The 2025 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) was held in Davos, Switzerland, from January 20 to 24, 2025. This year, around 3000 leaders from government, academia, business, and civil society across 130 countries participated in the meeting under the theme “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age.” 

The meeting’s other priorities revolved around this theme: industries in the intelligent age, safeguarding the planet, rebuilding trust, reimagining growth, and investing in people. Through themed sessions, global leaders discussed the mentioned topics and explored new ways to solve these global challenges.

Industries in the era of AI

In this year’s annual meeting, the World Economic Forum focused especially on the age of artificial intelligence (AI). It launched a report series on the new industries focusing on responsible AI adoptions across different sectors. 

Based on this series, the Frontier MINDS (Meaningful, Intelligent, Novel, Deployable Solutions), a program for highlighting and increasing high-impact AI-based solutions, was launched to address global challenges such as climate change, transition to sustainable energy, the transformation of the workforce, equitable healthcare access, and resilient supply chains. 

As part of this endeavor, the WEF’s ‘Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA)’ initiative is working with the AI governance alliance to generate AI-based solutions for climate change issues. The summit discussed that many organizations are experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI), but scaling up these efforts and achieving a sustainable impact is quite challenging. In this regard, industrial leaders’ cooperation was emphasized to achieve short-term and long-term strategic targets. 

Many sessions on AI, blockchain, and quantum computing in different industrial sectors were held during the five-day event. A key observation from these sessions was the need for reliable, sustainable, and feasible supply chains for the important components and materials of electric vehicles (EVs) to increase production amid the existing geopolitical unrest. Other topics covered during the meeting included technology interdependence and cyber security. 

Apart from the evolution of AI, significant advancements in biotechnology, robotics, edge computing, and other areas have been observed in recent times, necessitating strategic investments. 

At one of the sessions, experts explored the rapid world of digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies. The WEF sessions also brought leaders from both the public and private sectors to discuss the prospect of such assets and how changes in these policies may affect the financial system. 

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) was considered an important matter, and the session dedicated to AGI focused on whether it has the potential to be a catalyst for advancement or a warning to humanity.

Climate change and resilience

Several important climate and nature-based initiatives were announced at the WEF annual meeting. An encouraging announcement at Davos was the establishment of the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor to restore and protect a huge green area of the Congo Basin. 

The reserve is almost the size of France, considered one of the great lungs of the earth. It is home to over 10,000 species of birds and animals, including endangered ones, and it removes around 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually. Safeguarding the land of 540,000 square kilometers, this project is set to protect one of the largest tropical nature reserves by preserving biodiversity and creating more jobs for the Congolese people. 

This forum has also supported the Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP). It is one of the world’s largest multi-stakeholder initiatives to tackle plastic pollution globally. 

Another notable highlight was the Thai government’s announcement of empowering farmers, brands, and traders to increase the supply of sustainable food production, such as low-methane rice. 

Some sessions discussed the interconnection between people and food, water, and health securities. The WEF summit also showed the increasing interchange between climate science and the intelligence of civil society organizations and different Indigenous communities to protect the earth. This interconnection is essential to finding solutions to climate-related issues relevant to local contexts. 

To encourage such initiatives, this year’s meeting hosted the ‘Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA)’ Awards and honored five initiatives that were taken to advance the system transformation for people and the earth in different approaches. 

Geopolitical fragmentation and emerging conflicts

One of the themes of the Davos summit, ‘Rebuilding trust,’ focused on geopolitics, regional conflicts, and international diplomacy amid rising global challenges. One of the key takeaways from this year’s forum is the escalation of regional conflicts, especially in underrepresented countries, including Libya, Myanmar, Sudan, and the Sahel. 

Global attention has focused more on major political powers, and the Western media overlooks most conflicts taking place in neglected regions, which may have broader global repercussions. 

For instance, the Sahel region in Africa has long struggled with political instability and the expansion of extremist groups. The WEF mentioned that the conflict in this region may not make headlines globally, but its implications for European and global security are indisputable. 

During the sessions on geopolitical issues, panelists discussed how value chains are becoming more complicated and focusing more on regional contexts daily and how national industries’ agendas need to be balanced with global economic collaboration in this competitive and complex era. 

Other sessions on the theme ‘Rebuilding trust’ focused on global governance and diplomatic strategies. For example, ministers from Nigeria, Tunisia, the Congo, and Uganda participated in a session discussing how African nations might continue to expand their contributions to ensure global security. 

On the contrary, the resilience of emerging economies in an uncertain world was another focal point of this summit. The WEF’s Global Risks Report 2025 highlighted the expanding geopolitical, environmental, and technological issues that require global cooperation. 

In the session based on this report, discussants explored how global risks develop during short, medium, and long-term periods and discussed how leaders worldwide might equip themselves for emerging hazards and build resilience. 

Overall, the summit advocated for global collaboration in the era of geopolitical, environmental, and technological challenges.

Jinat Jahan Khan is a Senior Research Assistant at BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health. Her research explores microeconomic issues. She has previously worked as a Research Associate at DataSense. She is also a Recipient of the Female Champions Fellowship by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Centre for Research and Development (CRD).