an accessory anymore but a core operational engine and new brand positioning.

What struck me most is how clearly tech companies have shifted their positioning. They’re no longer just ‘tech companies’—they’re becoming AI-driven organizations at their core. The mindset has changed. The narrative has changed.”

Thomas Moussafer, Co-Founder at Jimo

AI and Creativity Transform Hollywood, Web summit speakers say

Creative industries took center stage as Hollywood professionals and influential cinema speakers tackled the urgent question: Who owns AI-generated content? Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt and journalist Jennifer Cunningham explored the legal and artistic stakes of this new era.

And it’s true. With voice cloning, synthetic actors, and script-writing models reshaping production workflows, the legal and cultural implications are impossible to ignore and increasingly amplified across major media outlets.

In a debate where creativity is often framed as being in opposition to AI, it was refreshing to hear actor Scott Eastwood offer a balanced perspective:

“AI is a tool to enhance your project.”

Scott Eastwood, actor

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, actor

AI in Health and Medtech

Some of the most transformative demos came from health-focused startups. Diagnostic systems now outperform human clinicians in certain scenarios, particularly in underserved regions. Examples from Liberia illustrated how AI-supported triage could prevent thousands of deaths. These insights left many attendees with the sense that AI is shifting from optional assistance to essential healthcare infrastructure.

“AI will reshape healthcare. If the United States already faces a shortage of doctors, imagine the impact in developing countries. In places like Liberia, where 70% of avoidable deaths could be prevented with proper care, AI alone can deliver better outcomes than a physician.”

Raphaël Alexandre, co-founder at Jimo

Cybersecurity as Global Infrastructure

Cybersecurity emerged as the most urgent cross-industry theme. European leaders and technical speakers emphasized the fragility of interconnected digital systems. With expanding attack surfaces, partners in cloud, security, and governance used Web Summit to push for a digital immune system capable of resisting escalating threats.

When it comes to AI, some see it as a new threat, while others believe its technologies will actually strengthen the protection of IT systems.

4. Impact on Startups and Industry Leaders

For startups, Web Summit 2025 was a demanding proving ground. With a record 1,857 investors attending, expectations were higher than ever. Investors now look for strong data pipelines, transparent governance, defensible AI models, and integrated cybersecurity strategies.

Industry leaders explored collaborations with partners to modernize workflows, optimize operations, and prepare for AI-native business models. Conversations between speakers and executives often centered on responsible deployment, trust, and long-term resilience.

This alignment across startups, corporations, media, and attendees showed how Web Summit continues to accelerate clarity and direction for the entire sector.

5. Networking and Opportunities

Networking has always been the heartbeat of Web Summit. You can meet founders, policymakers, creatives, researchers, and investors in a single corridor. Thousands of attendees described the environment as a “networking multiplier,” where unexpected encounters lead to meaningful outcomes.

Startups formed strategic alliances with partners, while global media captured breakthrough stories. The event makes it effortless to meet people who can change a product, a team, or even an entire trajectory.

6. Insights Into Future Trends

From the patterns observed this year, the next era will be shaped by:

• AI agents embedded across operations

• Legal frameworks for AI-generated content

• Expanded medtech adoption in underserved regions

• Cybersecurity as foundational infrastructure

• New pushes for digital sovereignty in Europe

• Hybrid creative-AI professional roles

• Responsible, integrated AI as the key success differentiator

Innovation is shifting from experimentation to structure. From novelty to necessity.

Final Thought

Web Summit 2025 made one thing clear: innovation and responsibility must now grow together. As attendees, speakers, startups, media, and partners shape the next chapter, the question is no longer if change is coming, but:

How will you build and secure what comes next?