DisrupTV Special Edition at Davos 2026: AI, Geopolitics, and the Race to Build Trust at Global Scale

DisrupTV Special Edition at Davos 2026: AI, Geopolitics, and the Race to Build Trust at Global Scale

Broadcast live from Davos during the World Economic Forum 2026, this special edition of DisrupTV brought together global leaders, technologists, and strategists to unpack one urgent question: How do we lead, govern, and collaborate in an AI-driven world defined by geopolitical uncertainty?

Co-hosted by Vala Afshar, Chief Digital Evangelist at Salesforce, and R “Ray” Wang, CEO and Founder of Constellation Research, the episode explored AI’s expanding role across healthcare, enterprise operations, national competitiveness, and global cooperation. Guests included Mark Minivich, Christian Limark, Dr. Travis Oliphant, Sandy Carter, and Jim Harris, each offering a distinct perspective on how AI is reshaping outcomes—and expectations—across industries.

Davos 2026: From Dialogue to Action

R "Ray" Wang opened the session by framing Davos 2026 around a clear mandate: fostering cooperation, broadening perspectives, and solving shared global challenges. Unlike previous years, this Davos carried a heightened sense of urgency—driven by geopolitical tensions, economic realignment, and the accelerating impact of artificial intelligence on GDP, labor, and national security.

Vala Afshar highlighted that while AI dominated conversations across Davos, the real differentiator was how leaders talked about trust, ethics, and implementation, not just innovation.

Geopolitics, Resilience, and AI as Economic Infrastructure

Mark Minivich, President of Going Global Ventures, emphasized that AI is no longer a future differentiator—it is fast becoming economic infrastructure. Nations that fail to integrate AI responsibly risk falling behind in productivity, resilience, and competitiveness.

Minivich noted that compared to prior years, Davos 2026 reflected sharper geopolitical realities:

• Rising fragmentation between global power blocs

• Increased focus on resilience over efficiency

• The urgent need for public-private collaboration on reskilling and workforce readiness

As AI reshapes industries, governments and enterprises alike must rethink how they prepare workers—not just for new jobs, but for continuous adaptation.

AI in Healthcare: From Experimentation to Clinical Impact

Healthcare emerged as one of the most compelling domains for applied AI.

Christian Limark, CTO at Stanford Healthcare and Stanford School of Medicine, shared how Stanford is integrating AI directly into clinical workflows—not as experimental tools, but as decision-support systems embedded in daily practice. Stanford’s AI-powered chat and EHR platforms are helping clinicians:

• Improve diagnostic decision-making

• Reduce cognitive load

• Deliver faster, more consistent patient care

Crucially, Limark stressed that AI succeeds in healthcare only when it augments human judgment—not replaces it.

Trust, Open Source, and Data Sovereignty in the Age of AI

Dr. Travis Oliphant, founder and chief architect of major open-source AI frameworks, underscored that trust is the currency of AI adoption. As organizations deploy AI at scale, questions of data sovereignty, transparency, and governance become existential.

Oliphant argued that open-source communities play a critical role in:

• Enabling sovereign AI systems

• Preventing over-reliance on opaque black-box models

• Allowing nations and enterprises to maintain control over data and outcomes

Without trust, even the most powerful AI systems will face resistance—from regulators, workers, and citizens alike.

Ethical AI and the Reality Check Leaders Need

Sandy Carter, bestselling author of AI First and Unstoppable, brought a sobering reality check to the conversation: only 15% of the world’s information has been digitized.

This gap has major implications. Leaders often overestimate AI’s completeness while underestimating bias, data gaps, and ethical risks. Carter emphasized that ethical AI requires:

• A clear understanding of AI’s limitations

• Intentional governance and guardrails

• Diverse voices shaping AI systems

At Davos, she also spotlighted the importance of inclusive leadership, hosting sessions on ethical AI and the “Unstoppable Women of Web3 and AI.”

Reinventing Business Processes with AI

Closing the episode, Jim Harris shared a powerful enterprise example from Ernst & Young, where AI transformed a 46-hour risk management process into a 15-minute workflow for new users.

The key lesson? AI value doesn’t come from automating broken processes—it comes from reimagining them entirely. Harris advocated for a “blank first” mindset:

• Start with outcomes, not existing workflows

• Design AI-native processes

• Measure impact in speed, accuracy, and decision quality

Key Takeaways

• AI is now geopolitical infrastructure, influencing GDP, competitiveness, and national resilience

• Trust, transparency, and data sovereignty are foundational to AI adoption

• Healthcare AI is moving from pilots to production, with real clinical impact

• Ethical AI requires humility, especially given how little data is truly digitized

• The biggest AI wins come from reinventing processes, not automating the past

Final Thoughts: Leadership in an Era of Converging Uncertainty

The DisrupTV Davos 2026 Special Edition made one thing clear: the future of AI will be shaped less by algorithms—and more by leadership choices.

As R "Ray" Wang noted, this is not a moment for incremental thinking. Leaders must balance innovation with responsibility, speed with trust, and ambition with cooperation. In a world where AI, geopolitics, and human systems converge, those who lead with intention will define what comes next.

Stay tuned for more DisrupTV insights from the world’s most influential conversations—where technology, leadership, and humanity intersect.

Related Episodes

If you found Special Edition Episode valuable, here are a few others that align in theme or extend similar conversations:

• The Agentic AI Revolution: Hidden Risks, AI Factories & the Rise of the Introvert Leader | DisrupTV Ep. 420
• From Drift to Discipline: How AI-Powered Leaders Hone Strategy & Reinvent Enterprise Software | DisrupTV Ep. 421
• Leadership in the Age of AI-Driven Cyber Threats | DisrupTV Ep. 423