Davos 2026: Instigations for a Year of Intelligent Growth

By Caroline Mackenzie Kennedy, Chief Commercial Officer at Material

Reflecting on Davos and many powerful conversations surrounding the 2026 World Economic Forum, it was a week of contrasts – long-term vision and urgent tactical engagement, relationships and resets, dialogue and action. It’s all in keeping with the provocative nature of change, but the scale, pace and polarities are unprecedented.

The mandate to generate growth through change, and by changing, both for stakeholders and for society, is the priority of business leadership. Having been in the great company of our CEO Laila Worrell and the many Material clients who were part of this year’s WEF annual meeting, I predict we’ll look back on 2026 as a historically pivotal conference in the grand scheme and one that instigated practical action in the immediate.

Igniting the year ahead:

AI is changing where and how people use energy in the caloric sense, as much as in consumption of the commodity.

AI has overwhelming potential. The more proactively we engage in useful everyday-life, creative, professional and enterprise applications, the greater the influence we exert over the shape of AI’s contribution to society through value creation. From basic productivity to epiphanic innovation, the possibilities for people with ideas and curiosity appear to be both democratic and limitless. The opportunity for bottom up transformation has never been more powerful.

For any employed person who has ever thought their company can do better, be better or bring more to customers, its workforce and the world – this is the moment of your agency. AI invites anyone with an appetite to play a role more active than observer and commentator. In other words, AI is not someone else’s opportunity. It’s ours and it’s yours – the opportunity to be infinitely imaginative, innovative and to make stuff happen.

Business leaders who unleash this energy across their workforces with cultural openness, supportive learning and shared incentive will reap untold rewards. In the most complex and interconnected environment that humans have ever navigated, Material client Pearson with Ginny Cartwright Ziegler brought the perspective of learning science and enterprise transformation to Davos and the WSJ Leadership Institute, providing tangible solutions for continuous learning paced to the changes reshaping industry.

Energy, across every part of the sector, is entering a renaissance and will add cultural force to its status as commodity.

Decades of advocacy for novel, responsible and renewable sources of energy culminate in an era of surging demand and capital that will accelerate the vision of cleaner, more efficient, more sustainable energy worldwide. Blackstone’s Stephen A. Schwarzman brought capstone common sense to a lively conversation about the insatiable demand for compute which makes everything behind the meter investable. This adds a potent business case to the undeniable virtues of designing a better world.

These are complicated changes and businesses must bring customers and consumers along. Energy is becoming everyone’s urgent business. Sector leaders will need to build trusted brands – emerging with clear narratives and thought leadership for an innovative and change-embracing energy world. Admiring the leadership of Trane Technologies in this space as they challenge what’s possible at the forefront of innovation.

The powerful work of Water.org led by Matt Damon with Gap, Amazon and other sponsors, exemplifies the potency of coalition in the transformation of 85 million people’s futures, simply with safe water.

Likewise and less lauded Pfizer led by CEO Dr. Albert Bourla in taking on the challenge of balancing the cost of pharmaceutical innovation with fair, patient-friendly drug pricing. Leadership creates value, access and agency for people.

Building Momentum

It’s tempting to linger on the question of where to begin, as it always is in complexity and an accelerating change environment. So it was the perpetually provocative, New York Times best-selling author and coach Keith Ferrazzi who made the work of going first and going together, both intimate and authentic at the WSJ CMO Council Lunch. Powerful momentum came from the vulnerability to express what each of us is individually wrestling with right in this moment. In the spirit of dialogue – WEF’s theme this year – the most authentic conversations cut through the noise.

Davos 2026 was a conference of vivid contrasts, making some choices ahead much less murky. I left the mountains grateful for a clear view of the dynamics shaping executive decision making and energized by fresh questions that need deep human insight. There could be no better time to be interested in people, curious about how they think, able to discern why they should care and invested in creating intelligent growth.