Davos is happening right now. January 19-23, 2026. The World Economic Forum's 56th Annual Meeting brings together 3,000 leaders from over 130 countries. Record 400 political leaders including 60 heads of state. 850 CEOs. The largest US delegation ever, led by Trump himself.
The theme: "A Spirit of Dialogue."
That's a shift from previous years. 2021 was "The Great Reset"—confident, declarative. 2025 was "Collaboration for the Intelligent Age"—assertive about transformation. 2026 is "A Spirit of Dialogue"—defensive, managing dissent.
The agenda focuses on five areas: geopolitical environment, AI, climate and nature, new sources of growth, and "people and preparedness."
What gets discussed at Davos appears as policy in governments worldwide within 6-12 months. The pattern is documented and observable.
The Historical Pattern
2016: "Fourth Industrial Revolution" introduced. Automation discussions begin. Within 18 months, every major economy launches workforce transformation initiatives.
2020: "Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World." Pandemic preparedness discussed extensively. Event 201—pandemic simulation—occurred October 2019. COVID emerges months later.
2021: "The Great Reset" launched. Klaus Schwab publishes article stating "You'll own nothing and be happy." Within months, "Build Back Better" appears in speeches by Biden, Trudeau, UK government, EU leaders. Same phrase, same framing, coordinated globally.
2022-2023: Digital ID and CBDC acceleration. Sessions focused on digital identity frameworks and central bank digital currencies. By 2023, over 100 countries testing or implementing CBDCs. Digital identity systems rolled out across Europe, Asia, parts of Africa.
2025: "Collaboration for the Intelligent Age." AI regulation frameworks discussed. Within year, EU AI Act passes, US issues executive orders on AI governance, China updates AI regulations. Workforce transformation policies appear in multiple countries.
The cycle: Discussion → Policy → Implementation. Timeline: 6-12 months.
This isn't speculation. It's documented pattern across multiple years and multiple countries.
What "A Spirit of Dialogue" Actually Means
Previous themes were confident declarations. "Reset." "Intelligent Age." These assumed smooth transformation.
2026's theme is different. "Dialogue." "Cooperation in a contested world." "Spirit."
This is defensive language. The system faces resistance. Trump disrupts consensus. Populist movements gain ground. Economic strain increases. Public skepticism grows.
"Spirit of Dialogue" means managing populations through next phase. Not announcing transformation—managing reaction to it.
The five focus areas reveal intent:
"Cooperation in contested world" = coordinating despite geopolitical fractures. Trump threatens tariffs. Denmark refuses to attend over Greenland dispute. China, Brazil, India leaders absent. The coordination mechanism shows cracks.
"Deploying innovation responsibly" = controlled rollout with governance frameworks. Who gets to build AI. Who gets to deploy it. Centralized control mechanisms.
"Building prosperity within planetary boundaries" = managed scarcity. Resource optimization. Population optimization. Fewer people consuming less.
"People and preparedness" = preparing populations for what comes next. Workforce displacement. Economic restructuring. Permanent changes framed as temporary adaptation.
The Agentic AI Transformation
Agentic AI dominates 2026 discussions. Not assistive AI that helps humans work. Autonomous AI that replaces human decision-making entirely.
McKinsey's stated priority for Davos 2026: "Agentic AI Transformation: Capturing the full potential of AI's reimagine moment: Harnessing the new tech to rewire companies and industries."
HCLTech CEO at Davos: "3-5% growth without adding staff. By really amplifying the capability of people, you can deliver growth without needing to add headcount. It will become a lot more agentic and really amplify the potential of people to deliver more, but with a significantly smaller workforce."
Translation: Same output. Fewer humans. Permanent workforce reduction.
Sessions focus on "AI Factories," autonomous agents, Physical AI (robots in manufacturing), agentic commerce (AI making purchases), agentic finance (AI managing money).
C3 AI sessions on "moving from experimentation to production-scale success." Deloitte sessions on "agentic avatar workforces" in healthcare. HCLTech showcasing robots for quality control and inspection.
What agentic AI actually does:
- Automated supply chains: AI triggers payments from verified milestones, no human approval needed
- Smart shopping: AI orders groceries, household goods, specific items when available
- Coordinated purchases: AI plans and pays for entire trips within budget
- Personal finance: AI moves money between accounts based on spending patterns
- Healthcare: AI avatars replace clinicians and administrative teams
Each requires identity verification, payment authorization, centralized governance, audit trails.
