In the first half of the year, several of our Top 100 Speakers Spain have offered valuable perspectives on where we’re going as a society. From sustainability and mental health to artificial intelligence, their insights reflect the current moment and the challenges shaping our near future.

At Thinking Heads, our goal is to provide a global lens to better understand the changes we’re facing. Here are a few of the trends making an impact in 2025:

Sustainability: The Starting Point

Sustainability isn’t a trend, it’s a necessity. That’s how Gonzalo Delacámara, a global expert in natural resource economics and professor at IE University, puts it. According to Delacámara, water is one of the most essential and most overlooked resources, perfectly capturing the key challenges of the 21st century.

The old model, built on large-scale infrastructure and centralized decision-making, no longer works. What’s needed now is a more flexible, decentralized, and adaptive approach.
Why? Because the climate is changing, populations are growing, and resources are limited. In this new reality, science and technological innovation are the only viable strategy. What’s at stake isn’t just water security, it’s our ability to sustain a development model that doesn’t jeopardize our collective future.

Technology as an Ally (Not the Leader)

Innovation relies heavily on artificial intelligence, one of the most powerful (and most complex) tools at our disposal. Pedro Lozano, co-founder of Imascono and expert in AI, the metaverse, and entrepreneurship, puts it plainly: AI is reshaping the rules of the game. It’s redefining careers, transforming education, and demanding new skillsets.
As co-founder of Imascono, a pioneering creative tech studio specializing in Extended Reality and the Metaverse, Lozano believes it’s not AI that will replace us, it’s our failure to adapt. But adapting doesn’t just mean learning how to use tools. It means understanding how those tools can serve human values, not the other way around.

His vision? A mix of humanism, technology, and entrepreneurship. It’s not enough to know how to code, you have to know why you’re coding.

AI in Action: Sell Smarter… by Being More Human
A clear example of this transformation is happening in sales, where AI is already having a tangible, measurable impact. Mónica Mendoza, a well-known voice in sales, marketing, customer focus, motivation, and emotional intelligence explains it well: in consultative selling, AI doesn’t replace salespeople, it empowers them.

From lead generation to closing the deal, digital tools help automate routine tasks. But that just frees up time for what truly matters: connecting, persuading, and building trust. Mendoza spoke about this balance between efficiency and empathy during our Top 100 Live on LinkedIn, a live event where we explored how AI can be integrated into every stage of consultative selling.

But What About the Human Element?

This is where we need to pause. Because if we’re talking about efficiency, transformation, data, and AI, we can’t lose sight of what truly matters: people.

As Jesús Matos and Jonathan Benito remind us, science isn’t just in the algorithms, it’s also in our emotions, mental health, and how we build relationships and environments.
Matos, a psychologist specializing in emotional regulation and mental health, challenges the individualistic view we often have of mental well-being—as if it all came down to willpower or mindset. In reality, genetic, environmental, and social factors play a much bigger role than we tend to admit. If we want healthy societies, we can’t place the entire burden on individuals.

Benito, a professor and neuroscience researcher at the Autonomous University of Madrid with over 25 years of research experience, emphasizes that humans have an innate need to belong to social groups. Throughout history, strategies like aggression and extreme competition have proven ineffective. Meanwhile, prosociality (kindness, cooperation, and sociability) has been key to the success of species like dogs over wolves, and Homo sapiens over Neanderthals.

This strategy still matters today. As Benito explained in our Top 100 Live on LinkedIn, both individuals and organizations that foster cooperation and supportive environments gain a long-term, sustainable competitive edge.

In a world racing toward innovation, we need to remind ourselves: intelligence isn’t only artificial, it must also be emotional. No algorithm can replace empathy. And no sustainability strategy will succeed without people who believe in it.

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