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unDavos Summit

unDavos Summit

Written by: Mark Turrell
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A community-organized series of interactive panels, talks, and networking taking place in Davos, Switzerland - and online - in parallel to the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting.

© 2026 unDavos Summit Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Rewiring for the Intelligent Era - Designing the AI-Native Organisation | unDavos 2026

    Rewiring for the Intelligent Era - Designing the AI-Native Organisation | unDavos 2026
    Mar 7 2026
    A philosopher, a Microsoft adoption leader, a Swisscom trust executive, and an innovation strategist walk into a fireside chat — and agree on one thing: the biggest barrier to AI-native organizations is not technology but the cognitive dissonance between the C-suite and the workforce. From Karuana Gatimu's blunt take on Copilot to a neuroscience-backed argument for slowing down, this panel challenges the 'move fast' orthodoxy.─────────────────────────────WHAT THIS PANEL COVERS→ The disconnect between C-suite strategy and frontline reality is the primary adoption blocker — leaders and workers are 'not living in the same reality'→ Microsoft's AI adoption lead argues speed kills: 'slow down to speed up' is the single most important advice for CEOs implementing AI at scale→ Swisscom's trust framework rests on three questions every AI deployment must answer: Who am I talking to? Who is accountable if it goes wrong? What is authentic?→ Philosopher Topia argues we have forgotten what it means to be human — resistance to AI comes from a legitimate place, and leaders need to face their own ignorance before pushing adoption→ Budgeting cycles are a hidden blocker: yearly or five-year planning horizons cannot match the speed of external AI change, and governance reform may matter more than culture change─────────────────────────────PANELISTS🎙 Stephan Balzer — Keynote Speaker, Host & Moderator; Managing Director, red onion (Moderator)🎙 Dan Sandu — Innovation Strategist🎙 Topia — Philosopher🎙 Christina Hirsch — EVP, Digital Trust Business, Swisscom🎙 Karuana Gatimu — Director, Customer Advocacy for AI & Collaboration, Microsoft─────────────────────────────unDavos is a community-driven summit running during WEF week in Davos, democratizing the conversation around global challenges.🌐 undavos.com─────────────────────────────Tags: AI-native organization, AI adoption, culture change, digital trust, Swisscom, Microsoft Copilot, AI governance, leadership, C-suite, philosophy, slow down, budgeting, human-centered AI, Davos 2026, unDavos, REWIRE---TRANSCRIPTChristina Hirsch and Karuana Gatimu. So what we want to do now is actually discuss parts of what we've also seen already in these first talks, and it's really about getting into what it needs to create this company and what change has to be done. We have no more microphones, right? We don't. Do we have four microphones? I think you can pass it on, right? We take one and you pass it around? Sure. All right. So I want to start with the first question to Dan. So you've worked extensively on innovation inside these large organizations. What structural changes are the most important ones that are needed to be done to actually become or at least prepare to become AI-native, just beyond a tech upgrade? What else is needed? Yeah, I think it's very important for leadership to have a systemic view of how value is being created. So what we just heard as well. Pretty much. Because at the moment, again, I'm not trying to generalize, but there is this view of silos or pockets of value creation. We have the innovation lab, we have the AI team, we have the customer support, we have the strategy department, and we have people in governance and culture, whatever. Instead of having that view, we should have a systemic view and see how we do connect strategy with practice, with our governance, with our culture and leadership, and make sure that they're actually all aligned. Because starting from goals, for example, you can go down and identify what kind of culture you need. And that culture is probably going to enforce what kind of governance you need to put in place. Well, if you don't have that systemic view, you're only going to take singular pinpoint solutions that solve only locally. Yeah. Is this what we mainly see right now? Where are we? Because I mean, we're talking about the status quo. Where are we right now? Is this what we see mainly now? Because people don't do that. And they s
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    35 mins
  • Recoding Business - The AI Transformation Flywheel | unDavos 2026

