Davos shows AI is here to stay, Capco expert argues
While the relevance of the World Economic Forum has increasingly been called into question, and the focus has largely been on the fragmented responses to the imperialist ambitions of the United States, elsewhere its 2026 edition has arguably offered a more unified message on AI. According to Capco expert Charlotte Byrne, the conference showed a move “away from model breakthroughs and experimentation towards practical questions of execution, accountability and ROI.
Byrne, who is UK AI lead at the global management and technology consultancy, continued, “As we come to the end of Davos 2026, conversations around AI have felt noticeably more mature and pragmatic than last year… AI is now being treated as part of the core business rather than a future innovation bet.”
While a number of recent studies have suggested firms are rarely getting back from AI what they put in (PwC found less than half of executives had seen any benefit from AI investments), Byrne believes there are solid case-studies for the technology forming. Pointing to financial services, for example, she claimed the new maturity of the market was “translating into a clear emphasis on control-heavy use cases in areas such as risk, compliance and operations”. In particular, she said that firms have started using AI to automate regulatory change impact assessments, support first-line risk reviews and summarise control evidence – delivering “measurable productivity gains while reinforcing resilience” in the process.
“This week’s discussions have also reflected a growing recognition that innovation and resilience are not opposing forces but should work in tandem,” Byrne added. “While responsible AI can sometimes feel like a tax on innovation, within financial services it is what enables AI to move into the core of the organisation. Ultimately, the firms that succeed will be those that invest in workforce capability and embed AI into existing risk and control frameworks rather than treating it as a standalone technology initiative.”
She concluded, “The hype around AI hasn’t disappeared, but Davos confirmed its potential and value is more than mere speculation. AI is here to stay and is already fundamentally changing how financial services firms operate.”
Whether what is said at Davos is an effective way to gage the future has been called increasingly into question, however. While engineer Klaus Schwab founded WEF as a meeting of influential minds, where they could set their agenda for the coming year, it has been said to have been “melting into irrelevance” for some time now – with critics suggesting it addresses only the needs of government technocrats and a wealthy elite – while failing to address global issues that inconvenience those interests.
Meanwhile, those less hostile to the concept have also noted that the old world order Davos was for is increasingly being forced from the room – especially with the now-overtly invasive interests of US international policy taking aim at Europe. The question may be, in a world where this neither serves ordinary people, or the people actually in government, is Davos here to stay?
