That shift is showing up not only on panels, but in how Davos itself is being run. In one of the most concrete “AI-in-production” proofs at the event, the Forum and Salesforce rolled out an AI agentic concierge called EVA for the event, positioned as a step beyond traditional chatbots into “doers” that can prioritize and act on a participant’s behalf (from managing agendas to generating briefing documents). Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff emphasized that EVA is “far more than a chatbot,” aligning the deployment with his broader thesis that the “agentic enterprise” is a new enterprise architecture rather than a feature add-on.

On stage, the message from the largest enterprise platforms has been similar: AI’s next phase hinges on measurable outcomes and broad adoption. In a Davos conversation highlighted by the Forum’s live coverage, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella argued the global priority is putting AI to work in ways that “change the outcomes of people and communities.”

That focus on “production value” over prototypes also runs through the Forum’s own research cadence this week. A WEF release on scaling artificial intelligence cites examples of organizations moving beyond pilots and includes Foxconn and Boston Consulting Group scaling an “AI agent ecosystem” to automate 80% of decision workflows and unlock an estimated $800 million in value.

For financial services leaders, the most consequential Davos-adjacent AI storyline may be the emerging rails for agent-led shopping and payments. Mastercard is positioning itself as the infrastructure and rules layer for agentic commerce, arguing that the competitive battle isn’t only about model performance but about trust, identity, and secure authorization when software agents spend money.

“Agentic commerce will only scale at the speed of trust,” Mastercard executive Sherri Haymond told Axios.

Enterprise AI Gets Real as Davos 2026 Focuses on Agents