Spending a week at Web Summit is a bit like stepping into the future while being shoved around by it at the same time. Everywhere you look there’s a new founder, a new product, a new “this is going to change everything” moment. It’s electric. It’s chaotic. And it’s a reminder of just how fast the ground is shifting under anyone working in tech or marketing today.
And once I got past the imposter syndrome, the kind that arrives uninvited and sits on your shoulder at every networking event, and once I’d quieted the usual social anxiety that comes with being dropped into a sea of ambitious strangers, something else started to take shape.
Perspective. Patterns. A clearer sense of where things are heading and what truly matters. Because underneath the noise and the speed, a few truths stood out and they all point to the same conclusion: the future belongs to the brands and businesses that feel the most human.
People Remember People, Not Features
One of the first things that hit me was how easy it is to get caught up in features. Faster. Smarter. More efficient. There’s this belief that if you build the best product, the world will naturally take notice. But at Web Summit, I watched some brilliant products fall flat, not because the tech wasn’t impressive, but because the pitch wasn’t. Because the founder didn’t hold the room. Because the brand felt like an afterthought. Because the story didn’t click.
A perfect example of this was the startup that won the main competition, Granter.AI. The tech itself was smart, innovative, and clearly ahead of the curve. But that’s not why they won. They won because the founder was unforgettable. His passion filled the room. His delivery had everyone locked in. His charisma made you believe in the product before you even fully understood what it did. The tech earned respect. The founder earned attention. And in the end, that’s what carried them across the line.
It turns out that in a world where AI is levelling the playing field on functionality, the thing that cuts through isn’t the feature set. It’s the feeling someone gets when you talk about what you’re building. People buy into people long before they buy into products.
Scaling Isn’t About More People. It’s About Better Systems
There’s a shift happening across the all industries. The companies moving fastest aren’t doing it by hiring armies of people. They’re doing it by building engines. The kind of systems that keep turning even when the team is asleep, off grid, or stuck in a meeting they don’t want to be in. It isn’t about replacing the human element. It’s about freeing it.
You could feel it in every conversation. The businesses that thrive over the next decade will be the ones that build repeatable, reliable, AI supported systems around their proccesses. The ones that let humans do what humans do best. Think, create, adapt. And leave everything else to tools that never get tired. It’s a mindset shift. A structural shift. A chance to build something that scales without crushing the people inside it.
Upskilling Is No Longer About Tools. It’s About Culture
There was a lot of talk about AI skills, but what became obvious is that the real skill isn’t knowing which button to press or which plugin to install. It’s being part of a culture that never stops learning. The teams who will thrive aren’t the ones who have ticked off every AI training course. They’re the ones who are open to new ways of working, comfortable with uncertainty, and willing to test, break, rebuild, and try again, sometimes all in the same week. AI tools will change every month. A learning culture lasts forever.
AI Works Best When Humans Are Still in the Room
Despite all the talk about automation, there was this underlying acknowledgement, almost a quiet agreement, that AI alone isn’t enough. It can produce. It can accelerate. It can scale. But it doesn’t understand why people pause, react, hesitate, or buy.
That’s still us. Marketing is fundamentally about human motivation. The unspoken bits. The emotional beats. The little truths we recognise in ourselves but rarely articulate. AI can support the work, but it can’t replace the sense making, the judgement, the taste. The future isn’t machine led or human led. It’s both at the exact same time.
The Brands That Win Will Own Their Audience
One of the other biggest themes running through the event wasn’t about tech at all. It was about ownership. The brands growing the fastest weren’t the ones throwing money at ads or praying an algorithm favoured them that week. They were the ones building communities. Direct lines to the people who care about them. They were building audiences they didn’t have to rent when they wanted to communicate.
Owned channels are becoming the new competitive advantage. Not just because they’re cheaper. But because they’re deeper. They carry more trust. More familiarity. More emotional weight. In an age where distribution is unpredictable, owning the relationship is everything.
Final Thoughts: The Most Human Brands Will Still Stand Tall
If there was one unifying thread from the talks, the conversations, the pitches, and even the late night debates over terrible conference coffee, it was this:
The brands that will win in the coming years aren’t the ones with the most features, the biggest datasets, or the flashiest AI demos. They’re the ones that feel alive. That communicate clearly. That build trust. That show up with personality, conviction, and consistency. They’re the ones with a heartbeat.
Web Summit was a reminder that in a rapidly accelerating world, humanity is still the differentiator. And as marketers, storytellers, and strategists, that’s exactly where our strength lies.
