Business leaders need to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence to remain competitive. That’s the big takeaway from the inaugural IMD AI Update 2026 – a forum designed to encourage exchange between executives and experts on ways to make the most out of AI.
Nimrod Malinas, founder and CEO of Robonnement, a supplier of robots as a solution to skilled worker shortages, challenged the 300-plus participants to ask themselves: What value do we create with AI? For whom, and how, and how sustainable is that value? For many companies, he said, how they apply AI will determine whether they are still in business in five or 10 years.
“AI is changing decision-making, automation is changing process work, and robotics is changing physical and repetitive work,” he said. These changes are so significant that AI must be seen as the CEO’s responsibility and should not be delegated downwards. Ultimately, it will be a question of understanding what work should remain human, what must remain human, and what tasks can no longer depend on humans.
In some firms, AI has already become indispensable. Electricity producer and trader Alpiq receives 1.5 million orders every day. These can only be handled with the support of digital assistants. At fastening specialist Bossard in Zug, 50,000 hours of document processing have been halved, corresponding to an efficiency saving of 15 jobs. At consulting firm PWC, AI helps to tailor solutions, both internally and for customers. Daniel Ehmann, Global Tech Lead AI, IBM, urged participants to act urgently to reap productivity gains from AI: “Implement two or three use cases this year. AI is not decided in the lab, but in the workplace.”
Learning from failure
However, rapid adoption does not come without risks and costs. Some 80% of corporate AI projects fail because companies see artificial intelligence as just another tech project, said José Parra Moyano, Professor of Digital Strategy at IMD. To avoid this pitfall, companies should ask themselves: What problem are we trying to solve with AI? What value are we creating with it? From value to data, every AI project must be seen through the lens of people. For example, AI could help free your teams from simple tasks so they can devote themselves to complex ones. Parra Moyano’s key message? Let people learn from data to create value.
Daniel Bischofberger, CEO of Accelleron, a manufacturer of turbochargers for large ships and power plants, shared how this might look in practice: “We in management create the framework; the team creates the return, the result.” Step by step, he reported, AI tools and processes have been introduced in six areas of the company. Now, their focus will be on thinking more holistically in the future and integrating AI into Accelleron’s business model.
Several speakers agreed on one important lesson: before you can even begin with AI, your data must be in order; only then can the “data orchestra” be conducted. Cornelia Diethelm, an expert in digital ethics, called on business leaders to take greater responsibility for the dark side of AI, too. AI is not objective and neutral, and shadow AI has emerged because it is used in companies without authorization.
Society also faced far-reaching challenges from the way AI had taken over online search functions. Barnaby Skinner, a media expert at NZZ, lamented how AI posed a direct threat to media business models. Instead of drawing users to their own sites via Google searches, “AI steals our content” and thus drives users away from the media. The aim now for media companies must be to reclaim the data and market it themselves.
From ‘work’ to ‘meaning’
Some predictions for the future bordered on the realms of science fiction. Neuroscientist and AI investor Pascal Kaufmann estimated that, by 2030, “science will have cracked the brain code.” At that point, AI could be connected to our brains via a “brain port.” AI will make all knowledge available to everyone, and what will count then is trust: that will be the differentiator.
Philosopher and publicist Richard David Precht offered some reassurance that AI cannot replace humans because it lacks emotion and imagination. And humans are the only living beings with a sense of self, which means we are capable of morality. However, he said there will soon be a mismatch in the job market: a shortage of skilled workers coupled with higher unemployment as job and job seeker profiles fail to match. What will all these people do then? Precht said we are evolving from a “work” society into a “meaning” society. The challenge? We cannot meet the costs of that switch in the near future. And importantly: “We don’t know what political form we will have. It could lead to tech feudalism.”
The big takeaway from the AI Update? There is no escaping AI. It will greatly change our working world – and our lives. Those who want to stay in business must invest in its implementation.
In the words of Stefan Michel, Dean of Faculty and Research and Professor of Management at IMD: “You are AI – you use it in your everyday lives.”
The next IMD AI Update is slated for March 2027.
