The Vancouver edition of Web Summit took place last week, bringing 15,727 attendees from 117 countries together, including 159 partners, 681 investors and 50 trade delegations.
A record-breaking 1,108 startups across a range of tech-touching industries exhibited, showcasing their products, services and ideas, from groundbreaking biotech advancements to revolutionary sustainable energy solutions.
Artificial intelligence (AI) was a prominent feature across all these innovations, underscoring the rapid pace of technological advancement and its pervasive influence across all aspects of modern life.
Discussions revealed diverse opinions, with many emphasizing AI’s practical usefulness, the economic viability of large language models and the importance of real-world value in AI research.
Self-described AI skeptic Gary Marcus, a scientist and author, proposed neuro-symbolic AI as a path to enhanced reliability. While pointing out the shortcomings of existing AI, such as ethical reasoning issues and hallucination tendencies, he acknowledged its worth, particularly in the field of biology.
The event provided a crucial snapshot of where the tech industry stands on AI, both in terms of technological advancements and its growing influence on investment and business strategy.
AI reshaping the investment landscape
Despite challenges in public and private markets, experts across multiple panels agreed that AI is fueling the rapid development of new markets, influencing capital allocation and funding trends.
Speakers on a panel focused on the current state of venture capital (VC) highlighted AI’s potential to revolutionize the VC landscape, with Freestyle Capital general partner Maria Palma asserting that AI technology has revitalized the industry by creating new opportunities and altering market dynamics.
She argued that VCs are inherently optimistic, but must adapt to longer fund cycles and prioritize top talent migrating to startups, while also considering AI’s influence on liquidity and the speed of company building and scaling.
Palma pointed to development platform Lovable, which brought in US$50 million in revenue in five months.
“You didn’t see that 10 years ago in any company … I think that the pace of ability to build and ability to attack different markets is different than it’s ever been,” she told the Web Summit audience.
In another panel, Brett Gibson, managing partner at Initialized Capital, pointed to a broader shift toward authoring software and the potential for widespread fragmentation and consolidation in the software market. 500 Global CEO Christine Tsai discussed the volatility of emerging tech stacks, while Andy McLaughlin, managing partner at Uncork Capital, stressed the importance of spotting opportunities outside mega platforms.
The consensus was that AI is fueling new business models, pushing investors to rethink how value is defined.
AI transforming how businesses operate
During the ‘Smart Money in 2025’presentation, speakers Alfred Chuang of Race Capital and Wesley Chan of FPV Ventures emphasized that investors now see AI as the foundation of new hyper-focused platforms.
The industry-specific approach of legal tech unicorn Clio was showcased at the ‘Vertical Software is Eating the World’ discussion, andhighlighted the growing interest in AI-powered vertical SaaS business models.
“There is a huge amount of opportunity that remains, and a disruptive opportunity to unseat the incumbents in software verticals today with AI native companies, and also an opportunity for incumbents in the space to embrace AI and tap into what is an exponential opportunity for AI,” Clio CEO Jack Newton told the audience.
Chuang elaborated on the transformative role of AI in the software industry. “I think SaaS has a huge opportunity for basically a re-up for all the different applications. We’re going to see a whole new wave of apps. Now we can automate the process, and a process can write code to automate another process … these are opportunities we have never seen before. It’s a very exciting time. We’re going to be hugely more productive going forward.”
Chan stressed to the audience that AI utility matters more than AI branding, echoing Marcus’ earlier sentiment on its potential to increase productivity for life science companies. He cited recently announced results for Strand Therapeutics’ mRNA cancer drug, which was developed with the help of AI.
Uncork Capital’s McLoughlin pointed to Toronto-based software company Tailscaleas an example of a firm that is enabling core functionality for AI at scale without branding itself around AI.
“They build virtual private networks that have become fundamentally important to the AI economy. Every single (AI) hyperscaler is using Tailscale to network together this kind of global cluster of GPUs,’ he said.
‘We didn’t think about that when we first invested in 2019. We liked the idea of connected devices and people, but we never thought of a future where actually this would be a killer use case.”
Discussions also honed in on generative AI’s uses in areas like customer service co-pilots and sales automation, and how AI agents are developing into more proactive partners, freeing human teams to focus on strategy. However, as AI agents begin to reason, act and potentially make decisions that carry real-world consequences, the conversation consistently circled back to the importance of accountability, privacy protection and regulation.
While agentic AI may not yet be mainstream, it’s quickly becoming a frontier for productivity, ethics and innovation.
Trade tensions recalibrating tech alliances
Speakers on the ‘All in on AI’panelalso discussedthe potential for emerging markets to provide liquidity and foreign buyers, noting the increasing importance of non-US markets in the context of regulatory changes.
“One thing that’s really quite unprecedented about this wave versus other waves is just how much of a national agenda (AI) is for so many countries around the world,” said 500 Global’s Tsai, noting that Silicon Valley still has its place among the great global founders. Palma shared that sentiment during ‘The State of Venture Capital’ talk, adding that the bigger problem is not the listing exchange, but whether entrepreneurs still desire to go public at all.
The rise of non-US markets and a more globally dispersed talent pool are occurring against a backdrop of evolving international trade relations and policies. Several panels focused on the US-China relationship while addressing how tariffs are shaping the global tech economy, from talent acquisition to material sourcing.
Economist William Lazonick called out the inefficacy of the current tariff strategy in terms of encouraging innovation, highlighting Big Tech’s underinvestment in research and development and prioritization of share buybacks.
Separately, Bison Ventures founding partner Tom Biegala noted the shift toward onshoring and AI-enabled robotics in manufacturing to enhance productivity and reduce labor costs. He also touched on opportunities in the defense tech sector, driven by the need for critical components to be US- or western-made for national security reasons.
“I think that has certainly been accelerated in today’s environment, and it’s bleeding over into a whole bunch of more traditional industries, from 3D printing to manufacturing of what are typically commodity components,” he said.
While much of the discussion focused on US policy, another takeaway was Canada’s potential to thrive in a changing trade landscape, with several noteworthy announcements taking place throughout the week.
One came at a Bell press conference, where the telecommunications company unveiled Bell AI Fabric, an initiative to build a network of data centers across the country, with Kamloops as its first hub. Later, Diana Gibson, BC’s minister of jobs, economic development and innovation, announced the expansion of the Integrated Marketplace Program with an additional C$30 million in funding, supporting over 30 startups across the province.
While the province supports its tech sector, challenges like high costs and regulations remain. Gibson and Rocky Tung, director and head of policy research at Hong Kong’s Financial Services Development Council, addressed BC’s need for stronger ties, particularly in finance, VC and web3. Even so, Canada’s stability and innovation ecosystem could be attractive to investors seeking a haven and fertile ground for growth amid international volatility.
Investor takeaway
Web Summit served as a vital forum for exploring the multifaceted impact of AI on the tech industry and beyond, highlighting its role as both a disruptive force and a catalyst for innovation.
As AI continues to reshape industries and markets, the insights shared at the Vancouver-based Web Summit provide a valuable roadmap for navigating the future of technology and investment.
Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.