The Future of Jobs Report 2025 released at Davos provides the data:
- 92 million jobs displaced by 2030
- 170 million new jobs "created"
- Net positive of 78 million jobs
But the details matter:
- 40% of employers plan to reduce workforce where AI can automate tasks
- 39% of current skills will be obsolete by 2030
- Robotics and automation will displace 5 million MORE jobs than they create
- 86% of businesses expect AI to transform operations by 2030
- Human tasks declining from 47% of work to 33% by 2030
- Automation handling 34% of tasks
- Human-machine collaboration: 33%
The mathematics reveals the problem. Jobs eliminated: cashiers, ticket clerks, administrative assistants, postal workers, data entry clerks, accounting clerks, bank tellers.
Jobs created: AI specialists, data engineers, machine learning researchers, robotics technicians.
The person losing their cashier job doesn't become an AI specialist. The administrative assistant doesn't become a data engineer. Different skill sets. Different education requirements. Different capabilities.
The "net positive" hides permanent underclass creation. The new jobs go to different people. The displaced workers face permanent unemployment or underemployment.
"Reskilling programs" get announced to make this politically palatable. But reskilling into what? If 40% of employers plan workforce reduction, where do the reskilled workers go?
The Ownership Consolidation
Remember 2021: "You'll own nothing and be happy."
2026: The infrastructure to make that real.
Sessions discuss digital platforms creating "70% of new economic value over next decade." "Stakeholder capitalism" where corporations manage social outcomes. Energy transition requiring massive "infrastructure investment." Agentic commerce where AI makes purchases on your behalf.
The ownership model already shifted:
Software: Adobe moved from selling Photoshop for $600 one-time to $55/month forever. Microsoft followed with Office 365. Every software company converted to recurring revenue. You don't own the software. You rent access.
Cars: BMW tried charging monthly fee for heated seats already installed. Tesla locks battery capacity behind subscription. Mercedes offers acceleration boost for $1,200 annually. The hardware exists in your car. You pay recurring fee to access it.
Housing: Institutional investors bought 20% of single-family homes sold in 2023. BlackRock, Invitation Homes, Blackstone convert owned housing to permanent rentals. Homes purchased during crises when prices drop. Rented permanently. Never return to individual ownership market.
The mathematics of rent extraction:
Sell product once: $500 revenue per customer.
Rent product at $10/month: $120 first year, $600 after five years, $1,200 after ten years.
Customer pays more. Owns nothing. Cannot resell. Access revoked when payments stop.
Now add agentic AI. Your AI agent manages subscriptions, makes purchases, handles transactions. You don't own the AI agent. You don't own the platforms it uses. You don't own the infrastructure it operates on.
Digital platforms create 70% of economic value. You access these platforms. You don't own them. Platform owners collect rent on every transaction, every purchase, every service.
BlackRock manages $10 trillion in assets. Vanguard manages $7 trillion. State Street manages $4 trillion. Together: largest shareholders in 88% of S&P 500 companies.
They own stakes in the platforms. They own the companies converting products to subscriptions. They own the housing being converted to rentals.
Asset consolidation at scale. Fewer owners. More renters. Permanent extraction.
The endpoint: A class that owns everything. A class that owns nothing. Permanent rent flowing upward.
The Population Question
Sessions discuss "investing in people," "demographic transitions," "sustainable development," "planetary boundaries," "workforce preparedness."
What's not being said directly: automation makes large populations redundant from capital's perspective.
The economic logic shifted:
Agricultural age: More people = more production. Labor-intensive farming needed many workers.
Industrial age: More people = more production. Factories needed workers. More population = more consumers = more economic activity.
Automated age: More people = more costs. AI and robots produce. Humans consume. The equation reversed.
The data points from Davos 2026:
- 86% of businesses expect AI to transform operations by 2030
- Human tasks declining from 47% to 33%
- Automation handling 34% of tasks
- "Significantly smaller workforce" delivering same output
- 3-5% growth without adding headcount
HCLTech CEO: "Jobs will become more agentic with AI, reducing the need for physical assistance. It's very people-intensive today. The way AI is evolving, it will become a lot more agentic and really amplify the potential of people to deliver more, but with a significantly smaller workforce."
Smaller workforce. Same output. Humans becoming economically redundant.
Fertility collapse occurring globally:
- South Korea: 0.72 births per woman
- China: 1.09
- Italy: 1.24
- United States: 1.64
- Japan: 1.20
- Replacement rate: 2.1
Every developed economy below replacement. Population decline accelerating.
