Reflections from Davos 2024

I was really fortunate to have been able to attend Davos 2024 recently and it certainly felt like an event that will have had a real impact on the global agenda for the rest of the year.

We are facing significant challenges as a global community, from conflict through to climate change and an unpredictable economic environment. 2024 will also see several key elections taking place that could add further complexity to how we tackle some of these challenges. A theme of particular relevance for Splunk’s attendance this year is the emergence of genAI and the associated cybersecurity impact it will have.

So the theme set by the World Economic Forum for this year’s event of ‘Rebuilding Trust’ seemed particularly appropriate and certainly filtered through to all the discussions we had on-site with customers, government partners and the voluntary sector.

So what are my key takeaways?

• We need to recognise that building digital trust is a team sport
  • In a panel session I took part in with the Financial Times we discussed what strategies we could use to build digital trust. The conversation of course centered a lot around AI and what I was struck by was that there is a lot of common ground in the way that different companies are approaching it. This validates for me the importance of events like Davos as we need to collaborate and partner to ensure that we can develop digital trust in an era of digital transformation.
• We need to be proactive about AI
  • AI was a huge topic at Davos and came up regularly in my discussions. At Splunk, we have been very clear about our position when it comes to AI, and we need to continue to see this level of openness throughout both the technology industry and beyond. Only with this level of transparency and by leaning into frameworks will we be able to allay some of the associated fears on the topic and ensure that it supports human decision-making rather than replace it. We have to move from a reactive approach to the advances in AI, to a proactive one. And finally, we have to work together to ensure that AI technology works for us - not against us.
• We need to bring everyone along with us
  • The Female Quotient hosted a series of panels during the course of Davos and I was involved in one considering the topic of how to create a multigenerational workforce that thrives. My main takeaway from this was that we need to ensure leadership teams are regularly reviewing how they are communicating with teams and taking into account that different generations prefer different styles. That way organizations can bring every employee along with them on their journey.

If you want to hear more about Davos 2024, my colleague James Hodge and I discussed our week in a LinkedIn Live to cover the main takeaways in more depth and you can find that recording here.