Lisbon, Dec. 2, 2025 (Lusa) - Academic and AI policy expert Ramayya Krishnan advises Portugal to focus on implementing artificial intelligence and building translational capabilities, and to consider the involvement of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as critical.

When asked what advice he would give to Portuguese companies and the government on artificial intelligence (AI), Ramayya Krishnan pointed to its implementation.

"My advice has been - in fact, I have met with several leaders and secretaries of state - and I think the goal is to focus on implementation," said Krishnan, who was one of the speakers at the Responsible AI Forum 2025, held on 25 November in Lisbon, where he addressed the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) and the future of work.

"Building these translational capabilities, because just having OpenAI's Gemini 3.0 and GPT are only capabilities. These capabilities need to translate into real implementation," continues the professor and director of the AI Measurement Science & Engineering Centre at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

"Only when these implementations happen will the way the implementation happens determine the workforce they need," adds Ramayya Krishnan, who was a member of the US National AI Advisory Committee.

Therefore, "I think the critical point is to involve your small and medium-sized enterprises because Portugal has a large number of them," he stressed.

"You need to make them more efficient and effective because this is a global economy. So you need to make your economy more productive, more efficient, more effective," he added.

This comes with "the use of this technology and, therefore, you need to build capacity to be able to implement this technology, but to do this, you need to have the right workforce." In this sense, "you have to figure out together how to make this happen," concludes Ramayya Krishnan.

The academic also defends the need for AI literacy and the democratisation of access to it so that no one is left behind.

ALU/ADB // ADB.

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