Arm at Davos 2025: Driving AI Transformation Though Academic and Industry Collaborations

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum brings together world leaders to address key global and regional challenges, with technology a vital part of these discussions. This year’s meeting at Davos focused on “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age” and the promises of AI innovation, with Arm leaders invited to give perspective on this theme.

During the week-long event, Arm recognized the importance of collaboration between universities and industry as part the ongoing development of AI. Universities are at the forefront of AI research, helping to drive advancements that will define the next generation of applications used in the real-world. Meanwhile, industry provides the infrastructure, guidance and tools that accelerate this research and ensure it delivers true benefits to society and businesses.

Arm hosted a panel with world-leading academics in the field of AI which explored a wide variety of topics, including what makes a successful academic and industry partnership, how to align research in the lab with real-world AI applications, and how to prepare students (the future workforce) for an AI-driven world.

Accelerating AI innovation with university and industry partnerships

As Ami Badani, Arm Chief Marketing Officer, noted at the start of the panel session, Arm has a proud track record of collaborations and engagements with academic institutions to both drive technology-based innovation and train the technology workforce of the future. Just one example of these collaborations is when the United States and Japan announced two new university-corporate AI Partnerships worth $110 million, which involved support from private sector companies, including Arm, Microsoft and SoftBank.

Farnam Jahanian, President, Carnegie Mellon University, called out these partnerships, stating that the AI transformation will be amplified through collaborations between academic institutions, private sector and public sector. Through one of the university-corporate AI partnerships, Carnegie Mellon University is working with Keio University to bring together faculty, researchers and students at the forefront of AI to collaborate on new ideas and solutions.

Kohei Itoh, President, Keio University, reflected on the IBM Quantum Hub which started in 2018 and has led to gradual technological developments in the field of quantum computing. While progress has been incremental, Kohei stated that the support of private sector companies, like IBM, has been crucial to the research and will help to accelerate the deployment of practical applications involving quantum computing in the future.

The third panelist Eric Xing, President of the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, the world’s first ever AI university, outlined the unique dual role that universities play as the “inventor and educator of technologies”, which highlights their importance in the development of technologies and the workforce of the future. 

The transformative impact of AI

Unsurprisingly, all panelists were in broad agreement on the potential transformative impact of AI. Jahanian reflected on AI being one the most “fundamental intellectual developments of our time”, with an “undeniable” impact across every aspect of the economy.

This statement was supported by Xing who described AI as “the new engine of a future economy and technology.” He reflected on the potential of AI to provide profound societal impacts, with one example being the acceleration of life-changing scientific breakthroughs, like the development of new medicines and vaccines.

2025, “the year of practicality for AI”

However, AI is not just about its enormous potential for future life-changing innovations. With the World Economic Forum’s view that 2025 will be the “year of practicality for AI”, the panel discussed the practical applications that can benefit from AI in the short-term. Jahanian talked about the importance of AI being integrated into existing applications to deliver commercial improvements in business workflows. Referring to these AI developments as “low hanging fruit”, Jahanian highlighted the significant benefit to businesses in terms of costs and wider efficiencies.

We are already seeing the integration of AI into existing internal and external business applications and operations. Badani noted that the initial findings from Arm’s upcoming AI Barometer survey reveal that over 90 percent of global business leaders have put AI into practice in some way. This is a huge figure that highlights the quick adoption of AI into commercial environments.

Meanwhile, Itoh reflected on the ability of AI to support the collection of vast amounts of data, particularly for biological and medical research, with this helping to accelerate the research process and, ultimately, bring new breakthroughs to light quicker.

Preparing the future workforce

A startling figure stated by Badani during the panel session was that, according to the World Economic Forum, there will be 170 million new jobs created by 2030. However, meeting this figure requires universities to deliver courses and training that prepare students for these future careers.

Jahanian noted that AI is leading to a “re-imagining of the curriculum” across universities. This is not just around technical engineering-based skills, but also key foundational skills that teach students how to collaborate and communicate with AI-based tools.

Itoh commented on his university’s own experience where students are learning and adopting AI tools far quicker than the teachers. In some cases, this is leading to students becoming the teachers, educating others in classes about how to properly use these tools.

Finally, Xing noted the ability of AI to create personalized learning for students, with this helping to improve their educational outcomes as they prepare for future careers.

Unlocking the full transformative opportunities from AI

The research work of universities provides a glimpse into the endless possibilities from the ongoing evolution and rollout of AI technologies. Alongside our industry partners, Arm’s partnerships with universities aim to accelerate the development of this research, helping to move innovations from the lab to real-world applications at a faster rate, so society can feel the true benefits of the AI transformation.

With Arm providing the compute platform for AI, we are working to unlock the enormous potential of AI for good, with industry and university partnerships absolutely vital to this overall mission.