Ultralytics at Web Summit 2025: Key highlights!

Last week, from November 10th to 13th, the Ultralytics team was in Lisbon, Portugal, for Web Summit 2025, one of the world’s largest gatherings for technology, startups, and industry leaders. The event brought together more than 70,000 attendees from over 150 countries, including founders, engineers, investors, and journalists exploring ideas and innovations, like AI, that are shaping the tech ecosystem.

For Ultralytics, Web Summit was a great chance to meet members of the Vision AI community in person, but it was just as much about learning. The talks, panels, and hallway conversations offered new perspectives on agentic AI, digital manufacturing, neurotechnology, media in the AI era, and more.

In this recap, we’ll dive into the talks, community moments, and insights that made Web Summit 2025 feel so special.

An overview of Web Summit 2025

Web Summit 2025 put emerging technology at the center of the week, with AI and machine learning taking the lead among the 2,725 startups from 108 countries exhibiting across the venue. The event also welcomed 1,857 investors from 86 countries, its largest investor turnout so far. 

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Beyond the startup floor, the wider programme brought together 1,519 publishers, CEOs, editors, and reporters. It also hosted 268 government delegations from 82 countries, highlighting how broad the global interest in cutting-edge technology has become.

More than 400 curated meetups helped attendees connect in smaller groups, from women in tech to backend developers to AI innovators. Leading companies such as IBM, Visa, Qualcomm, Alibaba Cloud, Revolut People, KPMG, Replit, Huawei, and LinkedIn added to the momentum, creating a week shaped by new ideas, international collaboration, and a strong focus on the future of tech.

Key insights from the Web Summit floor

For our Customer Success Manager, Abi Anderson, Web Summit 2025 felt like the perfect place to meet people, exchange thoughts, and stay close to what is happening in AI. With so many attendees from across the Vision AI space, it was easy to settle into conversations, whether during scheduled meetups or just while moving between pavilions. 

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A lot of these quick chats turned into meaningful exchanges about how teams are approaching AI in their products and workflows. The layout of the event played a big role in the experience. 

Pavilion 1 saw the most activity, and the flow eased up as you moved through the venue. With more than two thousand startups exhibiting, the booths that drew the most attention were the ones doing something interactive. It showed how much creativity goes into capturing attention at an event of this scale.

She also made time to explore sessions outside the core AI track, including discussions from The Independent, The New York Times, and TIME on how news and media are adapting to new technology. These different perspectives added a lot of variety and helped round out the week.

For Abi Anderson, the biggest takeaway was how much learning happened on the go. Listening to people share what they are building, what challenges they’re facing, and what trends they are noticing helped strengthen her own perspectives. 

Talks from leaders across the industry

Next, let’s dive into some of the key industry talks the Ultralytics team attended at Web Summit 2025. They covered everything from the rise of agentic AI to breakthroughs in biotech and manufacturing, offering a clear look at where technology is heading next.

Agentic AI is reshaping everyday technology

One of the most talked-about sessions on Day 1 was Qualcomm’s centre-stage presentation by President and CEO Cristiano Amon. The room filled quickly as attendees gathered to hear his vision for “The Ecosystem of You,” a look at how agentic AI and edge-native systems will influence how people interact with technology.

Cristiano Amon explained how devices are moving from app-centric to agent-centric experiences, with AI taking a more active role in anticipating user needs and responding in real time. This shift has important implications for UX and UI design, as interfaces adapt to support technology that can make more of its own decisions.

He also highlighted how future mobile experiences will rely on powerful processing at the edge, enabling faster and more responsive interactions without depending solely on the cloud. Overall, these ideas pointed to a new generation of hardware and software working more closely to support more intelligent everyday devices.

The importance of responsible AI innovations

Another major theme at Web Summit 2025 was the need for thoughtful, long-term approaches to AI development. In his keynote, Brad Smith, President and Vice Chair of Microsoft, spoke about how AI has moved from an emerging idea to a core part of everyday technology.

He highlighted the shared responsibility across companies, developers, and governments to guide this progress in a way that benefits people globally. The session emphasized that as AI adoption accelerates, responsible innovation and clear governance will be essential to ensuring its positive impact.

Neurotechnology and the future of the human body

In a particularly eye-opening session, Max Hodak, Founder and CEO of Science, and Alex Kantrowitz, founder of Big Technology, explored how brain-computer interfaces may dramatically expand what the human body is capable of. Max Hodak spoke about a future where protecting the brain becomes the priority and where other parts of the body could eventually be repaired or replaced through engineered systems. 

He also shared early breakthroughs, including attempts to restore vision by placing a chip behind the retina, the kind of work that until recently would have sounded like science fiction. This session was a fascinating look at how quickly neurotechnology is moving and how closely it is beginning to intersect with fields like AI and synthetic biology.

Digital twins and manufacturing

A highlight on the industry side was the joint talk from Siemens and NVIDIA, focusing on the role of digital twins in manufacturing. Peter Koerte from Siemens and Rev Lebaredian from NVIDIA outlined how advanced simulation and AI are changing the way factories are designed and built. They explained how digital twins now make it possible to plan and validate entire chip-production environments in a virtual space before anything is constructed in the real world.

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They discussed how using this approach can significantly shorten development timelines, making it possible for facilities that once took years to build to come together in just a few months. It showed how large-scale manufacturing is beginning to benefit from faster, more flexible iteration through digital twins.

Connecting with the tech community

While the talks were intriguing and thought-provoking, some of the most memorable moments of Web Summit 2025 came from the people Abi Anderson met throughout the venue. With thousands of technologists moving between stages and meetups, conversations started naturally, often with just a quick hello that turned into a deeper exchange about AI, product ideas, or industry trends.

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What stood out most was the sense of openness across the community. Whether chatting with founders, engineers, or attendees exploring what comes next, each interaction brought something new to consider.

Thank you to everyone who stopped to chat with us. Your conversations helped make the week truly memorable.

Key takeaways

Our time at Web Summit 2025 was filled with learning, conversation, and genuine curiosity from across the tech community. From sessions on agentic AI and industrial innovation to the many conversations happening throughout the venue, the event highlighted how quickly the tech landscape is evolving and how much opportunity there is in Vision AI. 

We left Lisbon inspired by the ideas shared and the people we met. We are looking forward to carrying these insights into the work ahead.

Join our community and explore AI advancements on our GitHub repository. Discover the impact of AI in manufacturing and computer vision in healthcare on our solutions pages. Explore our licensing plans and begin your Vision AI journey today!