AI’s Got It “Good Enough” (and That Ain’t Good) — A Web Summit Debrief, Live from Lisbon!

6 snips

Nov 16, 2025

In this lively discussion, Tom Haworth, founder of D13 AI, explores the dangers of 'good enough' AI, emphasizing the pitfalls of vibe coding and its technical debt. He critiques the superficiality in AI demos at Web Summit, advocating for a deeper understanding of AI capabilities. Tom also discusses how Maria Sharapova's IBM collaboration highlights the challenges of AI deployment. The conversation touches on self-driving cars being the most reliable AI robots today and the underappreciated potential of blockchain technology.

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INSIGHT

Good-Enough AI Is A Dangerous Plateau

We're at a 'good enough' AI stage that convinces but often fails in production.
That gap between prototypes and robust production is a major industry risk.

ANECDOTE

Robots Doing The Macarena

Dan describes humanoid robots and an R2D2-like bot doing the Macarena at Web Summit.
He uses the spectacle to show how demos can be entertaining but superficial.

ADVICE

Prototype Fast, Rebuild For Production

Use vibe coding for rapid prototypes and demos, not for production releases.
Move prototypes to engineering teams and rebuild properly before going live.

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In this special live Web Summit edition from Lisbon, I sit down with Tom Haworth, founder of B13.ai, to talk about why “good enough” AI might actually be one of the most dangerous places we can get stuck.

And you’ll hear Tom say it’s time for the leaders of vibe coding platforms (e.g. Lovable, Replit, Cursor) to acknowledge that they’re great when you need to “demo not memo”, but not great (today and maybe ever) at delivering production-grade, secure code.

We also make a few detours as we detail a ridiculous week in Lisbon, including:

How (shocker!) 90% of the conference was about AI
Why “good enough” AI is not a good place to be
Whether we’ll graduate to great AI
AI’s ROI now and in the future
Why it’s still iffy whether AI agents they can be trusted to accomplish complex jobs
Robots wander Web Summit, do the Macarena, fall down
How tennis great Maria Sharapova uses (IBM’s) AI
How the presumptuous Web Summit’s app prominently suggests we all message Maria… (as if!)
Visa wants to help creators monetize (yay! it me!), using Web3 technologies (yes, they said “Web3”; no, I was not expecting to hear a non-ironic use of that phrase)
Why self-driving cars are the best robots — and coming soon to more of Europe
How much Web Summit pampers (and corrupts) the media: I was like a stuffed goose. Hurray for Portuguese custard and other delicacies!
How even the beer at Web Summit was high tech

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Featured voices:

Tom Haworth: Founder of B13.ai, a software consultancy that "empowers non-technical innovators and organizations to build with confidence, delivering market-ready solutions that we design, launch and run."
Me (Dan Blumberg) — I’m the host of CRAFTED. and the founder of Modern Product Minds. HMU if you want to build something great. I love building from zero to one.

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