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Skip to ContentMIT Technology ReviewFeaturedTopicsNewslettersEventsAudioMIT Technology ReviewFeaturedTopicsNewslettersEventsAudioBusinessAll anyone wants to talk about at Davos is AI and Donald TrumpWhile AI is all over the stages, Trump is dominating the side conversations.
By Mat Honanarchive pageJanuary 21, 2026Theresa Münch | picture-alliance | DPA | AP Images This story first appeared in The Debrief, our subscriber-only newsletter about the biggest news in tech by Mat Honan, Editor in Chief. Subscribe to read the next edition as soon as it lands. Hello from the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. I’ve been here for two days now, attending meetings, speaking on panels, and basically trying to talk to anyone I can. And as far as I can tell, the only things anyone wants to talk about are AI and Trump.  Davos is physically defined by the Congress Center, where the official WEF sessions take place, and the Promenade, a street running through the center of the town lined with various “houses”—mostly retailers that are temporarily converted into meeting hubs for various corporate or national sponsors. So there is a Ukraine House, a Brazil House, Saudi House, and yes, a USA House (more on that tomorrow). There are a handful of media houses from the likes of CNBC and the Wall Street Journal. Some houses are devoted to specific topics; for example, there’s one for science and another for AI.  But like everything else in 2026, the Promenade is dominated by tech companies. At one point I realized that literally everything I could see, in a spot where the road bends a bit, was a tech company house. Palantir, Workday, Infosys, Cloudflare, C3.ai. Maybe this should go without saying, but their presence, both in the houses and on the various stages and parties and platforms here at the World Economic Forum, really drove home to me how utterly and completely tech has captured the global economy. 
Related StoryAI coding is now everywhere. But not everyone is convinced.Read next While the houses host events and serve as networking hubs, the big show is inside the Congress Center. On Tuesday morning, I kicked off my official Davos experience there by moderating a panel with the CEOs of Accenture, Aramco, Royal Philips, and Visa. The topic was scaling up AI within organizations. All of these leaders represented companies that have gone from pilot projects to large internal implementations. It was, for me, a fascinating conversation. You can watch the whole thing here, but my takeaway was that while there are plenty of stories about AI being overhyped (including from us), it is certainly having substantive effects at large companies.   Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, for example, described how that company has found $3 billion to $5 billion in cost savings by improving the efficiency of its operations. Royal Philips CEO Roy Jakobs described how it was allowing health-care practitioners to spend more time with patients by doing things such as automated note-taking. (This really resonated with me, as my wife is a pediatrics nurse, and for decades now I’ve heard her talk about how much of her time is devoted to charting.) And Visa CEO Ryan McInerney talked about his company’s push into agentic commerce and the way that will play out for consumers, small businesses, and the global payments industry. 
To elaborate a little on that point, McInerney painted a picture of commerce where agents won’t just shop for things you ask them to, which will be basically step one, but will eventually be able to shop for things based on your preferences and previous spending patterns. This could be your regular grocery shopping, or even a vacation getaway. That’s going to require a lot of trust and authentication to protect both merchants and consumers, but it is clear that the steps into agentic commerce we saw in 2025 were just baby ones. There are much bigger ones coming for 2026. (Coincidentally, I had a discussion with a senior executive from Mastercard on Monday, who made several of the same points.)  But the thing that really resonated with me from the panel was a comment from Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, who has a view not only of her own large org but across a spectrum of companies: “It’s hard to trust something until you understand it.”  I felt that neatly summed up where we are as a society with AI.  Clearly, other people feel the same. Before the official start of the conference I was at AI House for a panel. The place was packed. There was a consistent, massive line to get in, and once inside, I literally had to muscle my way through the crowd. Everyone wanted to get in. Everyone wanted to talk about AI.  (A quick aside on what I was doing there: I sat on a panel called “Creativity and Identity in the Age of Memes and Deepfakes,” led by Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson; it featured the artist Emi Kusano, who works with AI, and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the chief negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, who has been at the center of a lot of the debates about AI in the film and gaming industries. I’m not going to spend much time describing it because I’m already running long, but it was a rip-roarer of a panel. Check it out.) And, okay. Sigh. Donald Trump.  The president is due here Wednesday, amid threats of seizing Greenland and fears that he’s about to permanently fracture the NATO alliance. While AI is all over the stages, Trump is dominating all the side conversations. There are lots of little jokes. Nervous laughter. Outright anger. Fear in the eyes. It’s wild.  These conversations are also starting to spill out into the public. Just after my panel on Tuesday, I headed to a pavilion outside the main hall in the Congress Center. I saw someone coming down the stairs with a small entourage, who was suddenly mobbed by cameras and phones. 

