Alta Books, 2026
Nunca Foi Sobre Tecnologia
(It Was Never About Technology)
Currently available in Portuguese.
Human decision-making, power and responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence
What if the most important question of the AI age were not about technology—but about us?
Paperback and Kindle. Corporate orders and talks with the book available on request.
About the book
Who is really deciding?
We live in a time when machines do more than follow instructions: they suggest, classify, prioritize and, increasingly, decide. They decide what we see, how much we pay, which opportunities we receive and which paths become invisible. And in the silence of these inferences, one question arises: when we delegate decisions to machines, who is really deciding?
This book is an investigation—not a technical manual or an apocalyptic warning. It is an invitation to examine how we got here and what we are normalizing without even noticing.
Because in the end, it was never about technology. It has always been about the power to decide who belongs in the systems we create—before those systems silently decide who belongs in the world.
Artificial intelligence will not become powerful. It already is. The question is what we do with that power.
Technologies include and exclude with equal efficiency.
When privacy becomes a privilege, individuality becomes a prediction.
Averages standardized bodies, numbers and people. Now the algorithm tries to predict who we are.
Translated from the Portuguese edition.
Chapters
What you'll discover
- 01
The Origins of Averages and the End of Individuality
From the average Air Force pilot to Quetelet, Galton and IQ: how averages standardized people.
- 02
From Average Man to Homo-Tech
The compression of time, the digital revolution and the arrival of generative AI.
- 03
Homo-Tech in the Algorithmic Tribe
Online communities, bubbles, polarization and the new digital tyranny of averages.
- 04
Innovation at the Edges: Accessibility and Usability
Why starting at the edges is a strategy, and inclusive design in the age of AI.
- 05
The Human, Ambidextrous Leader
Behind the launch of Copilot for Microsoft 365, the collision between code and culture, and burned-out brains.
- 06
Privacy Is Power
From putting your CPF on a receipt to the right not to be understood by an algorithm.
- 07
The Age of Hyperpersonalization
From the average user to the predicted individual: govern before scaling; consent is not a click.
- 08
It Was Never About Technology
It was always about how we choose to treat people.
Appendices
Tools for leaders
20 questions to ask before automating
A guide to help leaders decide what can—and should not—be delegated to a machine.
A 20-point human responsibility checklist
Practical criteria for keeping people at the center of automated decisions.
Appendix: from Gutenberg to AI
A timeline of technologies that changed how we make decisions.
Listen
Podcasts and interviews
Spotify · The Patient Experience
Who belongs in the care we are building in the age of AI?
Listen
References
Further reading for those who finished wanting more
Challenging the myth of the average
- Factfulness (Hans Rosling)
- The End of Average (Todd Rose)
- Mismatch (Kat Holmes)
- Range (David Epstein)
- The Tyranny of Metrics (Jerry Z. Muller)
Understanding the world that brought us here
- Uma Breve História do Século (Geoffrey Blainey)
- Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari)
- Guns, Germs and Steel (Jared Diamond)
- The Silk Roads (Peter Frankopan)
- A Era dos Extremos (Eric Hobsbawm)
Thinking about technology without naivety
- Tools and Weapons (Brad Smith)
- The Technology Trap (Carl Benedikt Frey)
- Privacy Is Power (Carissa Véliz)
- The Shallows (Nicholas Carr)
- Life 3.0 (Max Tegmark)
Putting the human being back at the center
- Humankind (Rutger Bregman)
- Conscious Business (Fred Kofman)
- Man's Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl)
- The Courage to Be Disliked (Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga)
- The Art of Loving (Erich Fromm)
Reflecting on leadership, purpose and meaning
- Start with Why and The Infinite Game (Simon Sinek)
- Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman)
- Leadership and Self-Deception (The Arbinger Institute)
- The Fifth Discipline (Peter Senge)
Seeing the impact of real-life journeys
- Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson)
- Hit Refresh (Satya Nadella)
- Elon Musk (Walter Isaacson)
- Shoe Dog (Phil Knight)
- The Ride of a Lifetime (Robert Iger)
About the author
Ricardo Wagner
Ricardo Wagner belongs to the last generation to experience the conscious transition from analog to digital. Over nearly three decades at the heart of this transformation—from HP to Microsoft—he led projects in dozens of countries, including accessibility and disability inclusion initiatives, and helped launch Microsoft Copilot, leading AI use and adoption among enterprise customers across the Americas. He co-created an AI solution to support parents and caregivers of children with epilepsy and has travelled to 47 countries. Today he works as a strategist, speaker and mentor at the intersection of artificial intelligence, human leadership and responsibility.