In SXSW’s 2025 edition, a feeling crossed the conference rooms, the corridors and even the makeshift cafes between one lecture and another: urgency. Urgency to understand. To adapt. To act. The climate of how to deal with dilemmas is transfers from Austin corridors and transfers to our daily lives and reproduces the hype and can be coherent in action plans.
Instead of extolling the new for the new, the event brought a tone of collective awakening, placed people at the center of the transformation and as fundamental pieces for the success of the evolution of AI and was the autonomous agents. The most attentive leaders did not come out with a list of trends – they went out with alerts. And with a clear call: either we incorporate the future into strategy practice, or we will only react while others build.
Lucidity and capital: The dream account has come!
Scott Galloway was straightforward: the feast of speculative capital has its days numbered. Startups that rely on vacancies and endless rounds and rounds, no profit, no real product and no sustainability plan, are close to the abyss. “The largest destructive value bubble in history is underway. Companies need to stop playing slides and generate real and responsibility value again. ”
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The message is for advice, investors and managers: Innovation without financial clarity is just noise. Strategy is also to renounce – know what not to climb, what to cut and what to sustain in the long run.
The future that no longer expects, he builds himself. Either you are a protagonist or accepted.
In his awaited presentation of Tech Trends Report, Amy Webb brought an important provocation: many signs we called the weak have already become giant waves. Convergence between biotechnology, Ia Generative, Neurotechnology, Quantum Computing and autonomous platforms is remodeling not only the market – but the concept of humanity.
“We no longer have the luxury to wait to adapt. The speed of transformations requires leaders prepared to make decisions under uncertainty, ”said Webb.
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And this may be the key point: uncertainty has become constant. What changes is not if we will face transformations – but as we are preparing for them. Ability to learn quickly, unlearned with humility, and adapt with agility have become central skills. Strategy today is synonymous with conscious flexibility.
Questions are passive and no longer enough. The age of prompts arrived: Command is culture!
In one of the most striking moments of the event, Ian Beacraft – Change Management Specialist – has put a mirror before all of us: it is not enough to know how to use technology, you need to understand what you are asking for it. “A prompt is not just an instruction. It is a reflection of its intention, its context and its organizational culture, ”he said.
In the Age of the Generative Age, the competitive differential will not be the tool, but the quality of interactions and commands, the clarity of strategy, quality and maturity of the data. Companies that only automate their addictions will not leave the place. And leaders who outsource intelligence will lose the timing of transformation.
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We have learned to take care of the body and mind but the new epidemic is of loneliness. Social health comes to light!
Between algorithms, robots and disruptions, the most humane – and perhaps more urgent speech – came from Kasley Killam. “The biggest risk of our generation is not AI. It’s loneliness. ”
She presented data from the World Health Organization and the US General Surgeon, showing that chronic loneliness affects more than 1 billion people worldwide and has a comparable impact on smoking 15 cigarettes a day. In addition, it reduces productivity, creativity, trust and collaboration – essential pillars for any innovative company.
Killam argues that we are entering the age of social health-a dimension of well-being that involves genuine connections, belonging and quality interactions. In addition to the individual level, she argues that social health needs to be incorporated into organizational strategies, from the architecture of offices to the culture of leadership and success metrics.
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“Companies that prioritize human connections and relational intentionality will have healthier, more creative and more resilient teams.”
The provocation is clear: how to create digital culture without losing the human? How to build high performance teams without falling into relational burnout? And how to use technology to approach – not to isolate?
Strategic empathy as a lever of change in the digital age!
Closing this Mosaic of voices, Rohit Bhargava brought a precious concept: strategic empathy. More than putting yourself in the place of the other, it is about projecting futures that include multiple perspectives from the beginning, echoing this, the agenda of diversity has never been so necessary. “The world no longer needs brilliant ideas. It needs relevant solutions, ”he said.
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This active, connected, transverse listening is what differentiates superficial systemic impact innovation. And requires leaders capable of navigating complexity with opening, curiosity and sense of service.
From Austin to action: what to do now?
If SXSW were a war room, the diagnosis would be clear: the future is increasingly fast, but the challenge is not just technological. It’s human. It is strategic. It is cultural. The question I leave is: what will your company do with it?
5 actions to turn insights into competitive advantage:
- Revisits your strategy with reality and future lenses. Cut fragile and unlinked narratives. Reinforce what you create value in the present – and be ready and prepare people and processes for constant changes. Adaptation is the new intelligence.
- Develop a culture of continuous learning. Invest in learning, unlearning and relearning. New skills are fundamental. Technical knowledge ages and this will happen faster and faster – the ability to learn no, make it a strategic pillar of your organization.
- Treat interactions design as strategic asset. Social health is not bonus. It is base. Work spaces, meetings, platforms and leaders need to promote connection. Real connections, relevant connections.
- Teach your team to think about the era of prompts, let’s go beyond good questions. The era of prompts requires context, intent and governance. AI tools only deliver good results with good commands.
- Put empathy and listen to the centrality of innovation. It only innovates who understands the other – and transforms it into relevant action. Innovation premises new actions, it seems cliché but old paradigms do not work in a new world, and optimize we need to reinvent. Past metrics do not measure the future, we need new metrics to transform.
SXSW has shown that the next few years will be defined by decisions made now. The waiting time has passed. Now it is acting – with lucidity, courage and intention.
And you? Are you just going to watch the transformation or will you be a protagonist?
