- The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting takes place in Davos from 20-24 January 2025.
- Here’s a snapshot of everything you need to know about Day 4 of Davos 2025.
On the fourth day of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, here’s a rundown of what to know, the key sessions to watch, conversations from the corridors and essential reading and live coverage of the highlights.
Sessions to watch
Join Andrius Kubilius, the European Commission’s Commissioner for Defence and Space, and leaders from business and civil society as they discuss how the international community can move towards a detente in cyberspace. With ‘conflict’ as the top immediate risk in the 2025 Global Risks report, it’s not surprising that the session focused on the relationship between political conflict and cyber conflict.
Cloudfare’s Matthew Prince said that when there’s real conflict, “whatever you’re seeing in pictures in the news, know that in cyberspace, a war is raging at the exact same time.”
In this town hall, featuring Meta’s Vice-President and Chief Artificial Intelligence (AI) Scientist, Yann LeCun, leaders debate how to responsibly harness emerging technologies to maximize benefits while minimizing risks.
You’ve heard of ‘gen Ai’ but ‘gen bio’? Dava Newman explained what that is.
Join Amy Pope, Director-General, International Organization for Migration (IOM), and leaders from business and academia, as they discuss the new geography of jobs.
Mark Rutte, Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) joins Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce to discuss how to ensure technology drives solutions rather than creates challenges.
Google’s Ruth Porat explored the capabilities of ‘multi-modal search’ and Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi spoke about the transformation of transport – he said it will become “autonomous, electric and shared”.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission joins Fatih Birol, Executive Director, International Energy Agency (IEA), Dina Ercilia Boluarte, President of Peru and business leaders to discuss how we can triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency by 2030.
Birol said: “What is most important: energy security, or energy transition? Which one should we prioritize?… It is an annoying question, because we can do both of them.”
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— Fatih Birol, Executive Director, IEA
“To antagonize these two important objectives for the human beings today is in my opinion misleading. We can do both, we have done many things like that before in the world – and this is critical.”
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization and other leaders explored why tariffs are back on the table and what they could mean for consumers, businesses and governments.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, World Trade Organization (WTO)Image: World Economic Forum/Chris Heeney
She reminded participants that the WTO is “about much more than tariffs”. She also said, “please not let’s hyperventilate” as she urged leaders to remember that 80% of world trade is taking place under WTO terms and that trade is currently at a peak of $30.4 trillion – which is higher than pre-pandemic.
India grew at over 8% in the past year. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO of DP World alongside a panel of fellow experts look at how the nation can continue to drive global growth.
If the continent is to overcome its multitude of challenges, a more strategically integrated foreign economic policy is of vital importance. A group of public figures and private sector experts discuss how Europe can better deploy the power of its single market in this session.
With businesses investing over $240 billion a year into AI, join Joe Ucuzogl, Global Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte, and other leaders from the public and private sectors as they explore how to bridge the skills gaps and unlock the benefits of AI.
Claudia Azavedo, CEO of Sonae, talked about the need for “half-half” approach to training, where the focus between human soft-skills is balanced with tech. She warned that interpersonal skills are being lost.
Join Olympic diver Tom Daley and Asma Khan Founder, Darjeeling Express, as they discuss how they navigated social stigmatization to forge platforms and advocate women’s empowerment and LGBTQ+ rights.
Have you read?
Join Martina Cheung, President and Chief Executive Officer, S&P Global and Kashim Shettima, Vice-President of Nigeria, as they delve into the findings of the Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025, asking: how can global leaders prepare for emerging threats and build resilience?
Join former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, Executive Chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, alongside public and private sector leaders in a discussion about how technologies can transform public services, enhance citizen engagement and capitalize on the $10 trillion opportunity of digital governance.
Join Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer, Moderna and Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization, as they explore to respond to the growing challenge climate change poses to public health.
With new technologies rapidly reshaping the global security landscape, join Nick Clegg, President, Global Affairs, Meta and Ian Bremmer, President and Founder, Eurasia Group, as they examine how leaders from the private and public sectors can work together to put in place safeguards for rapidly advancing technologies,
Have you read?
Trump’s much anticipated address began with his assertion that his mandate is a “revolution of common sense” and that “America is back and open for business”.
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/01/davos-2025-day-4-what-to-know/
