Shaping the Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

by Klaus Schwab

This is impossible to achieve if we continue to view emerging technologies as “mere tools” that are simply at hand for human use with predictable and controllable consequences. Nor can we fully empower ourselves or others if we give in to the complexity and treat technologies as exogenous, deterministic forces outside of our control.

Rather, all stakeholders must internalize the fact that the outcomes of technological advancement are tied to our choices at each level of development and implementation—whether as an individual citizen, a business executive, a ...

Technologies will inevitably play a part in finding solutions to many of the challenges we face today, but they are also contributors to these challenges and the source of new ones.

Involving all relevant stakeholder groups will help us overcome the core challenges ahead—distributing the benefits of technological disruptions, containing the inevitable externalities and ensuring that emerging technologies empower, rather than determine, all of us as human beings.

Finding solutions for the governance challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution will require governments, businesses and individuals to make the right strategic decisions about how to develop and deploy new technologies.

The scale, complexity and urgency of the challenges facing the world today call for leadership and action that are both responsive and responsible.