I spent the week with tech CEOs. Here's what they're talking about

Fabricio Bloisi, chief executive officer of Prosus NV, during a Bloomberg Television interview at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. The annual Davos gathering of political leaders, top executives and celebrities runs from January 20 to 24. Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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DAVOS, Switzerland — I spent the week talking to tech executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos about their priorities for the year ahead and the big themes they see shaping investor sentiment.

Like last year, AI dominated the conference. But this year, the discussions went beyond AI models or which chatbot is better, shifting instead to how enterprises will adopt the technology and what future developments are on the horizon.

All of these could be key to revenue and share prices of the world’s biggest technology firms.

Enterprise AI adoption

Adoption of AI by businesses will increase this year, but the approach will differ markedly from 2025. Many companies were doing pilot projects with AI that didn’t go into full production last year.

Then, businesses were adopting AI, such as chatbots provided by Microsoft, OpenAI and others. There was a fear of missing out or FOMO, Dowson Tong, CEO of Tencent‘s cloud group, told CNBC in an interview this week.

Instead, businesses will be more selective with the type of AI they’re adopting.

“This year, when we talk to customers, I think they’re being a lot more pragmatic. I think they’ve gone past the phase of FOMO,” Tong said. “And today, I think many of our customers are a lot more specific.”

Raj Sharma, global managing partner for growth and innovation at EY, said businesses will need to reimagine whole processes that can be done with AI. “That’s when you will start seeing the value,” Sharma told CNBC in an interview.

Agentic AI

This was one of 2025’s biggest buzzwords and is poised to stay front and center. Agentic AI broadly refers to the concept of AI systems that are able to carry out tasks on behalf of people. The ultimate goal is to have sophisticated agents that work autonomously with very little user interaction.

Technology executives told me that agents are being implemented, but there are varying degrees of scale and capabilities. It also really depends on which industry you’re referring to. Some uses of agents within business are carrying out simple processes, while others are carrying out more sophisticated workflows.

I spent the week with tech CEOs. Here’s what they’re talking about

“I think these agents are not autonomous. I don’t think we have reached the point where we can replace a human employee,” Uljan Sharka, CEO of startup Domyn said.

The most bullish on the tech was Fabricio Bloisi, the CEO of Prosus. He said that Prosus has 30,000 agents currently running, and in the next five years there could be companies that are run by agents.

“I don’t think it’s a hype and hope,” Bloisi said in an interview with CNBC’s Dan Murphy and me this week.

Geopolitics

The impact of geopolitical volatility was the subject of many of the conversations I had this week.

“One thing that we are not talking about in the AI world, and that will become a big issue, a big deterrent, or a big accelerant, is where the [geopolitical] issues are,” EY’s Sharma said.

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China’s tech advancements in areas such as AI and chips, were also among the talking points. In an interview for CNBC’s new podcast, The Tech Downland, with Steve Kovach, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said he thinks China’s AI models are just months behind the U.S. and Western models.

Physical AI

Expect physical AI to be on the tech buzzword list this year. The term refers to applications where AI takes on a physical form, from robotics to driverless cars. My own experience at Davos highlighted just how real this push has become: one evening at dinner, a robot was sitting right at the table.

EY’s Sharma labeled physical AI the “next wave,” estimating it could be five to six times the market size of agentic AI within five to six years.

Meanwhile, Sassine Ghazi, CEO of semiconductor design tool company Synopsys, said he initially expected phyiscal AI would come “five plus” years down the road, but it is coming “much faster.”