Artificial intelligence is a hot topic at this year’s World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, a major gathering of political and business leaders.
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Of all the business buzzwords, artificial intelligence is the one on the lips of business leaders so far at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
A number of high-profile CEOs and investors in industries ranging from financial services to marketing have spoken about the potential of AI technology. Here is a compilation of quotes from some of the top business leaders attending this week’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting:
Khaldoon Al Mubarak, CEO of Mubadala
Khaldoon Al Mubarak, CEO of Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, told CNBC that he believes the world has not yet fully realized the extent to which artificial intelligence will change all aspects of human life:
“The demand is going to be very high in terms of the implementation of that technology. So the technology, the implementation of artificial intelligence, the infrastructure side – whether it’s energy, transmission, energy, or all forms of technology, energy technology will help To drive this huge demand, I will also increase the construction of data centers and chip construction,” he said.
Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers
Larry Summers, President Emeritus and Professor of Harvard University, at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, January 21, 2025.
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Larry Summers, an American economist who served as the 71st U.S. Treasury Secretary, said in a panel discussion hosted by CNBC that there is an “amazing moment of technological possibility” – including emerging artificial intelligence systems. ——Promoting unprecedented innovation in medicine and other fields:
“I believe that artificial intelligence will eventually go to the Internet, just like computers went to calculators. This is an amazing time for technological possibilities. It doesn’t mean that everything will automatically be fine… It’s a question of This is a huge challenge for our government and governments around the world,” he said.
Edelman CEO Richard Edelman
Edelman boss Richard Edelman says he sees the potential of artificial intelligence to empower workers and increase productivity, but warns that if business leaders don’t upskill their workforce, AI will Will face the risk of being “rejected”:
“The biggest risk is AI being rejected… We need to get people to buy into this by making sure everyone is reskilled. I do that like crazy at our company. You have to use it. You need to try Take a look. I think artificial intelligence is a great hope for optimism because it will improve our ability to work, it is an enabler for you to become smarter, better, and faster.
Randstad CEO Sander van Tenordende
Sander van’t Noordende, CEO of Human Resources Company RenstadWarning of the risks of job disruption from artificial intelligence, he said he believed jobs in design and management were most at risk:
“If you look at the jobs that are going away, any job that has a ‘clerk’, a ‘designer’, an ‘administrative assistant’ is going to be under a lot of pressure. (There are) a lot of new job technologies, security, artificial intelligence… that are going to be There are new jobs, and there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, in health care, technology, hospitality, all kinds of jobs where artificial intelligence doesn’t really help,” he said.
Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch
Arthur Mensch, CEO of French artificial intelligence company Mistral, said that there is an ongoing competition among governments around the world for the leadership in artificial intelligence:
“This is an industrial revolution. It’s going to reshape our industry over the next 10 years. We really need – the industry needs – to adopt this as quickly as possible because it’s actually a very competitive market… It’s interesting to talk to us We’re the only government that can provide sovereign solutions, so I would say that’s both a challenge and an opportunity, but really, it shows if you don’t think about artificial intelligence today and how to solve it.
Mensch also talked about the technological progress of the artificial intelligence industry this year, predicting that the world will Abandon OpenAI’s GPT and other language models A more comprehensive system:
“I think the focus should shift to the system. The model is part of the system, but the system is connected to the data, connected to the tools, able to actually do things on your behalf, able to act in an agentic way… That’s where this comes in It also means that industries that adopt it will integrate their expertise into these systems,” he added.
Lloyds Bank chief executive Charlie Nunn
Lloyds Banking Group Chief executive Charlie Nunn praised the UK government’s move announcement Last week, a bold plan expanded the national computing infrastructure to promote domestic artificial intelligence development:
“Artificial intelligence is at the heart of what we do. I really welcome what the government has just done. Keir Starmer talked about artificial intelligence being a more important part of the future. We absolutely think that’s right in financial services. It makes us Being able to protect customers and help them get access I think the exciting part that’s coming is going to allow us to really differentiate our business and enable customers to have a different experience from their banks and their financial services providers and that’s a big one for us. Huge opportunity for growth.
