About the World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the international organization for public-private cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

About the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR)

This position is part of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR). The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) helps leaders anticipate exponential technologies and drive responsible sectoral and industry transformation. The C4IR brings together leaders from business, government, international organizations, academia and civil society to shape the global agenda on technology governance and technology applications for industries and society.

Why we are Recruiting

Cutting-edge technologies, including Generative AI, are continuing to evolve at a rapid pace and stand to have a transformative impact on governments, enterprises, institutions, and individuals alike. While the benefits of digital technologies already are evident across sectors, their opportunities and challenges for industrial ecosystems, regions and society are yet to be unlocked.

In order to shape the impact of AI and digital technologies on industries, regions, and society, as well as their governance, the World Economic Forum has launched the AI Governance Alliance (AIGA). The Alliance aims to provide guidance on the responsible design, development, adoption, deployment, and governance of AI. It seeks to address these challenges by delineating the enablers of AI adoption and devising sustainable solutions tailored to the diverse challenges encountered by different countries and regions in implementing them, thereby bridging regional and country-level gaps in AI technology.

Recognizing both the significant economic and social potentials of AI, the accompanying risks of cutting-edge technologies, and the need of a regional approach, C4IR collaborates closely with the Network of Affiliate Centres for the Fourth Industrial Revolution to address these issues.

The successful candidate for this role will play a key role in advancing AIGA’s mission, working on the impact, challenges and opportunities of AI for industries and regional ecosystems.

This work includes animating multistakeholder communities and initiatives, and will specially be focused on:

• Driving the impact work of AI Transformation of Industries (AITI) initiative (part of AIGA)

• Working collaboratively with key regions engaged in AITI (especially China, India and Japan)

• Collaborating with the Network of Affiliate Centres for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, to engage in a strategic way the most relevant Centres for the AITI work

Reporting lines and interactions

The Specialist will report to the Digital Technologies Portfolio Manager. The role will also work with key stakeholders across the Forum, including other Centre teams. The Specialist will get an opportunity to work closely with a broad range of external stakeholders, including governments, businesses, social enterprises, and international organizations.

Main responsibilities

Global Initiative on AI Transformation of Industries

• Lead the impact stream of the AITI initiative, working closely with the community to converge into the most impactful areas of work and deliverables, and drive their development end-to-end

• Connect regularly with community members to ensure the initiative drives relevant impact to all stakeholders engaged as well as the broader audience

• Cultivate and maintain strategic partnerships with key organizations, governments, and industry leaders to advance the goals of the C4IR

• Help the Initiatives Lead manage and animate multistakeholder communities by communicating updates regularly, lead working group meetings, onboarding the right stakeholders

• Support ensure alignment with the work of all the Forum teams involved in the digital technologies agendas, including the Centre for Cybersecurity, the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains, etc.

Regional Ecosystems

• Act as a key contact point for the AITI initiative for our regional leads in China, India and Japan, to ensure the work carried out in the regions progresses in an impactful way, both for the regional ecosystems as well as for the global community

• Work closely with the Strategic Integration Lead to integrate relevant Affiliate Centres for the AITI work, ensuring a solid value proposition for Affiliate Centres and a win-win collaborations for all parties involved – with the objective of having Affiliate Centres as a mechanism for AITI to drive impact on the ground

Events

• Work closely with the Events Specialist to ensure programming and design of specific events takes into account latest developments and trends of the AITI work, and work with Forum teams and external experts to capture relevant knowledge for use in programming

Team and resources

• Work with Forum partner organizations to onboard new fellows to support with the work, and work closely with project fellows to drive the initiatives forward

• Drive cross-functional collaboration within the Forum ecosystem to leverage resources and expertise for maximum impact

Other

• Stay abreast of the latest developments in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and related fields and technologies, providing thought leadership within the organization and externally

• Incubate and kick off new initiatives where needed and ensure outputs and ambition levels are aligned with the other Forum’s activities

Preferred requirements and experience

• Minimum of 3-4 years of work experience in working with digital technologies and industries and/or technologies policies

• A master’s degree in business, technology, engineering, Science, Economics, Finance, Political Science or equivalent

• Strong passion on the future of industry and society and demonstrated expertise on the impact of AI the emerging technologies for the global economy

• Proven capacity to manage strategic projects in collaborative and ambiguous environments, involving high-level leaders from government, business, civil society, academia

• Demonstrated ability to work across different cultures and sectors

• Ability to write informative and insightful content, with experience creating digital content, research papers, academic articles, or similar

• Strategic thinker with the ability to identify trends and patterns of transformation and demonstrated experience linking diverse concepts into coherent narratives

• Excellent verbal and written language skills in English

Why work at the Forum:

The Forum believes that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to improve the state of the world by building awareness and cooperation, shaping mindsets and agendas, and driving collective action. Join us and become a driver for positive change!