Every January, approximately 3,000 global leaders converge on the small mountain town of Davos, Switzerland.
Heads of state, business executives, economists and experts of all kinds gather to discuss the world’s most pressing issues at the World Economic Forum. By creating a venue for thinkers and doers to exchange the kind of ideas that shape policy and transform industries, Davos has become a true bellwether for the geopolitical climate, not to mention a great place to get a read on where the economy is headed next.
2025 marked my fourth time attending this event, and the vibe this year was distinctly different, with all eyes looking to the United States through lenses of social pessimism and economic optimism. Geopolitically speaking, talk centered around the prospects of ending the war in Ukraine and relief about the ceasefire in the Middle East. The strongest economic buzz was around regions like India and Saudi Arabia. And two of the most-talked about industries (after the all-encompassing focus on tech) were energy and healthcare/biotech. In every area, we saw a push for stronger global cooperation, especially on the complex issues of climate change, pandemics, and trade.
You can read WEF’s own summary here, but now that attendees have returned to their home countries and the dust has settled on the news made at the event, I’d like to share a few observations and takeaways of my own, from my position as a tech CEO.
Far and away the most notable theme across the entire week was “AI everything.” Every session, every cocktail party, every hallway chat included a discussion of AI’s impact on the world. I spoke on the topic myself in a panel session with the Financial Times.
As AI moves from rudimentary, task-based applications to agentic or autonomous uses, the questions become: how can we use it better, faster, more responsibly? What industries will be disrupted? How will the requisite energy be supplied and used? Now that AI is capable of writing code, where do we focus the talent and energy of developers — and what skills do they need for this new era?
Conversations like these aren’t just theoretical. Last year, companies were in exploratory mode; this year, they’re deep in the work of embedding AI into the fabric of their business, monetizing it and using it to increase their speed and productivity.
And the climate for business is good, with mergers and acquisitions on hyperspeed and companies raising money at high valuations, not unlike the original dotcom boom. Conversely, capital is nearly unavailable to anyone who isn’t in some way enabling AI. The future belongs to companies that will move the needle on the AI landscape, and I have many thoughts on how you and your company can be among those needle-movers (read my companion blog about AI readiness to learn more).
Of course, any time AI is being discussed, people will naturally wonder what it means for human jobs. At Davos, most speakers pushed back against the idea of AI replacing humans. In fact, many experts think AI will create more jobs, not take them away, because of its ability to supercharge what we do.
As we level up from the simpler, task-driven AI to the agentic era, there’s a sense that we have a unique opportunity to actually expand the limits of the possible. Shez Partovi, Chief Business Leader of Enterprise Informatics and Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer for Royal Philips, spoke on the ability of agentic AI to exponentially improve human productivity, based on its ability to provide three key things: automation, agility and augmentation. Think reliable and consistent customer service, a faster-moving and more responsive supply chain, and the widespread ability to help humans do what we do, only better.
I also spoke with the head of a pharmaceutical company who described how AI is transforming the discovery, development and deployment of new medicines. Because of AI’s ability to evaluate thousands of molecules at once and to mimic testing on all kinds of subjects, AI can condense the discovery and development process from many years to just 12 months. Think of what that will mean for human health and longevity!
So I agree with the strong bullishness on all things AI. Through automation, augmentation and agility, we have the pathway to unlock unprecedented levels of human achievement — and the prospect is truly magnificent. In this worldview, it’s not a struggle between humans and machines — it’s about humans who elect to embrace AI running circles around those who do not.
At its best, Davos is the platform for fostering multilateral solutions to complex global challenges. I’m delighted to see so much attention being given to what the tech industry can do to advance society and speed the pace of progress.
