AI, tech and the intelligent age at Davos 2025: What to know
'Industries in the Intelligent Age' is one of the key themes at Davos 2025, which brings together experts in this era of deep and structural changes. Image: REUTERS/Sergio Flores
- Recent surveys indicate that technology, including AI and quantum computing, are now the primary driver of change and disruption for businesses across sectors.
- 'Industries in the Intelligent Age' is one of the key themes at Davos 2025, which brings together experts in this era of deep and structural changes.
- Find out more about the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, and check back here for regular updates throughout the week.
Driven by rapid advancements in AI, quantum computing and blockchain, the Intelligent Age is transforming everything, everywhere, all at once.
Industries have had to adapt their business strategies to account not only for these major technological shifts, but also seismic geo-economic shifts.
The World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2025 in Davos is bringing together experts to discuss how business leaders can balance short-term goals and long-term imperatives while transforming their industries.
Key sessions at Davos 2025 related to AI, tech and the 'Intelligent Age'
All times below are in GMT+1.
Tuesday 21 January
While artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a strategic priority for organisations, there are significant variations in maturity and adoption across sectors.
As outlined in a newly released report, AI in Action: Beyond Experimentation to Transform Industry, although many organizations have experimented with AI through pilots and proofs of concept, scaling these efforts to achieve sustained and transformative impact continues to be a significant challenge.
"The technology is moving at an incredible rate," said Matt Garman, Chief Executive Officer of Amazon Web Services. "I don't know that we've seen technology progress as fast as it has. And I think one of the challenges of that is it's hard for everyone to keep up."
Watch the full session below for more on how industry leaders are advancing AI's transformative potential in their sectors and the factors enabling it.
Despite slowing electric vehicle sales growth in the US and Europe, over 30 million new EVs are expected on the road in 2027. Manufacturers are racing to secure reliable and sustainable supply chains for critical components and materials to scale production amid rising geopolitical tensions.
"It's not going to be a one-country effort in terms of EVs. It's going to be a global effort," said Pan Jian, Co-Chairman of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), the world's largest EV battery maker, underscoring the global nature of the EV revolution.
Watch the full session for more on the strategies manufacturers and policy-makers are adopting to meet the increasing demand.
Alongside the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), the world is witnessing advancements in biotechnology, edge computing, robotics and beyond. The interdependence of these technologies presents immense opportunities and complex challenges.
Speaking on the panel, Aiman Ezzat, CEO of Capgemini, said: "Define what you want to invest in but also think ecosystem. And who do you need to partner with to complement your capability and evolve your understanding of how you can be disrupted and how this ecosystem can disrupt industries."
Watch the full session to learn more about how organizations can pave the way for unprecedented growth and innovation in our interconnected future.
From possible regulatory shifts in the US to the uneven adoption of central bank digital currencies around the world, the prospects for digital assets are shifting rapidly.
The session brought together public and private sector leaders, from the Governor of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to the CEO of Coinbase, to discuss the outlook for these assets and how policy changes could impact the financial system.
"This is a technology that's going to update the financial system globally, make it faster, cheaper, more efficient," said Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO, expressing positive sentiment about cryptocurrency. "The long-term impact of this is that it's going to increase economic freedom in the world." Watch here.
Some 75% of organizations report an erosion of customer trust following a cyber incident, with damaging effects on business performance and brand reputation.
Industry leaders from Crowdstrike and Johnson Controls joined academic experts in this session to discuss the most collaborative and responsible approaches to building and maintaining trust before, during, and after a crisis.
Wednesday 22 January
From AI-powered autonomous production lines and digital twins that simulate entire supply chains to next-gen robotics, manufacturers are eager to leverage frontier innovations to build intelligent, agile and resilient operations.
In this session, panelists explored how companies can harness and scale these frontier innovations to future-proof their operations in a world of constant change.
Artificial general intelligence could possess the versatility to reason, learn and innovate in any task.
But with rising concerns about job losses, surveillance and deepfakes, will AGI be a force for progress or a threat to the very fabric of humanity?
Andrew Ng, the Executive Chairman at LandingAI says the industry's capability to improve the technology is improving each year. Yoshua Bengio, a Full Professor at the University of Montreal, believes there's a mistake with the current approach: "We've taken human intelligence as the model for building artificial intelligence. And the reason it's a mistake is that the thing we really want from machines is not a new species... what we actually want is something that will help us solve our problems." Watch the full session here.
From AI integration to data usage, the healthcare sector has capitalized on the post-COVID momentum to rethink its operations across the value chain. However, transformations remain in the early stages and organizations have yet to crack the code on generating value at scale.
Watch the full session to identify how to make progress in scaling up the use of digital solutions in healthcare to benefit all.
Thursday 23 January
09:00 - Defending the Cyber Frontlines
From disruptions to critical infrastructure to cyber biothreats, geopolitical crises are extending into uncharted territories. How can the international community move towards a detente in cyberspace? Matthew Prince, Co-Founder and CEO of Cloudflare explored the relationship between political and cyber conflict. At the same time, Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), highlighted the importance of partnerships with civil society and the private sector to protect data and personnel.
10:15 - Thriving in Orbit
By 2035, the space economy is set to reach $1.8 trillion up from $630 billion in 2023 and averaging a growth rate of 9% a year. Decreasing launch costs and continuous commercial innovation have transformed space from a frontier of science fiction into a landscape for real-world applications like space tourism.
Panellists in this session, including the President of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the European Commission's Commissioner for Defence and Space, discussed the forces that will shape the trajectory of the space economy and how stakeholders can capitalize on this shift.
