Aforza’s Key Takeaways from Davos 2026

Aforza’s Key Takeaways from Davos 2026

World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland

AI Hype Turns to Hard Results in 2026

This year’s World Economic Forum in Davos was dominated by one clear theme: artificial intelligence is moving from hype to real world impact. Unlike the exuberant talk of previous years, discussions in 2026 were noticeably more sober and grounded, shifting away from futuristic promises toward practical return on investment.

Business leaders widely acknowledged that the age of pilots and experimentation is coming to an end. Organisations are now focusing on scalable deployments that drive enterprise wide impact. Research shared at Davos suggested that up to 95% of early AI pilot projects failed to deliver measurable value. As a result, the conversation has pivoted toward execution, selecting the right use cases, embedding AI into core workflows, and delivering tangible business outcomes.

Even the World Economic Forum’s live commentary reflected this shift, noting that the AI debate has moved decisively beyond generative models that draft emails or summarise documents. The dominant framing at Davos 2026 was agentic and enterprise AI: systems that do not just generate content, but reason, orchestrate workflows, and take action inside real business environments.

In short, Davos signalled that 2026 is the year AI grows up, moving from technology demos to a true engine of productivity and growth.

Salesforce Champions the Agentic Enterprise

Salesforce took to the stage in Davos with another compelling AI demo. In partnership with the World Economic Forum, Salesforce introduced an AI powered concierge agent for Davos attendees. This served as a practical illustration of what CEO Marc Benioff describes as the Agentic Enterprise.

Photo: Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce speaks at Davos 2026

AI Leaders Push for Adoption & Innovation

Across Davos, leading AI innovators from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic urged organisations to close the widening gap between AI capability and real world adoption.

OpenAI highlighted what it calls the “capability overhang.” While AI systems are becoming dramatically more powerful, most organisations and users are only tapping a fraction of their potential. Representatives argued that many countries and enterprises are still operating far below what today’s AI systems make possible.

To address this, OpenAI showcased initiatives such as OpenAI for Countries, already supporting governments from Estonia to the UAE across education, healthcare and infrastructure. The emphasis was clear: 2026 is about scaling AI globally, not just advancing models in research labs.

Google DeepMind also drew large crowds, with CEO Demis Hassabis offering a more measured outlook on the path to artificial general intelligence. While progress is accelerating, he noted that key ingredients are still missing and that human level AI is likely five to ten years away. The tone was optimistic but grounded, reinforcing the idea that meaningful business value today comes from applied, not hypothetical, AI.

Anthropic, meanwhile, signalled its growing influence by establishing a strong presence in Davos. CEO Dario Amodei warned openly about job disruption and geopolitical risks while also projecting confidence that more generalised AI systems are approaching. Across all AI leaders, the message was consistent: move fast to capture advantage, but do so with responsibility, collaboration, and safety at the core.

Consultants Emphasise AI Value & Responsibility

The global consulting firms echoed many of the same themes. McKinsey, Bain, and Accenture all stressed that capturing AI’s value requires leadership, strategy, and organisational change, not just technology.

Photo: Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic; Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind and Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist

2026: The Year AI Delivers, With Eyes on the Future

By the end of Davos, the consensus was clear. AI’s transformative impact is no longer theoretical. Leaders shared real examples of productivity gains, cost reductions, and new growth opportunities that would have seemed implausible just a few years ago.

A World Economic Forum report cited Foxconn and BCG scaling an AI agent ecosystem that automated 80% of decision workflows, unlocking an estimated $800 million in value.

Semiconductor leaders reinforced this optimism, with TSMC’s CEO stating that AI driven demand appears durable and long term, prompting massive investment in capacity expansion.

Even against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, AI emerged as a rare and credible engine of growth. The IMF noted that around 60% of jobs in advanced economies are already being significantly affected or enhanced by AI technologies.

The challenge now is managing this transition responsibly while maintaining public trust.

How Davos Aligns With Aforza’s View on AI in 2026

What is striking is how closely the Davos narrative aligns with the perspective shared this weekend by Aforza CEO Dominic Dinardo on turning AI pilots into real ROI for Consumer Goods teams. While Davos focused on agentic enterprise AI at a macro level, Dominic’s commentary grounded the same principles in day to day commercial reality. Across Trade Promotion, Field Sales, and Commercial Planning, the message was consistent: AI delivers value only when it is applied where it matters most.

Consumer Goods companies are under intense pressure. Promotion inefficiencies are costing millions. Field reps are stretched thinner than ever. Disconnected systems slow execution. AI can solve these problems, but only if it is embedded directly into frontline workflows.

This is precisely why Aforza’s Vertical AI, Ava, is built specifically for Consumer Goods. It is embedded into Retail Execution, Trade Promotion, and Claims processes. It is pre trained on industry specific workflows. And it is fast to deploy through Aforza Accelerate.

Dominic highlighted two lessons that mirror Davos almost exactly. First, start with known, high impact use cases rather than open ended experimentation. Second, get AI into the hands of real field users quickly, not trapped in headquarters pilots.

At Aforza, this approach has already delivered measurable results, including up to a 50% productivity boost for global beverage leaders. The value is not theoretical. It is operational.

The conclusion from Davos and from Aforza is the same. 2026 is the year of execution. Companies that move beyond pilots, focus on proven use cases, deploy AI directly to frontline teams, and measure ROI in weeks rather than years will define the next competitive era.

AI reinvention is no longer episodic. It is continuous, and it is already underway.