    Recoding Business - The AI Transformation Flywheel | unDavos 2026
    Mar 7 2026
    Professor Vijay Gurbaxani makes a bold claim: most companies are approaching AI myopically, treating it as an efficiency tool rather than the next industrial revolution. Drawing on his transformation flywheel framework and examples from Reuters to a two-clinic veterinary startup that caught the attention of a 700-location PE firm, he argues the winners will be those who rethink their entire value proposition — not just their processes.─────────────────────────────WHAT THIS PANEL COVERS→ The AI transformation flywheel starts with vision, not efficiency — companies must ask 'what more can I be doing?' rather than 'how do I cut costs?'→ Reuters uses AI to write first-draft financial news for speed, then reinvests savings into hiring more original news reporters worldwide — a model of competitive differentiation through AI→ A two-clinic veterinary startup (Dr. Treat) used AI to prompt vets during patient conversations and cross-reference an insurance database, earning acquisition by a 700-location PE firm→ Data is becoming the primary competitive moat — when all companies access the same AI platforms, what differentiates you is the proprietary data and know-how you bring→ McKinsey estimates $7 trillion in AI infrastructure investment by 2030; Mark Zuckerberg says he would 'rather overspend by $200 billion than be on the wrong side of that bet'─────────────────────────────PANELISTS🎙 Stephan Balzer — Keynote Speaker, Host & Moderator; Managing Director, red onion (Moderator)🎙 Prof. Vijay Gurbaxani — Taco Bell Endowed Professor of Business & Computer Science; Founding Director, Center for Digital Transformation, UC Irvine─────────────────────────────unDavos is a community-driven summit running during WEF week in Davos, democratizing the conversation around global challenges.🌐 undavos.com─────────────────────────────Tags: digital transformation, AI flywheel, AI strategy, competitive advantage, Reuters, AI first company, AI intensive, value proposition, data moat, AI investment, UC Irvine, Davos 2026, unDavos, REWIRE, business model innovation---TRANSCRIPTSo, here we are back, welcome, I hope you were able to refresh in the break. And we want to continue with a different format. We call this the fireside chat that, you know, we don't have a fire behind us, but hopefully we need it. We need it. Yes, we need the fire in Switzerland, right? So, first, give a warm welcome to our guest. And I will start and you can stop if I talk about you too long. Vijay Gopakshani is the Taco Bell Endowed Professor of Technology Management and the founding director of the Center of Digital Transformation at UC Irvine. And you're specializing in digital transformation? Correct. Like one of the key things we're discussing here, AI strategy and the economics of technology, which is a great combination, looking back to the panel we had before. And it says here that you're blending rigorous academic research with practical insights to guide business leaders and boards. So also the topic we just touched upon into adopting AI. So there's more to talk with you about, but maybe you want to take it from there and share your first thoughts. And you want me to, just to make it clear, so first of all, good afternoon to everybody. It's lovely to meet all of you. And the last panel was absolutely fantastic and I hope to be able to add something beyond them. But you want me to talk for about five minutes is what you said? You can. So I'm a professor- If you allow me to interrupt you, though. So I'm going to- Go ahead. I'm going to talk for five minutes, no interruptions. You can be like one of my students, I tell them to be quiet for five minutes, which is very hard. Okay, I teach executive MBA, but I want to set the ground and I've been sitting too long all day, so I need to sort of get my blood flowing again. So in five minutes, this is a talk that's on YouTube, by the way, but I'm trying to do a 35 minute talk in five minutes. So hopefully we c
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    25 mins
  • Keynote - Preparing for Our Next Reality | unDavos 2026

    Keynote - Preparing for Our Next Reality | unDavos 2026
    Mar 7 2026
    In a data-dense keynote, Alvin Graylin argues we are walking a razor's edge — not choosing between utopia and dystopia, but balanced on a ledge where the next five years will determine which side humanity falls. With AI models already scoring 140+ IQ and producing hours of autonomous work, the question is no longer whether jobs will be displaced but how fast the transition curve drops.─────────────────────────────WHAT THIS PANEL COVERS→ AI models now score above 140 IQ (99.8th percentile of humans) and deliver 4-5 hours of autonomous work without human intervention — with full-day autonomy months away→ Descaling laws are replacing scaling laws: inference compute, distillation, and quantization are putting data-center-level intelligence into pocket devices→ A Google engineer used Claude to solve in one hour what her team of five spent an entire year building — and Anthropic built Claude Code Workbench in 1.5 weeks using AI writing AI→ AGI is deflationary for basic goods but inflationary for unique experiences and luxury — the money saved on cheaper food, energy, and medicine shifts to scarce human-centric value→ The biggest threat is not technology but mindset: social safety nets are affordable, humanoid robots are overhyped toys, and the real risk is governments and labs pursuing dominance over collaboration─────────────────────────────SPEAKER🎙 Alvin Wang Graylin — Chairman, Virtual World Society; Global VP of Corporate Development, HTC; Author, 'Our Next Reality'; Digital Fellow, Stanford Digital Economy Lab─────────────────────────────unDavos is a community-driven summit running during WEF week in Davos, democratizing the conversation around global challenges.🌐 undavos.com─────────────────────────────Tags: AGI, AI jobs, AI displacement, descaling laws, AI IQ, autonomous AI agents, humanoid robots, social safety net, AI bubble, AI commoditization, Alvin Graylin, Our Next Reality, Davos 2026, unDavos, REWIRE, future of work---TRANSCRIPTGood afternoon, everybody ready? Let's go. We have a tight program, so I want to welcome you to Rewire at Anderwoos. I'm Stefan Balzer. I will guide you through this afternoon in the best way I can. And I think we have, I would say it's a mission critical topic for an industry, I would say, because AI, as we know, is all over the place also here in Davos, as you've seen, still it's about the adoption in companies, right? It's like, where are we when it comes to an AI ready company? And also what does it actually mean to implement AI into an organization from operation, from HR, from strategy. So we have an incredible list of people that join us today and they will share the experience where they are right now, what cases they want to share here in front of us, and we want to explore what it means to become an AI native organization, right? Is that even worth aiming for, or is it maybe just another great idea that, you know, comes along the tech curve for the last 30 years? So let's see. And we start off with an expert, and I hope the microphone, maybe you can correct a little bit, who will open up the space a little bit wider. His name is Alvin Graylin, and Alvin is a strategist. He is the author of the book, Our Next Reality, and he's the chairman of the Virtual World Society. And he's been in the industry for more than 35 years, although he doesn't look like, yes, much younger. So he's involved in semiconductors, XR, cybersecurity, and he had a leadership role to the HTC, Intel, IBM, and he will give us a little insight on his current work that he's doing. So please put your hands together, and I need your positive energy right now with a strong applause for Alvin. Thank you, Stefan. There's a few seats in the front. I would recommend you coming up because there's a lot of charts and data in this talk, and I think you'll want to see them because there's some useful information. So just come up if you see an open spot. And, you know, I have been studying AI and working on
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    26 mins
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