Davos Diary: Europe's wake-up call, AI fever, Chandrababu Naidu's comeback, Indian CEOs' party scenes & more

It's finally curtains down on the 55th edition of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in the alpine town of Davos, Switzerland.

It was a gruelling but hugely satisfying week for the two-member crew that represented Moneycontrol here. Over five days, my video journalist and I trudged through snow and icy surfaces to conduct over forty- five interviews, with a mix of global and Indian business leaders, economists, policy-makers, and technologists.

Days starting at the crack of dawn would stretch to midnight because apart from interviews and sessions, the main draw at Davos are the various dinners and parties in the evenings, where heads of state and business leaders lower their guard and open up, giving you an unfiltered peek into what they think and how they operate.

The high points for me this year were conversations with some of the best Artificial Intelligence minds in the world- Google Brain and Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng and Canadian computer scientist and Turing award winner Yoshua Bengio.

Also, the Google media dinner, where Nobel Prize winner and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis outlined the potential of Alphafold and the huge impact that AI will have in crunching research timelines, altering protein structures, and curing diseases. As one tech CEO told us on the sidelines, Google has been doing some pathbreaking work but it's Open AI that ends up hogging most of the attention.

The Bengio interview, incidentally, was pure serendipity. I saw him munching an Apple and sauntering inside the Congress Centre where all the WEF sessions happen. He stopped by when I greeted him, quickly checked his calendar, and gave me ten minutes for an insightful interview on the perils of AI on labour markets and how the world isn't prepared for what's coming. It was a reality check from the breathless AI and agentic utopia that dominated the forum this week.

This time, the first day of the World Economic Forum also coincided with Trump's inauguration at the White House. Trump swiftly signed orders that put paid to America's ties with WHO, its commitment to climate change, and dented dreams of birthright citizenship for children of immigrant workers

While Trump's 'take no prisoners' approach isn't new, there is increasing realisation that Europe is getting left behind in a world that's changing rapidly with the advent of AI. While OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank unveiled the $500 Billion Project Stargate to create AI infrastructure in the US, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta will spend $65 Billion on AI this year. Heavy regulation, a lax work culture, and a lack of intent are hobbling Europe, per many leaders we spoke to here.

Even as the world is still gauging Trump, India remains optimistic.

While former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan told us that India will gain from the China + 1 push from businesses to derisk their supply chains, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the US sees India as a trusted partner. Indian CEOs too were optimistic that booming corporate spending and a pro-business approach in the US will have a positive ruboff effect on India.

The Indian contingent was strong like the previous years, even as some top names skipped the forum this year. At least three Chief Ministers- Chandrababu Naidu, Devendra Fadnavis, and Revanth Reddy made a strong pitch for investments, with six Indian states sharing space on the promenade this year.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who was the first Indian CM to attend WEF way back in 1997, was a huge draw. A top corporate leader said his approach was also among the most efficient. "He's a man on a mission as he has to rebuild an entire state. Our meeting with him started and ended on time. He has action points and a team that immediately creates a WhatsApp group to track the next steps", a CEO who met him said.

What's Davos without the parties? While the ones hosted by JP Morgan and McKinsey are among the most sought-after, the top draws for Indians at Davos are the TCS Davos reception, a dinner organised by Renew's Sumant and Vaishali Sinha, the Bajaj nightcap hosted by Sanjiv Bajaj and the CII Indian reception. The TCS and CII receptions are good places to quickly grab some Indian food if you're tired of all the hard baguettes and bagels. This time at the Tata reception, I was at a table with many TCS executives, who enthusiastically tucked into curd rice and lemon pickle at the end of their meal. Talk about comfort food!

And then, there are the after-parties, that continue at venues like the EX bar and Barry's piano bar well into midnight.

Among celebs spotted at Davos this year, the most unexpected was actor-turned-businessman Vivek Oberoi. He told me he relocated to Dubai five years ago and runs a bunch of businesses, including a four billion fund. It was surreal listening to him talk about AUM, AUD, AI, Blockchain, smart contracts, and more.

At the end of 5 days, I felt dizzy meeting so many people, and processing so many ideas, in multiple venues. I asked a Director of an Indian conglomerate how he was coping. He said, “It’s like speed dating”.

Until next year, Danke Schon!