Explore the WEF’s new Innovation Ecosystems Toolkit—insights and best practices for building collaborative, sustainable innovation networks.

There are ongoing efforts across the pharmaceutical and biomanufacturing sectors to strengthen operational resilience and innovation capacity. R&D labs are modernizing, the role of manufacturing execution systems (MES) is evolving, and the use of digital threads to improve efficiency and ensure compliance across the product lifecycle is happening in real time.

An exclusive interview with Ed Finn, founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, reveals why our biggest limitation might not be technical—it's our failure to imagine boldly enough.

As artificial intelligence reshapes industry, its greatest impact won’t come from algorithms alone but from how we design around them. “Human-in-the-Loop” (HITL) principles place people at the center of intelligent systems, ensuring that trust, ethics, and accountability guide automation. From Siemens’ Industrial Co-Pilot to AI copilots across sectors, the future belongs to organizations that use AI to amplify human capability - not replace it.

Threats are growing more complex and interconnected. To combat that, Industrial cybersecurity is shifting toward real-time resilience across infrastructure, operations, and AI systems.

AI has become central to industrial strategy, but many companies are still struggling to translate promise into performance. The next phase of growth will depend as much on infrastructure, governance, and leadership as on the models themselves. Firms face growing costs for compute, new demands on oversight, and the challenge of redesigning workflows to realize true enterprise value.

Digital transformation is redefining the Aerospace and Defense (A&D) sector. Aerospace leaders are integrating technologies like digital twins, adaptive production, Industrial AI, and the Industrial Metaverse to manage rising complexity, improve traceability, and accelerate certification and innovation. This shift marks a strategic inflection point: success now hinges on reengineering systems engineering for a software-defined, digitally connected future.

AI is no longer just a technology; it’s becoming a general-purpose infrastructure reshaping every process, decision, and interaction. To harness its full potential, organizations must be redesigned around three pillars: human-in-the-loop trust, algorithmic organizations, and cybernetic innovation. Together, these pillars offer a pathway to scale AI in ways that are ethical, adaptive, and truly innovative—unlocking the next era of competitiveness.