10:45 - Technology in the World
New technologies are reshaping the global security landscape, with countries and companies racing ahead with AI innovations alongside questions over dual-use risks, system misuse, or military applications. How can leaders from the private and public sectors work together to put in place safeguards for rapidly advancing technologies? Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta, highlighted the need to keep AI open-source "because it's a general purpose technology, it should be generally available". At the same time, Ian Bremmer talked about preserving the "humanity that undermines civil society and undermines democracy". Watch the full session.
Friday 23 January
09:00 - Giving Intangibles Real Value
By 2050, an estimated $131 trillion in clean energy hardware investments will be required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
From critical sectors such as mining and water management to carbon capture technologies, panellists in this session addressed methods to unlock the full potential of hardware in addressing society's most urgent challenges while ensuring a just transition for all.
Reports and launches you need to know about
The Forum's flagship cybersecurity report finds the cyber landscape is growing in complexity, driven by factors including escalating geopolitical tensions and the rapid adoption of emerging technologies. This has profound and far-reaching implications for organizations and nations - and is exacerbating cyber inequity.
The Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) recognizes companies that have achieved exceptional impact on productivity and sustainability, enabled by digital transformation. This white paper reports on the leading-edge lessons learned by the latest 36 Lighthouses to join the network, from tackling the digital 'scaling slump' to investing in the frontline workforce.
This white paper presents a vision for a global health data network economy, offering a transformative approach to address healthcare challenges through collaboration and innovation. It explores the critical enablers for health data collaboration and the success stories and strategies needed to create impactful, scalable solutions in healthcare.
By 2034, GovTech – government technology – is poised to unlock $9.8 trillion in public value globally, transforming how governments operate and connect with people.
As governments face rising demands for efficiency, transparency and sustainability, GovTech offers solutions that streamline processes, reduce costs and rebuild public trust.
The report underscores the need for decisive action: governments must embrace innovation, promote public-private collaboration.
The C4IR India was launched in 2018, and over the past six years, it has directly impacted 1.25 million citizens across the country, driving meaningful change through its initiatives. This report is published to highlight key milestones and emphasize the importance of multistakeholder collaboration in scaling technologies that can address complex developmental challenges.
This report highlights the transformative potential of quantum technologies to revolutionize industries and economies globally in three key areas: computing, sensing, and communication and security. These technologies can, for example, optimize business operations through advanced machine learning and simulations, improve the accuracy of disease detection, and ensure secure data transmission with cutting-edge encryption - crucial for future-proofing cybersecurity.
- Blueprint for Intelligent Economies: Achieving Growth through Inclusive AI - 21 January
- AI Transformation of Industries: Frontier Technologies Transforming Industrial Operations - 21 January
- Launch of the Teach AI Partnership - 22 January
What to know about 'Industries in the Intelligent Age'
From the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change and the knock-on impacts of conflict, the past few years have seen almost constant disruption for industries and supply chains.
Disruption creates challenges but also heralds opportunities in terms of productivity, growth and wider sustainability to those who can pivot quickly from early investment to practical application.
Transformation is essential for manufacturing companies, but also other sectors, who want to not just withstand disruption but to prosper in this turbulent environment over the long term.
Research shows that digital transformation can become a catalyst for sustainability and open innovation. Leaders need a new, modern leadership toolkit to harness the opportunities these shifts present.
The AI Governance Alliance (AIGA), through its industries transformation track, brings together global leaders to establish best practices for responsible AI adoption, while simultaneously exploring practical AI applications and moonshot innovations that can transform industrial ecosystems and deliver long-term societal benefits.
While advancements in AI, quantum computing, biotech, robotics and automation and other fields present numerous opportunities, new technologies are also hiking energy demand.
By 2026, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts electricity consumption for data centres alone could reach 1,000 TWh - roughly the equivalent to the energy consumption of Japan.
So powering the Intelligent Age will be a huge task and will have a profound impact on global electricity demand and supply. It comes with wider implications for industries and their decarbonization and net zero goals, with rapidly advancing technologies devouring energy at rates far higher than those seen today.
More on 'Industries in the Intelligent Age'
These are some of our key publications from the past 12 months:
Collaborations between industry experts and the public sector are disrupting cybercrime. This white paper, developed by the World Economic Forum’s Partnership against Cybercrime, explores how to build on the success of existing partnerships to accelerate the disruption of cybercriminal activities. It looks at leading operational collaborations against cybercrime worldwide, identifying the common traits of effective partnerships and the hurdles they encounter.
In a time of rapid innovation and global uncertainty, generative artificial intelligence (AI) emerges as a transformative force, reshaping industries, economies, and societies worldwide. This pivotal moment demands visionary leadership and a collaborative approach to anticipatory governance.
The Top 10 Emerging Technologies report is a vital source of strategic intelligence. First published in 2011, it draws on insights from scientists, researchers and futurists to identify 10 technologies poised to significantly influence societies and economies. These emerging technologiesare disruptive, attractive to investors and researchers, and expected to achieve considerable scale within five years. This edition expands its analysis by involving over 300 experts from the Forum’s Global Future Councils and a global network of comprising over 2,000 chief editors worldwide from top institutions through Frontiers, a leading publisher of academic research.
AI has shown immense promise in helping organizations leapfrog social and environmental challenges. The first report in this series, AI for Impact: The Role of AI in Social Innovation, mapped out the landscape of AI deployment by social impact domain, geography and gender and presented case studies of social innovators who have successfully deployed the technology for impact.
More on Emerging TechnologiesSee all
Aleksander Dardeli
February 14, 2025
