Artificial intelligence is the topic at this year’s World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland – a major gathering of political and corporate leaders.
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Of all the corporate buzzwords, artificial intelligence is the word that has been on the lips of every major corporate leader at the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland this year.
A number of big-name company CEOs and investors in industries spanning from financial services to marketing spoke about the potential of AI technology. Here is a compilation of quotes from some of the top corporate leaders attending the WEF annual meeting this week:
Khaldoon Al Mubarak, CEO of Mubadala
Khaldoon Al Mubarak, CEO of Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, told CNBC that he thinks the world has not yet fully recognized how much AI will change every aspect of human life:
“The demand is going to be very high in terms of enabling that technology. So, the technology, the AI enablement, which is the infrastructure side of it – whether it’s energy, whether it’s transmission, whether it’s energy, but all of that also technology “Various forms of energy technology that will help meet this huge demand, I would also add to this data center build-out, chip build-out,” 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 on Tuesday, January 21, 2025.
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Larry Summers, an American economist who served as the 71st US Treasury Secretary, said on a CNBC-moderated panel that “a moment of astonishing technological possibility” – including emerging AI systems – could lead to unprecedented innovation in areas such as medical science. Bringing:
“I believe that artificial intelligence will eventually be to the Internet, as calculators are to computers. This is a moment of astonishing technological possibility. This does not mean that it will all automatically work out…it This is a moment of great challenge to governments in my country and to governments everywhere,” he said.
Nicola Mendelsohn of Meta
Nicola Mendelsohn, head of global business group at Meta.
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Nicola Mendelsohn, head of global business group at Facebook’s parent company metaSaid the tech giant’s advertisers are already seeing returns on their investments in AI.
“The majority of our advertisers are using one of our products, or our Advantage suite of products… So, AI is at the center of everything, especially as generative AI is coming to the fore more,” he said.
Edelman CEO Richard Edelman
Edelman boss Richard Edelman said he thinks AI has the potential to enhance workers and accelerate productivity – but he cautioned about the risk of AI being “rejected” if business leaders fail to train employees. Don’t:
“The biggest risk is that AI is rejected… We need to embrace it by making sure everyone is reskilled. I’m doing it like crazy in our company. You need to try it. I think there is great hope for AI optimism, because it will improve our efficiency, and it will make you smarter. , is able to make better and faster.”
Randstad CEO Sander Noordende is no more
Sander Vant Noordende, CEO of human resources firm randstadWarning about the risks of job disruption posed by AI, he said he sees jobs in the fields of design and administration most at risk:
“If you look at the jobs that will disappear, anything that has ‘clerk,’ or ‘designer,’ ‘executive assistant,’ it’s kind of under a lot of pressure. (There are) a lot of new jobs in technology, There will be new jobs, in security, in AI….and there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done, in healthcare, in technology, in hospitality, all kinds of jobs where AI doesn’t really help,” he said. Said.
Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch
Arthur Mensch, CEO of French AI firm Mistral, said there is a competitive race underway among world governments to get ahead in AI:
“This is an industrial revolution. It’s going to reshape our industries over the coming 10 years. And we need to embrace it as quickly as we can – the industry needs it – because it’s effectively a competitive marketplace …It’s been interesting to talk to The administration is also looking for sovereign solutions that we are able to provide, so I would say it’s a challenge and an opportunity, but effectively, it shows that if you Not thinking about AI today And how is this going to change your business, you’re doing it wrong.”
Mensch also talked about the technological advancements coming to the AI industry this year and predicted that the world will Move away from language models like OpenAI’s GPT For more ubiquitous systems:
“I think the focus should shift to systems. Models are a part of the system, but systems are connected to data, connected to tools, able to actually work on your behalf, to act agentically. “That’s where it’s moving. It also means the industry that’s adopting it is going to distribute its expertise across those systems.”
Mistral is backed by US tech giant Microsoft – who is also an investor in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s CEO, told CNBC on Tuesday that he sees AI tools eventually becoming better than humans at almost every task:
“At some point we’re going to reach AI systems that are superior to all humans at almost all tasks. The term I use for this in a recent essay I wrote is a nation of geniuses in the data center. It There’s a kind of evocative phrase for all the power and all the positive things and all the potentially negative things, I think that’s the thing we’re quite likely to get in the next two or three years.”
Anthropic is a competitor to OpenAI. it counts likes Amazon And Google As investors.
Lloyds CEO Charlie Nunn
Lloyds Banking Group CEO Charlie Nunn praised the UK government Announcement Final week of bold plan to scale up national computing infrastructure to boost domestic AI development:
“AI is at the core of what we do. I really welcome what the government has just done. Keir Starmer talked about AI being a big part of the future. We certainly think that in financial services it True. It enables us to protect customers, to help them achieve that. And I think the exciting part is that it will enable us to really make a difference. are, customers experience different banking and financial services from their Will enable us to achieve,” he said.
Dennis Machuel, CEO of Adecco
Dennis Machuel, CEO of human resources group Adecco, told CNBC on Wednesday that he sees AI leading to better productivity among global workforces:
“It is both an opportunity and a responsibility. It is an opportunity because it will create better productivity, it will create more innovation and certainly growth,” he said.
