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World Economic Forum Annual Meeting at the end of January 2025 is devoted to some of the most pressing contemporary issues: from trust in public institutions and transforming global economy to modern resilient societies and innovative global partnerships to “safeguarding the planet” and corporate transformations in the digital, as WEF called it, the “intelligent age”.
Background
The World Economic Forum 2025 annual meeting takes place during 20-24 January 2025 in Davos. Over the past 50 years – this is the 55th meeting- the Forum’s annual meetings have been addressing key aspects in global priorities: from “building economic bridges” to launching life-changing alliances, from climate mitigation to sustainability, etc.
Among most vital WEF’s “stories” recently were those of protecting nature and climate, modern challenges in economics and cybersecurity, urban transformation and trade, health and technology, etc.
The WEF’s meetings have always made some analysis; thus, presently the forum organizers have acknowledged that:
= Some 40% of Earth’s land is already degraded: additional 100 million hectares of productive lands are being degraded each year due to human activity. Businesses need to integrate and scale land-positive practices into their operations and supply chains.
= Technology is on track to transform 1.1 billion jobs by 2030: the trend will force a global reskilling revolution. Among several innovative ways to unlock funding for this shift are: – to raise the $30 trillion investment needed for ‘hard-to-abate’ sectors (e.g. 43% of this investment must come from the sectors themselves in order to “retrofit existing assets” and building new climate-compatible assets; – how health equity can help achieve universal health coverage (i.e. some 4.5 billion people still lack sufficient coverage and the share of households using more than 10% of their budget for out-of-pocket healthcare payments has increased since 2015.
= The rise of ‘AI Agents’: by 2027, half of companies that use GenAI will have launched so-called “agentic AI” (also known as AI agents, according to Deloitte). Deloitte predicts that in 2025, 25% of companies that use gen AI will launch agentic AI pilots or proofs of concept, growing to 50% in 2027. Some agentic AI applications, in some industries, and for some use cases could see actual adoption into existing workflows in 2025.
= There are also ways to advance equity in cyberspace: existing and growing divide between organizations that have sufficient cyber resilience and those that do not has been a key theme in global research.
= Finally, geopolitics and trade policy are becoming intertwined: as countries around the world are more inclined to protect their interests and balance risks, the national governance is increasingly making trade decisions based on global politics rather than just economic benefits.
Source and reference: https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2025/?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2842658_ForumStories-20December2024&utm_term=&emailType=Agenda%20Weekly
Previous WEF meetings
On the WEF-2023 agenda, see, e.g. our previous article on WEF’s five major items: https://www.integrin.dk/2023/01/17/world-economic-forum-2023-perspectives-for-global-cooperation/
In 2024, the 54th forum addressed four main themes: – security and cooperation in a fractured world, – growth and jobs for a new era, – artificial intelligence as a driving force, and – a long-term strategy for climate, nature and energy.
Source: https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2024/
The WEF-2025 agenda
Davos-2025 is convenes under the theme, ‘Collaboration for the Intelligent Age’. The concept draws on Klaus Schwab’s suggestion that converging technologies are rapidly reshaping the world, pushing us to an inflection point, “an era far beyond technology alone”, he says. “This is a societal revolution, one that has the power to elevate humanity – or indeed to fracture it.”
Reference to: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/12/davos-2025-whos-coming-and-what-to-expect/
The WEF-2025 meeting is oriented towards the following, as the organizers underline, “distinctive but highly interconnected” thematic priorities:
= Building trust. In an increasingly complex global situation, the social divides have deepened: geopolitics becomes multipolar while international policy is shifting towards protectionism, hampering both trade and investment. So, the WEF is trying to find the ways national/global communities can find new ways to collaborate on feasible solutions. For example, the digital economy is playing an increasingly critical role in reviving trade: the WTO estimates that the value of digitally delivered services has increased fourfold over the past two decades, growing at an 8.2% rate annually while growth in trade averaged 5.8%.
More in: https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2025/themes/rebuilding-trust/
= Reimagining growth. This theme aims to identify new sources of growth in the new global economy combating with the global challenges. With limited fiscal space and monetary policy tools at their disposal, national governance needs finding new frontiers and sources for growth. Innovation will play a central role in fully achieving global/national economic recovery and avoiding the previous period of slow growth, record-high debt levels and depleted fiscal buffers. Looking ahead, the digital economy already accounts for over 15.5% of global GDP and could form the basis for up to 70% of all the new value created in the global economy over the next decade.
However, complexities abound and structural vulnerabilities continue to counterbalance the more positive economic signs of a potential soft landing, warns the WEF. Thus, reviving and reimagining growth is critical to building stronger and more resilient economies. In this context, it is crucial for businesses, governments and civil society to work together to find common solutions and take decisive action: i.e. integrating public and private efforts to achieve greater impact.
Source: https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2025/themes/reimagining-growth/
= Investing in people. Technological advancements in the world are impacting everything from employment, skills and wealth distribution to healthcare, education and public services. Among the most urgent of these impacts is the need to reskill and upskill people to meet the demands of transforming economies and capitalize on the millions of new jobs and value chains. While nearly 40% of global employment is exposed to AI, it is anticipated that most of this impact will be to augment work rather than to fully automate existing occupations, the WEF acknowledges. Strong job creation is already being experienced in the digital and service economies and it will be crucial to continue translating technological gains into net-positive results for the workforce.
Hence, public and private sectors have to invest in human capital development and good jobs that contribute to the development of a modern and resilient society.
More in: https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2025/themes/investing-in-people-davos-25/
= Safeguarding the planet. Innovative partnerships and dialogue that enable investments and the deployment of climate and clean technologies will be critical to progress on global climate and nature protection goals, as well as to address the modern “energy trilemma”, i.e. to ensure affordable, secure and sustainable energy supply.
According to the International Energy Agency, present technological advances already allow the states to achieve 66% of the global emissions reductions needed in order to reach net zero by 2050. However, much work is to be done to scaling up ambition, governance, partnerships and capital necessary to accelerate decarbonization efforts to reach net zero, invest in nature-positive transition pathways and ensure the circularity and resilience of resource systems overall.
Thus, the main aspect of the WEF’s priority is to use more efficiently the human and nature actions through innovative partnerships, increasing financing and deployment of frontier technologies to safeguard the planet.
More in: https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2025/themes/safeguarding-the-planet/
= Industries in the intelligent age. Industries around the world have had to adapt their business strategies to account for major geo-economic and technological shifts. Recent surveys indicate that technology is now the primary driver of change and disruption for businesses across sectors and national governance has to be “equipped” with new leadership “adaptation’s toolkits” and fully capitalize on deep socio-economic and structural changes.
While advancements in AI, quantum computing, biotech, robotics, automation and other digital technologies present numerous opportunities, they also require additional energy supply: thus, electricity demand for the digital sector could reach 1,000 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2026, as compared to present 460 TWh. Hence, the WEF attracts attention to the ways the business leaders can strike a balance between the short-term goals and long-term imperatives in the transformation of their industries, to “catalyze” energy, climate and nature actions through innovative partnerships, as well as increasing financing and the deployment of frontier technologies.
Source: https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2025/themes/industries-in-the-intelligent-age/