Sign in Subscribe

Demis Hassabis at Davos - Google has its mojo back.

Craig Leppan (Imbila)

• 1 min read
Demis Hassabis at Davos - Google has its mojo back.
Photo by Damian Markutt / Unsplash - AI has dominated Davos conversations

At Bloomberg Live during WEF Davos 2026, Demis Hassabis laid out a clear, pragmatic view of where AI is heading—and what matters for organisations making decisions now.

1. AGI Is Closer Than Most Planning Cycles

  • Hassabis sticks to a 50% chance of AGI by 2030
  • Not just smarter chatbots—systems that can reason, learn continuously, and generate new ideas
  • Translation for business: assume rapid capability jumps within this decade, not gradual change

2. Google Is Back in the Race

  • Google believes it has its “mojo back”
  • Gemini 3 signals a return to frontier performance
  • Cultural shift: big-company scale + startup execution speed
  • For buyers: expect faster product cycles and more aggressive enterprise AI offerings from Google

3. Scaling Alone Won’t Win

  • Compute still matters—but it’s only half the equation
  • A few major breakthroughs (reasoning, planning, world models) will define winners
  • Implication: vendors who combine research depth + applied execution will pull ahead

4. Robotics Is the Next Platform Shift

  • Breakthroughs in physical AI expected within 18–24 months
  • Manufacturing, logistics, and operations are first in line
  • Partnerships with players like Boston Dynamics and Hyundai signal where real-world deployment is heading

5. The Economic Impact Will Be Non-Linear

  • Hassabis frames AI as 10× faster and 10× bigger than the Industrial Revolution
  • Long-term: productivity abundance
  • Short-term: organisational redesign, not just automation

6. The Real Leadership Challenge: Purpose & Redesign

  • Technology is not the bottleneck—meaning and structure are
  • As AI absorbs more “work,” leaders must rethink:
    • Roles
    • Incentives
    • What humans are uniquely responsible for

Bottom Line for Executives

AI strategy is no longer about experiments or tools.
It’s about operating models, talent design, and decision velocity.

The question to ask in 2026 isn’t “Should we use AI?”
It’s “Which parts of our organisation still need humans—and why?”

🎥 Full interview (Bloomberg Live, Davos 2026):