The economic conditions that supported large families systematically dismantled:
- Single income cannot support household (required dual income)
- Housing unaffordable relative to wages (institutional investors drove prices up)
- Childcare costs exceed middle-class income
- Education costs require decades of debt
- Having children = economic irrationality
This isn't accident. It's incentive structure.
Large populations made sense when labor was valuable. More workers = more production. Automation changes the equation. Workers become costs, not assets.
Japan provides preview: Aging population. Low birth rate. Immigration restricted. Instead of collapse: automation accelerated. Robots in warehouses, restaurants, elder care. GDP per capita maintained despite population decline.
This is the model being discussed at Davos. Not explicitly. Through "demographic transitions," "sustainable development," "planetary boundaries," "workforce preparedness."
Decode the language: Preparing populations for redundancy. Managing decline. Optimizing resource allocation for smaller, more controlled population.
The Disease Management Business Model
Sessions discuss "pandemic preparedness," Women's Health Impact Tracking platform launch, healthcare innovation through AI, "agentic avatar workforces" replacing healthcare workers, post-COVID "workforce shortages" solved by automation.
What's not being discussed: Goldman Sachs 2018 report titled "The Genome Revolution."
The report asked: "Is curing patients a sustainable business model?"
The analysis concluded: "The potential to deliver 'one shot cures' is one of the most attractive aspects of gene therapy. However, such treatments offer a very different outlook with regard to recurring revenue versus chronic therapies."
Translation: Curing disease eliminates the patient as revenue source. Managing disease creates permanent customer.
The pharmaceutical model that's profitable:
Insulin: Production cost $5 per vial. Retail price in US: $300. Patients have no alternative. They pay or die. Companies optimize pricing at maximum extraction point before deaths exceed profits.
Hepatitis C: Gilead Sciences developed cure in 2014. Charged $84,000 for 12-week treatment. Cured permanently. Company's stock dropped after cure rollout because revenue became one-time instead of ongoing.
Cancer treatment: Costs increased 10% annually for two decades. Not because treatment improved proportionally. Because customers will pay everything when facing death.
Chronic management: Statins for cholesterol. Daily use indefinitely. Antidepressants. Daily use indefinitely. Blood pressure medication. Daily use indefinitely. All generate recurring revenue.
The incentive structure is explicit:
- Sick people = profitable customers
- Healthy people = no revenue
- Dead people = no revenue
- Chronically sick people = maximum recurring revenue
This isn't conspiracy. It's business model. Shareholders demand returns. Curing disease doesn't maximize returns. Managing disease does.
Davos 2026 healthcare sessions frame everything as innovation:
"Agentic avatar workforces" in healthcare. Deloitte session describes: "Tools like agentic avatar workforces can collaborate fluidly with clinicians and administrative teams, while cloud-based, secure digital solutions help deliver efficient care."
Translation: AI replacing doctors, nurses, administrators. Lower costs for system. Protocol-based treatment. No human judgment.
"Pandemic preparedness" infrastructure. The same theme from 2020. Building systems, surveillance networks, response mechanisms. Tested during COVID. Normalized as necessary.
Biotech advances: mRNA platforms, gene editing, personalized medicine. All expensive. All requiring ongoing treatment. All creating recurring revenue streams.
Women's Health Impact Tracking platform: Monitoring and tracking women's health globally. Data collection. Behavioral patterns. Intervention frameworks.
The sessions don't mention Goldman Sachs report. They don't discuss profit incentives. They frame everything as progress, efficiency, accessibility.
But the incentive structure remains: chronic management generates more revenue than cures. AI reduces labor costs. Monitoring creates data. Biotech creates expensive ongoing treatments.
The system optimizes for what's rewarded.
The Surveillance Infrastructure
Sessions focus on AI governance frameworks, cybersecurity, digital identity systems, agentic AI requiring identity verification.
Why agentic AI requires surveillance:
AI agents making purchases need payment systems. Payment systems need verified identity. Automated transactions need audit trails. "Centralized governance" ensures compliance.
The infrastructure being built:
Digital identity: Who you are. Verified. Tracked. Required for accessing services.
CBDC/digital payments: What you buy. Where you spend. When you transact. All visible.
AI agents: Acting on your behalf. With full transaction history. With spending patterns. With behavioral data.
Cybersecurity: Protecting this grid from interference. Not protecting your privacy. Protecting the system's ability to monitor and control.
