Davos Crowd Focuses on AI Returns After Year of Heavy Investment

If a key focus at last year’s World Economic Forum in Davos was the need for massive private and public investments to support artificial intelligence development, this year’s event was more about proving the payoff.

Packed into the crowded AI House, one of the conference’s endless corporate spaces, Rasmus Rothe, from the house’s co-host Merantix, declared 2026 the “year of AI ROI.” Slogans plastered across the Davos promenade guaranteed companies like Cisco and IBM had found the formula for returns on AI investment.

OpenAI executives, meanwhile, debuted new education, health and cybersecurity initiatives, framing the moves as part of a push ...