“Artificial intelligence (AI), data and digital transformation are reshaping our economy, our administration and even the idea of governance itself. Our objective is clear: to make Portugal a global center of innovation.” The words are from the Deputy Minister and State Reform, Gonçalo Matias, who was, this Monday, in Lisbon, representing Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, at the opening ceremony of the Web Summit, one of the biggest technological events globally.
In this sense, and with the aim of transforming Portugal into a “center of Artificial Intelligence and innovation”, the minister announced that the next National AI Agenda will be presented “in the coming weeks”, although he did not provide details about its content.
“We are now at a decisive moment: AI is no longer the future, it is already reshaping the world. With an estimated economic impact of 2.3 billion euros by 2030, AI is the engine of our economy”, he highlighted.
This announcement comes after Gonçalo Matias explained, last week, in Parliament, that Portugal is currently being sought for large-scale investments in the area of AI gigafactories.
Debate of the government program. Gonçalo Matias.
Nuno Fox
Public Administration
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At this hearing, as part of the discussion of the State Budget for 2026, the minister revealed that the Government will move forward with two national strategies for data centers: one dedicated to AI and another for the creation of a cloud sovereign in Portugal, with pre-licensed areas for data centers.
At the Web Summit, Gonçalo Matias once again defended the importance of this infrastructure. “Digital sovereignty is not abstract – it is the foundation of a state that citizens can trust, today and tomorrow.”
The minister also reinforced that digital transformation depends on people. The Digital Skills Pact – already undertaken by the Government – plans to train more than two million citizens by 2030, in basic and advanced digital skills. “A digital state cannot prosper without digital citizens,” he stated.
Gonçalo Matias also recalled that it was precisely at the Web Summit, a year ago, that Portugal presented LLM Amália, the Portuguese language model. The objective, he explained, is to help citizens relate to public digital services “in a more human, more direct and smarter way”, support the scientific community and allow companies to “imagine, create and shape their future in the era of artificial intelligence”. According to the minister, there is also the ambition to “give each student an AI tutor who listens, guides and inspires their learning”.