What could you achieve if you had unlimited intelligence at your command? The organizations that answer this question most compellingly will lead the Intelligent Age.

The rise of the internet was a revolution in access to information. The Intelligent Age is a revolution in the use of information, making possible near-instantaneous decisions that integrate millions of data points.

As I spend time in boardrooms and with policymakers it has become increasingly clear that everything involving information, decision-making or problem-solving will be transformed.

This shift comes at a crucial moment for a global economy dealing with the impacts of climate change, weak productivity growth and significant geopolitical tensions.

Intelligent Age technologies – including generative AI (GenAI) and advances in big data, robotics and machine learning – are giving organizations and countries new tools to tackle these epoch-defining challenges. And they will reshape the global economy, the way we work and the way we live.

The effects are already being felt as leaders recognize that reinvention is required for survival. PwC’s 2025 Global CEO Survey found that four in 10 CEOs believe their company will cease to be viable within 10 years if it continues on its current path.

When we first asked this question in 2023, the industries that felt the most acute pressure were media and entertainment, technology, telecoms and industrial manufacturing – all sectors where digitization, decarbonization or both are changing the basis of competition. Now, recognition of the scale of change needed is rising in almost every sector.

We are also seeing the beginnings of the impact of AI on productivity. Sectors with high use of AI benefit from a 4.8x improvement in productivity growth compared to sectors less exposed to AI.

Easily accessible GenAI is barely two years old but its diffusion has been rapid and we can expect that impact to intensify. Forty-nine percent of CEOs expect GenAI to have a significant positive impact on profitability within a year.

Importantly, they are more likely to say it has led to headcount increases than decreases, suggesting they see value in using AI to create new capabilities, not just deliver labour efficiency. Capital is flowing rapidly: investment in AI is expected to reach $630 billion by 2028, from around $235 billion in 2024.

A key question for leaders gathering in Davos is how to make the most of these trends. Where to start?

Success starts by preparing for change. A study by PwC Netherlands of over 18,000 businesses around the world suggests the businesses most likely to succeed are those that reinvent.

Over the past 15 years, companies at the forefront of changing their business models saw up to 8.5% higher productivity gains, with the benefit of reinvention becoming even stronger in more recent years.

Companies that reallocate a high share of their human resources each year are more profitable. If business leaders and policymakers want growth, they need to embrace reinvention.

Companies and policymakers must also recognize that the idea of “an industry” in the traditional sense is ending. Instead, new business ecosystems that are enabled by technology are emerging, bridging traditional industry boundaries and embedding interdependence between businesses as both supplier and customer.

The most successful companies are making the most of this opportunity, with ecosystem activity already representing the majority of revenue for twice as many high-performing companies as lagging ones. By working across industry boundaries, companies can fulfil customer needs while creating value beyond what each could achieve alone.

The shift from industries to ecosystems creates significant opportunities and challenges for economic policy and supply chain resilience. Countries, as much as companies, can be outcompeted. The economic prize for rethinking where and how to compete based on shifts in how we move, build, make, feed, power and care will be vast.

Making the most of the Intelligent Age will depend on strong public and private sector collaboration. Policymakers have a key role in working with the private sector to address challenges related to cybersecurity and data risks, reconciling demand for energy to power advanced computing with climate goals and securing access to critical raw materials.

A key objective is to allow technology to create value in new ways while also supporting people to find security and opportunity. These tasks need not be in tension. PwC’s research with the World Economic Forum finds that the successful roll-out of GenAI inside a business depends on embracing a people-centred approach that builds trust.

Beyond specific decisions and policies, adopting the right mindset is necessary. This new Intelligent Age is as full of potential as the Industrial Era or the Information Age. There was no point in trying to preserve the mass use of hand-operated looms. Typewriters and carbon paper were always going to slip away once personal computers became viable.

Just as then, the winners will be those embracing reinvention, with all its challenges and complications. A good place to start to unlock the potential of the Intelligent Age is to ask one question: what could our organization achieve with unlimited intelligence at our command?

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/01/how-to-unlock-the-potential-of-the-intelligent-age/