The event opened Tuesday with Swiss President Viola Amherd calling for "global governance of AI," raising concerns the technology might supercharge disinformation as a throng of countries head to the polls. At a sleek cafe Microsoft set up across the street, CEO Satya Nadella sought to assuage concerns the AI revolution would leave the world's poorest behind, following the release of an International Monetary Fund report this week that found the technology is likely to worsen inequality and stoke social tensions. Over canapés and cocktails down the street at the Alpine Inn, Google CFO Ruth Porat promised to work with policymakers to "develop responsible regulation" and touted the company's investments in efforts to retrain workers.

All over the world, executives are spending billions of dollars to transform their businesses into lean, digitized, highly automated operations. They crave the fat profit margins automation can deliver, and they see A.I. as a golden ticket to savings, perhaps by letting them whittle departments with thousands of workers down to just a few dozen. "People are looking to achieve very big numbers," said Mohit Joshi, the president of Infosys, a technology and consulting firm that helps other businesses automate their operations. "Earlier they had incremental, 5 to 10 percent goals in reducing their work force. Now they're saying, 'Why can't we do it with 1 percent of the people we have?'"