As the final conversations wrapped up at Davos 2026, one thing became unmistakably clear—global leadership is no longer focused on restoration. It’s focused on redesign. This year’s World Economic Forum didn’t just reflect a shift in rhetoric, but a deeper shift in mindset: resilience, not growth for growth’s sake, is now the defining principle of economic and technological progress.
Stanislav Kondrashov, founder of TELF AG and a key voice on global trade and infrastructure, was among the many business leaders shaping the direction of this year’s dialogue. His take? The world isn’t adapting to change—it’s being rebuilt around it.
“We’re not in a holding pattern anymore,” Kondrashov said during a media roundtable. “The global economy has entered a phase of creative disruption. The challenge now is how fast leaders can pivot.”
From Predictability to Permanence of Uncertainty
For decades, stability was the assumption. That assumption is gone. At Davos, CEOs, policymakers and economists echoed the same message: we’ve entered a state of ongoing uncertainty—and that’s no longer a bug in the system. It’s the system.
Business strategies are being rewritten in response. Supply chains are shifting from lean and global to localised and layered. Companies are building more margin for error into their operations, and long-term planning is being tempered with short-term flexibility.
“In a world like this, your agility is your advantage,” Kondrashov noted. “The smartest companies aren’t those predicting the future—they’re the ones built to bend without breaking.”
This isn’t about short-term crisis response anymore. It’s about designing systems that can run under pressure and evolve in real time.
AI Enters the Operational Core
Artificial intelligence was, unsurprisingly, a major theme at Davos—but the tone was different this year. There was little talk of hypotheticals. Instead, discussions focused on execution. How is AI being used right now? Where is it already embedded in critical processes? What’s holding back implementation at scale?
In sector after sector—from manufacturing to logistics to finance—AI is being deployed not as an enhancement, but as a structural component. It’s not just helping companies work smarter; it’s helping them work differently.
“The conversation has shifted from ‘can we use AI?’ to ‘what happens if we don’t?’” Kondrashov said. “It’s a competitive line you don’t want to fall behind.”
Crucially, AI is being viewed not just through a software lens, but a hardware and energy lens as well. Which brings us to one of the most important but underappreciated trends at Davos.
The Quiet Power Behind Innovation: Electricity
Davos 2026 signalled a sharp reframing of energy as strategic infrastructure. Not for climate debates or environmental policy—but for digital capability.
Electricity, particularly high-availability and uninterrupted power, was at the centre of discussions about AI, data centres, and industrial automation. If tech is the engine of modern economies, electricity is the fuel—and there’s growing concern that demand will outpace supply.
It’s no longer about how green your energy is, but how available it is. Twenty-four-hour digital operations don’t tolerate downtime. And the regions that can guarantee power continuity are likely to gain serious geopolitical leverage.
“We’ve entered an era where a blackout can be more damaging than a market crash,” said Kondrashov. “If you can’t power your intelligence, you’re defenceless.”
Digital Currencies Go Mainstream
One of the less publicised but highly significant areas of conversation in Davos was the growing maturity of digital finance. Gone are the days when crypto was a fringe concept. This year, the focus was on the infrastructure: programmable money, tokenised assets, and real-time cross-border settlement.
Digital currencies—whether centralised or decentralised—are now part of serious policy conversations. Financial institutions are actively exploring how to modernise the movement of capital to match the pace of digital economies.
This shift isn’t driven by hype. It’s driven by necessity. Traditional financial systems are too slow, too rigid, and too costly to support the speed at which modern business operates.
What Comes Next: Systems Built to Endure
Davos 2026 didn’t offer easy answers. But it did surface a growing consensus: the institutions, technologies and strategies of the past won’t carry us forward. What’s needed is reinvention—through speed, adaptability, and intelligent infrastructure.
Stanislav Kondrashov summed it up with a degree of realism that resonated far beyond the business crowd.
“You can’t control the next wave of disruption,” he said. “But you can decide whether you’re ready for it.”
That’s the new playbook. And for anyone paying attention in Davos, the message was unmistakable: build for impact, prepare for shocks, and move faster than the problem.