Sessions discuss tools emerging for "agentic commerce and finance":
Catena Labs and Skyfire pair identity with payments. Traditional banks offer "intent-driven, agentic money movement that listens for user cues." Platforms enable "automated billing, pricing models, ROI tracking." Agents buying products via "agentic checkout and programmable wallet."
Every transaction requires identity verification. Every purchase generates data. Every AI action gets logged.
The result: Perfect information. Perfect price discrimination. Maximum extraction.
Sessions on "trust in AI" and "responsible deployment" decode as:
"Trust" = accepting that AI monitors everything
"Responsible" = controlled by approved centralized entities
"Governance frameworks" = who gets to build AI (concentration of control)
The surveillance grid isn't separate from agentic AI. It's requirement for agentic AI to function. Can't have autonomous agents making purchases without identity verification, payment authorization, transaction tracking, centralized oversight.
Davos sessions present this as efficiency, convenience, security. The capability being built: total visibility into economic activity. Programmable money. Geographic limits. Spending restrictions. Expiration dates.
This is CBDC infrastructure without calling it that.
The Trump Wildcard
Trump attending Davos 2026 with largest-ever US delegation: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, special envoy Steve Witkoff, adviser Jared Kushner.
He's threatening tariffs on Europe over Greenland. Denmark refused to attend. Zelensky canceled appearance. China, Brazil, India leaders not attending.
Geopolitical fractures visible.
McKinsey partner Eric Kutcher: "It's going to be about who is there, much more so than what you see in the topics."
Translation: Geopolitics dominating headlines. But economic agenda runs regardless.
What Trump's presence reveals:
Davos coordination model worked when West was unified. Shared consensus. Aligned interests. Policy coordination smooth.
Trump breaks consensus. Tariffs. "America First." Greenland threats. Disrupts smooth coordination.
European elites losing control of narrative. Traditional alliances strained. Global governance mechanisms challenged.
But observe what continues:
Corporate leadership stays constant. Tech CEOs present every year. Central bankers coordinating. Consultancies implementing frameworks. The economic agenda—automation, consolidation, control infrastructure—proceeding regardless of political theater.
Presidents change. Corporate leadership doesn't. Political positions rotate. Asset owners remain.
The agenda direction unchanged: AI replacing workers, assets consolidating, surveillance expanding, ownership converting to subscription.
Trump attending or boycotting Davos doesn't change these trajectories. They follow incentives, not political preferences.
Who Benefits
The attendees who return every year:
Larry Fink (BlackRock CEO, $10 trillion in assets managed). Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan CEO). Jensen Huang (Nvidia CEO). Marc Benioff (Salesforce CEO). Tech executives managing platforms. Central bankers coordinating monetary policy. McKinsey, Deloitte, Accenture implementing frameworks.
The same faces. The same companies. The same coordination.
The wealth data:
Top 0.1% owns 20% of all wealth. Top 1% owns 35%. Bottom 50% owns 2%. This concentration increased every year since 1980.
Recessions hurt workers. Recoveries benefit asset owners. 2008 financial crisis: workers lost homes, asset owners bought them cheap. 2020 COVID crisis: small businesses closed, corporate chains expanded.
The pattern holds across every economic shock.
Davos attendees own the assets: platforms, infrastructure, housing, companies. Policies discussed at Davos serve asset owners:
- Subscription models = recurring revenue (benefits asset owners)
- Automation = labor cost reduction (benefits asset owners)
- Population decline = less resource competition (benefits asset owners)
- Surveillance = perfect information for pricing (benefits asset owners)
- Consolidation = fewer competitors (benefits asset owners)
This isn't conspiracy. It's incentive alignment. Capital seeks maximum return. Technology enables maximum extraction. Regulations written by/for capital. Davos is coordination mechanism.
Governments implement what capital decides. Six to twelve months after Davos, the policies appear.
What to Watch For in Next 6-12 Months
Based on 2026 Davos discussions, expect these to appear as policy:
Agentic AI regulation frameworks. Who can build autonomous AI. Who can deploy it. Licensing requirements. "Responsible AI" guidelines favoring large players. Concentration of control.
Workforce reduction announcements. Framed as "AI-driven efficiency gains." "Doing more with less." Permanent positions converting to contract/gig work. "Rightsizing for automated future."
Digital identity rollouts. Required for agentic commerce. Required for government services. Required for financial transactions. Framed as "convenient and secure."
