Fear that artificial intelligence will eliminate mass jobs dominates part of the discussions about the future of work. In Brazil, however, technology must arrive first to fill gaps – and not necessarily to replace workers. At least, that is the view of Gabriel Farme, partner at Graphene Venturesa venture capital manager founded in Silicon Valley.
“We still have a lot of inefficiency in the country. Therefore, I believe that AI will come first to empower people to create solutions and fill these gaps, before displacing jobs”, said Gabriel during a panel at Web Summit Rio 2026.
According to the executive, in more developed markets, such as the North American, the discussion already revolves around what portion of jobs will be replaced by AI. In Brazil, however, this scenario should still take longer to materialize. Before that, the country needs to go through a previous stage: using technology to resolve historical bottlenecks and increase efficiency in different sectors.
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The developer paradox
To illustrate the thesis, Gabriel cited the impact of AI on software developers. According to the executive, the initial expectation was that the automation of programming tasks would reduce the demand for these professionals. In practice, however, the movement observed has been the opposite.
The global developer population surpassed 47 million in early 2025 — a 51% growth in three years, according to data from SlashData. While the base of amateur devs declined from 12.1 million to 10.7 million between 2024 and 2025, the number of professional developers grew from 30.9 million to 36.5 million in the same period, indicating a movement towards professionalization in the sector.
Although the SlashData do not attribute this advance directly to AI, the relationship is seen as natural by the executive, given the increase in demand for software and the democratization of tools driven by technology. The movement reduces the technical barrier for creating digital products and increases the entry of new professionals into the sector.
“It’s curious. We imagined there would be fewer programmers [à medida que surgissem ferramentas capazes de criar produtos sem conhecimento técnico ou necessidade de desenvolvedores]. But the number of developers has only increased,” said Gabriel. “Now everyone can be a programmer. AI is allowing more people to create companies and, as a result, the demand for professionals is also growing.”
The scenario, however, is not uniform. A study of the World Bank (2025) analyzed real-time data on job openings in the United States and identified an average drop of 12% in occupations with the greatest potential for replacement by AI between the end of 2022 and June 2025. In the first year after the launch of ChatGPT, the drop was 6%; in the third, it reached 18%. The research reveals that the areas most affected were administrative support (40%) and professional services (30%).
One-person companies
While Gabriel Farme highlighted the potential of AI to fill gaps, Gustavo Ahrends, general partner at Norte Venturesdirected the discussion to the impact of technology on corporate structures as it matures.
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He notes that large companies are already reducing teams, and the trend is that new AI-based operating systems will make an entire company managed by a single person viable. “It’s already happening, and the tendency is for large companies to continue reducing their teams,” he said. “One founder, one employee, thousands of dollars, alone.”
At the beginning of the year, the telemedicine platform Medvi caught the market’s attention by projecting US$1.8 billion in revenue with just one employee. Founded by Matthew Gallagher, the startup offers GLP-1 drug treatments for weight loss and operates with a largely AI-automated framework used in areas such as service, marketing and management. The company presents itself as the fastest growing company in history and the first to reach US$1 billion in revenue operating with just one person.
During or Web Summit Rio 2026, Santiago Fossatti, partner from Kaszekreinforced the view that AI acts as a democratizing force. According to him, the same movement that expanded access to entrepreneurship with the popularization of the internet is now beginning to be repeated in the technical field.
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“With artificial intelligence, young people around the world can connect with the world’s best entrepreneurs and reach the technical level needed to launch a company without needing a lot of capital. We will see an explosion of self-employment creating value at scale,” he said.
Asked about the sectors most prone to a profound transformation driven by AI, Santiago highlighted wealth and investment management. Historically restricted to people with enough capital to set up a family office or hire large financial institutions, the segment tends to become more accessible with the popularization of AI-based financial assistants. In the executive’s view, anyone will be able to access, via cell phone, financial guidance services previously available only to high-income clients.
Another sector mentioned was healthcare. Santiago pointed to the advancement of reports generated by AI and cheaper predictive care systems as factors capable of expanding access to exams and diagnoses for currently underserved populations.
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The legal market must also undergo relevant changes, according to the investor. Tools capable of interpreting laws, creating contracts and analyzing documents in an automated way should increase the efficiency of lawyers and expand access to services that currently depend on high fees.
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