Princesa de Asturias: When technology becomes economy
The hidden layer that determines AI’s real-world performance.
I have had the honor of being part of the jury for the Princesa de Asturias Awards again.
It’s one of those moments that forces you to pause.
You are surrounded by some of the best scientific and technical minds, people who have spent decades pushing the boundaries of what is possible. And being in that environment inevitably changes the way you think. It shifts your perspective from what is happening now to what will actually matter in the long term.
Preparing for it, I’ve found myself reflecting on a question that feels increasingly relevant: When will AI truly matter?
1. When AI becomes real
There is something I learned during the early days of the internet that has stayed with me ever since.
A technology is not truly transformative until it reaches the real economy.
We tend to overestimate the moment of invention and underestimate the moment of translation. The internet was exciting from the beginning, but it only became revolutionary when it was embedded into the core systems of the economy. When it started to shape commerce, logistics, finance, media, and industry at scale.
That was the moment it stopped being a technology and became infrastructure. I lived it.
I believe AI is following the same path.
Right now, we are still close to the innovation phase. The capabilities are extraordinary, but the real impact will come when those capabilities translate into measurable economic outcomes. When they move productivity, when they reshape industries, when they have a visible effect on GDP.
That is when AI will stop being a promise and start being a transformation.
2. Software is already everywhere
There is another important shift that makes this moment key.
Software is no longer confined to the tech industry. It is embedded in every sector that drives the real economy. Manufacturing, energy, transportation, healthcare, financial services… all of them rely on software to operate.
This changes the nature of AI’s impact since it is not entering these industries from the outside: It is evolving something that is already deeply integrated into how they function. It builds on top of existing systems, existing workflows, existing decision-making processes.
That is why its potential is so broad.
Not because it is a new layer, but because it has access to all the layers where value is already being created.
3. A quiet but critical layer
If AI is going to transform the real economy through software, then understanding how that software is built, how teams operate, and how performance translates into outcomes becomes increasingly important.
This is not always visible.
Most of the conversation still happens at the level of models and tools. But the real impact will be determined by how those capabilities are applied inside organizations, how they are embedded into workflows, and how they translate into consistent results.
This is where a more operational perspective starts to matter.
At Pensero, what we focus on is making that layer visible. Not the promise of AI, but how it actually performs in practice. How it affects delivery, quality, and ultimately the outcomes that matter for the business.
Because if the impact of AI is going to be measured in the real economy, we need to understand how it is being translated into it.
And that, in the end, is what will define whether this moment becomes a real transformation or just another wave of innovation.
I have had the honor of being part of the jury for the Princesa de Asturias Awards again.
It’s one of those moments that forces you to pause.
You are surrounded by some of the best scientific and technical minds, people who have spent decades pushing the boundaries of what is possible. And being in that environment inevitably changes the way you think. It shifts your perspective from what is happening now to what will actually matter in the long term.
Preparing for it, I’ve found myself reflecting on a question that feels increasingly relevant: When will AI truly matter?
1. When AI becomes real
There is something I learned during the early days of the internet that has stayed with me ever since.
A technology is not truly transformative until it reaches the real economy.
We tend to overestimate the moment of invention and underestimate the moment of translation. The internet was exciting from the beginning, but it only became revolutionary when it was embedded into the core systems of the economy. When it started to shape commerce, logistics, finance, media, and industry at scale.
That was the moment it stopped being a technology and became infrastructure. I lived it.
I believe AI is following the same path.
Right now, we are still close to the innovation phase. The capabilities are extraordinary, but the real impact will come when those capabilities translate into measurable economic outcomes. When they move productivity, when they reshape industries, when they have a visible effect on GDP.
That is when AI will stop being a promise and start being a transformation.
2. Software is already everywhere
There is another important shift that makes this moment key.
Software is no longer confined to the tech industry. It is embedded in every sector that drives the real economy. Manufacturing, energy, transportation, healthcare, financial services… all of them rely on software to operate.
This changes the nature of AI’s impact since it is not entering these industries from the outside: It is evolving something that is already deeply integrated into how they function. It builds on top of existing systems, existing workflows, existing decision-making processes.
That is why its potential is so broad.
Not because it is a new layer, but because it has access to all the layers where value is already being created.
3. A quiet but critical layer
If AI is going to transform the real economy through software, then understanding how that software is built, how teams operate, and how performance translates into outcomes becomes increasingly important.
This is not always visible.
Most of the conversation still happens at the level of models and tools. But the real impact will be determined by how those capabilities are applied inside organizations, how they are embedded into workflows, and how they translate into consistent results.
This is where a more operational perspective starts to matter.
At Pensero, what we focus on is making that layer visible. Not the promise of AI, but how it actually performs in practice. How it affects delivery, quality, and ultimately the outcomes that matter for the business.
Because if the impact of AI is going to be measured in the real economy, we need to understand how it is being translated into it.
And that, in the end, is what will define whether this moment becomes a real transformation or just another wave of innovation.
