**Web Summit 2025 Kicks Off in Lisbon with High Energy and Focus on AI’s Impact Across Industries**
Hollywood may be moving at a somewhat glacial pace when it comes to embracing AI, but the annual tech conference Web Summit felt anything but slow as it kicked off its 10th edition in Lisbon on Monday night.
The packed stadium in Portugal’s capital hosted a panel featuring Khaby Lame, the world’s most followed TikTok star; tennis champion Maria Sharapova; and Anton Osika, CEO of Swedish AI unicorn Loveable. Each shared insights on how the global tech industry is shaping their respective sectors.
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### Khaby Lame on Creativity and AI
Khaby Lame, who boasts 161.1 million followers on TikTok, sat down with Visa’s Global Head of Production Mark Nelson to discuss how technology and new financial tools are reshaping the business of creativity.
Lame stressed that “AI is not everything in this world,” a sentiment that earned him a big round of applause from the tech crowd.
“This is the moment for the creator to make original content because people love watching something that is not always AI,” he said. “So it’s good for creators to start making something different and creative that people will enjoy.”
He added that he only uses AI or ChatGPT “occasionally” but never for producing his own content. Lame also hinted that he is “working on his own movie” but did not elaborate further.
When asked about the future for content creators, he remained optimistic:
“The future is bright for everybody. I think as long as you keep going with what you are doing, and as long as you keep loving what you are doing, you can get everywhere.”
He continued, “Keep going and don’t get influenced by other people because the limits of other people are not your limits.”
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### Web Summit 2025: A Gathering of Innovators
More than 70,000 attendees are set to participate in the four-day event in Lisbon, including over 2,500 startups alongside some of the most influential speakers and leaders in technology.
Web Summit CEO and co-founder Paddy Cosgrave opened the conference at the city’s MEO Arena, emphasizing how “fast the world is changing today.”
Reflecting on the growth of Web Summit since its 2009 debut in Dublin and subsequent move to Lisbon in 2016, Cosgrave remarked that the event was once defined by competition among Western tech companies and startups.
However, he now believes that “the era of Western tech dominance is fading.”
Cosgrave told delegates they would encounter “the most advanced humanoid robots in the world,” noting that “they are not European, they are not American — they are Chinese.” He predicted China will “likely win the AI race” thanks to open-source and free-to-use models.
“This was utterly unimaginable just 12 months ago, but the world is changing faster than ever before,” he said.
He also highlighted Brazil’s real-time, free payment system Pix as a revolutionary development in global money transfers.
“Just like Chinese AI models, Pix is entirely free,” Cosgrave explained. “It’s so revolutionary that it has become the repeated target of President Trump in recent weeks and months.”
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### Culture and Innovation at the Forefront
Amid the technology discussions, culture and art remained key themes throughout the two-hour opening night.
Lisbon’s mayor, Carlos Moedas, expressed ambitions to make Lisbon the “capital of innovation in Europe,” crediting culture and art as the “secret ingredients” in this vision.
“In a digital world, where everything is zero and one, the only thing that is different is our human nature through culture,” he said. Moedas also highlighted the recent second edition of Tribeca Festival Lisboa as a badge of honor for the city.
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### Maria Sharapova on AI’s Role in Sports
Tennis star Maria Sharapova joined IBM Chief of Corporate Affairs & Brand Officer Sarah Meron for a discussion on how AI is reshaping the $680 billion sports industry.
In a wide-ranging conversation with TIME CEO Jessica Sibley, Sharapova praised AI tools for helping athletes better understand “how the body performs and how it recovers.”
“One of the reasons I love sports so much was that it really relied on instinct,” she said. “But what I’ve learned over the years is that the smarter you are as a player, the better your instincts become. So, the more accurate data you have that you apply with repetition, the smarter you become and the better your instincts are.”
Though initially skeptical of AI, Sharapova said she is “certainly warming up to it because I’m actually seeing the benefits of it.”
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### Anton Osika on Democratizing Software Development
Anton Osika wrapped up the evening by unveiling his AI-powered platform Loveable, which has become the fastest-growing tech startup in history this year, hitting $100 million in annualized revenue just eight months after launch.
Explaining the company’s origins, Osika said:
“The idea was super simple. What if we could let anyone who has an idea be able to build software on that idea?”
Currently, 100,000 projects are being created on Loveable every day. Osika shared that his focus is on “how do I talk to users to make sure that we are building the platform very rapidly.”
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### Web Summit Lisbon 2025
Web Summit Portugal’s flagship gathering continues from November 10–13, 2025, bringing together thousands of attendees from around the world to explore the future of technology, creativity, and innovation.
https://deadline.com/2025/11/khaby-lame-maria-sharapova-lovable-web-summit-lisbon-1236613514/