Healthcare automation expansion. AI diagnosis platforms. Telehealth expansion. Reduced hospital staff. "Avatar" healthcare workers. Framed as solving "workforce shortages."
Reskilling programs announced. Government-funded training. For jobs that won't exist. Makes workforce reduction politically palatable. Called "investing in people."
Subscription model expansion. More products becoming services. More monthly fees for what you used to own. "Access not ownership." "Sustainable consumption."
"Preparedness" initiatives. Pandemic preparedness infrastructure. Climate resilience programs. Economic resilience frameworks. All requiring monitoring/control mechanisms.
The language to decode:
- "Amplifying human potential" = using fewer humans
- "Just transition" = managed unemployment
- "Inclusive AI" = everyone monitored equally
- "Responsible deployment" = controlled by approved entities
- "People-centered" = surveilled, managed populations
- "Sustainable" = reduced consumption (forced)
- "Resilient" = accepting new normal (lower standards)
- "Stakeholder capitalism" = corporate governance replacing democratic processes
- "Spirit of dialogue" = managing dissent
The Complete System Logic
The pieces connect:
Ownership consolidation: Assets concentrating (BlackRock, Vanguard, institutional investors). Everything becoming subscription/rental. Platforms creating 70% of economic value that you access but don't own. Agentic AI managing your subscriptions that you don't control. Result: permanent rent extraction, no wealth accumulation for most.
Population optimization: Automation makes large workforces unnecessary. Fertility collapse in all developed nations. Economic conditions make children unaffordable. "Demographic transition" presented as natural. Result: smaller, more manageable population.
Disease management: Cures aren't profitable (one-time revenue). Chronic management is profitable (recurring revenue). AI healthcare reduces human workers (cost optimization). Biotech focuses on expensive ongoing treatments. Result: sick populations generating recurring revenue.
Surveillance infrastructure: Agentic AI requires identity verification. Digital payments require transaction tracking. "Governance" requires centralized control. Cybersecurity protects the grid. Result: total economic visibility and control.
This is one system, not separate trends. Each reinforces the others:
Fewer people = easier to manage and monitor.
Owning nothing = no independent wealth or autonomy.
Chronic disease = recurring revenue and dependency.
Total surveillance = perfect information and control.
AI managing everything = minimal human labor needed.
The trajectory endpoint if current direction continues:
Small class owning all assets: platforms, infrastructure, housing, productive capacity.
Large class owning nothing, renting everything, economically redundant.
AI performing most productive tasks.
Humans as managed population, not productive workforce.
Total visibility into all economic activity.
Programmable access to money and services based on compliance.
The Information Exists
Davos 2026 is happening right now. January 19-23.
The sessions are livestreamed. Over 200 sessions available publicly. The reports are published: Future of Jobs Report 2025, Goldman Sachs analyses, WEF publications, McKinsey frameworks.
The attendees are known. The companies are listed. The government officials are documented.
The historical pattern is verifiable:
2020: Pandemic preparedness discussed → COVID emerges months later
2021: "Great Reset" launched → "Build Back Better" appears globally within months
2021: "You'll own nothing" published → subscription models accelerate
2023: Digital ID discussed → pilot programs launch in 100+ countries
2025: "Intelligent Age" theme → AI regulation frameworks pass globally
2026: "Spirit of Dialogue" → ?
The cycle: Discussion → Policy → Implementation. Timeline: 6-12 months.
This isn't conspiracy theory. It's documented coordination. Public. Livestreamed. Published.
Between those who own assets and those who implement policy. Optimizing for capital returns, not human welfare. Following incentives to their logical conclusions.
The agentic AI transformation: 92 million jobs displaced, 39% of skills obsolete, significantly smaller workforce.
The ownership consolidation: platforms you access but don't own, subscriptions replacing purchases, permanent rent extraction.
The population question: automation making large workforces redundant, fertility collapse globally, economic conditions making families unaffordable.
The disease model: chronic management more profitable than cures, AI reducing healthcare workers, biotech creating expensive ongoing treatments.
The surveillance grid: identity verification required, transactions tracked, AI agents monitored, centralized governance implemented.
Same people coordinating: Larry Fink, tech CEOs, central bankers, consultancies. Same agenda direction: automation, consolidation, control.
What's discussed at Davos appears in your country's policy within months. The pattern holds across multiple years, multiple countries, multiple topics.
The information exists. The sessions are accessible. The documents are published. The pattern is observable.
What you do with this information is your choice.