Moments earlier in the same spot, the press had been surrounding David Beckham, shouting questions at him. So I was primed for it to be another celebrity—after all, captains of industry were everywhere you looked. I mean, I had just bumped into Eric Schmidt, who was literally standing in line in front of me at the coffee bar. Davos is weird.  But in fact, it was Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, who is increasingly seen as the leading voice of the Democratic opposition to President Trump, and a likely contender, or even front-runner, in the race to replace him. Because I live in San Francisco I’ve encountered Newsom many times, dating back to his early days as a city supervisor before he was even mayor. I’ve rarely, rarely, seen him quite so worked up as he was on Tuesday.  Among other things, he called Trump a narcissist who follows “the law of the jungle, the rule of Don” and compared him to a T-Rex, saying, “You mate with him or he devours you.” And he was just as harsh on the world leaders, many of whom are gathered in Davos, calling them “pathetic” and saying he should have brought knee pads for them.  Yikes. There was more of this sentiment, if in more measured tones, from Canadian prime minister Mark Carney during his address at Davos. While I missed his remarks, they had people talking. “If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” he argued.  by Mat HonanShareShare story on linkedinShare story on facebookShare story on emailPopular10 Breakthrough Technologies 2026Amy NordrumThe great AI hype correction of 2025Will Douglas HeavenChina figured out how to sell EVs. Now it has to deal with their aging batteries.Caiwei ChenThe 8 worst technology flops of 2025Antonio RegaladoKeep ReadingMost Popular10 Breakthrough Technologies 2026Here are our picks for the advances to watch in the years ahead—and why we think they matter right now.
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The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in 2026, was dominated by two remarkably insistent themes: the relentless advance of artificial intelligence and the looming, unpredictable presence of former President Donald Trump. As reported by Mat Honan, the atmosphere was thick with concern, excitement, and a notable degree of apprehension, reflecting a period of significant technological and geopolitical transition.

The core of the gathering centered on AI’s burgeoning impact across a range of industries. Executives from major corporations – Accenture, Aramco, Royal Philips, and Visa, among others – actively discussed scaling AI implementations, driven by concrete results like cost savings identified by Aramco ($3 billion to $5 billion) and efficiency improvements in healthcare facilitated by Royal Philips through automated note-taking. This emphasis on tangible returns pointed to a shift away from purely speculative AI investment and toward practical applications. The conversation was notably guided by Accenture CEO Julie Sweet’s pragmatic observation: “It’s hard to trust something until you understand it.” This encapsulates a broader societal willingness to embrace AI, contingent on demonstrable utility and transparent functionality. The expansion of “agentic commerce,” spearheaded by Visa, further highlighted this trend, anticipating a future where personalized, AI-driven shopping experiences would reshape consumer behavior.

However, this focus on technological advancement was repeatedly interrupted by the disruptive influence of Donald Trump. His presence generated intense reactions – a mixture of anger, fear, and outright disbelief – among the assembled global leaders and corporate executives. Discussions were consistently derailed by pronouncements questioning the value of international cooperation (“If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” argued Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney) and characterized by a dismissive, even hostile, tone toward established institutions. This behavior, exemplified by Trump’s comparison of international leaders to a “T-Rex,” underscored a deep distrust and a rejection of established norms. The widespread media attention surrounding Trump’s appearance reflected a growing anxiety about the potential destabilizing effects of populist movements and the challenges to traditional alliances.

The overall impression was one of a world grappling with the profound implications of technological change while simultaneously contending with the disruptive force of a figure who actively questioned its direction. The very nature of Davos – a forum designed for constructive dialogue and collaboration – was challenged by this duality, highlighting a critical tension between the promise of innovation and the potential for instability.