In a chat with Hugo Nascimento about the future of AI products, we discussed a few points I think are worth bringing here. For me, there are only two ways out: being a specialist in the subject, or being the company’s AI partner.
In the first case, it’s being so specialized that you become the reference. You know that story about being “just a wrapper”? It’s being a wrapper that brings a lot of domain knowledge, or that has a lot of data. I THINK this can be veeery interesting for small and mid-sized businesses.
In the second case, I see it more for enterprises. Here the relationship matters even more than the technology. It’s really being the partner that guarantees the governance: better models, guardrails, more savings and a proper implementation.
I don’t know, I can’t see another way out. Can anyone? Any cool cases outside of these two? I don’t see a future in being a horizontal player in the “short” term unless it’s this second case.
Happy New Year, with that healthy paranoia about AI. :)
Originally written in Portuguese and published on LinkedIn on January 6, 2026. I translated it into English with the help of AI (Claude): it let me bring my LinkedIn posts to people who don’t read Portuguese without rewriting each one from scratch. I reviewed the translation to keep my original meaning and tone.