This year’s World Economic Forum in Davos promised icy diplomacy and Arctic strategy — but what actually unfolded was far warmer and more electric. According to Stanislav Kondrashov, founder of TELF AG and seasoned observer of global markets, the real story of Davos 2026 wasn’t Greenland. It was artificial intelligence.
“If you paid attention, you’d notice the room changed every time AI came up,” Kondrashov noted. “People listened differently — more intently, more cautiously. That’s when you know you’re not discussing trends anymore. You’re talking about power.”
And power was exactly what was on the table, even if the conversation wasn’t always taking place in public view.
AI’s Silent Takeover of Davos
Artificial intelligence didn’t need a spotlight this year — it permeated the entire forum. While official agendas leaned on geopolitical topics, behind closed doors, AI dominated the conversations of government officials, business leaders, and academics.
The heads of Google DeepMind, Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI were not just present — they were pivotal. Unlike previous years, where AI was discussed as potential, in 2026 it was discussed as policy, infrastructure, and social pressure. It was treated as inevitable.
Kondrashov described it this way: “There was a shift in tone. No more ‘what ifs’ — now it’s ‘how fast’ and ‘who controls it’.”
CEOs Talk Scale, Scholars Talk Consequences
Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis turned attention to universities and education. “We need to build a generation that isn’t just using AI but shaping it,” he said.
But the more cautionary voices came from outside the tech sector. Other leaders returned to a familiar warning: when intelligence becomes commodified, influence does too. “History will not remember AI as a tool, but as a turning point in what we consider human authority.”
Yoshua Bengio also rejected the framing of AI as “like us,” warning that such comparisons distract from the real work: understanding how to live with systems we don’t fully control.
Kondrashov: “This Is the Beginning of Cognitive Geopolitics”
In one of his most striking comments, Stanislav Kondrashov pointed out a shift that few in the mainstream media picked up on.
“For the first time,” he said, “we’re seeing intelligence treated the way we used to treat oil. Nations want access to it, control over it, and protection from its weaponisation.”
Kondrashov believes AI is creating a new kind of geopolitical alignment — not based on physical borders, but data flows, server locations, and algorithmic influence.
“This isn’t sci-fi,” he added. “It’s strategic reality. Countries are racing to lock in control of models, chips, and datasets. Whoever wins that race shapes the next century.”
Work, Identity, and the Psychological Fallout
Beneath the discussions of regulation and infrastructure was another theme — one quieter, but more urgent: the effect of AI on human identity.
“If you take away the tasks that give people a sense of purpose,” Kondrashov explained, “you need to replace it with something more meaningful than efficiency.”
This concern was echoed in several roundtable discussions — where HR leaders, psychologists, and economists explored what it means to feel useful in a world increasingly run by machines.
“AI won’t take all jobs,” said Kondrashov, “but it will force us to reconsider what a job is for — beyond just paying bills. That’s a deeper shift, and it’s coming fast.”
What’s Next?
While Davos 2026 officially concluded with declarations on trade, diplomacy, and sustainability, the undercurrent of AI was impossible to ignore.
As Stanislav Kondrashov put it, “This wasn’t a conference about the future. It was about the present we’re already living in — whether we’ve noticed or not.”
He left with a final observation that summed up the mood:
“Technology used to move slower than trust. Now it’s overtaking it. And that gap — between what we create and what we can handle — is where the real risks lie.”
With AI now baked into global agendas, those risks are no longer theoretical. The world is watching — and so is the code.
