Lisbon, June 26, 2025 (Lusa) - The country manager of Google Cloud Portugal, Sofia Marta, told Lusa on Thursday that Portugal had the size and talent to be a benchmark in the best of artificial intelligence (AI).
‘We probably have the ideal size and the talent needed for Portugal to become a benchmark country in artificial intelligence,’ said Marta, speaking on the sidelines of Google Cloud Day, which is taking place at the Convento do Beato in Lisbon.
“We are going to see a huge leap forward in the coming months, because in Portugal we usually embrace change after careful consideration, but once some people start doing things, suddenly everyone else follows suit,” she continued, adding that the country is “a little bit” at that point.
At this year’s Google Cloud Day, “we are already showing many practical cases, even for the most sceptical. Today you will see many cases of public and private customers in various organisations showing what they are already doing,” she pointed out.
Many international cases involving AI exist, but “we have tried to bring here a little of what people are already doing in our reality. I think that in the coming months we will see an acceleration in the adoption of artificial intelligence in Portugal,” said Sofia Marta.
“We have all the conditions for this in terms of government, we have funds that we can channel into this type of initiative, so I think it’s now up to each of us,” she stressed.
When someone asked about the National AI Agenda, which is planned for Portugal, and whether artificial intelligence should fall under the remit of a new entity, Sofia Marta said that people are discussing this topic.
“I trust others to decide whether they should create a specific body, and they must certainly assign this responsibility, either to a specific body or by centralising it in an existing body,” she said.
“We participated in this National AI Agenda as members of the APDC and contributed to what we believe this agenda should be.”
It must “draw on international best practices and reflect all issues that may pose some risk, in other words, we must ensure that artificial intelligence is used in the best possible way,” she added.
“We must always strike a balance between innovation and what we are putting at risk. We must safeguard this balance, but I think there also needs to be some boldness,” she concluded.
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