Stephen Ehikian is CEO of C3 AI, but he's no stranger to the Trump administration.

Ehikian, who was also previously a VP of product at Salesforce, served for eight months as the Acting Administrator of the General Services Administration before taking on the CEO role last September.

I asked him about President Donald Trump's upcoming speech.

He had this to say: "I'm hoping there's an expression of strength in numbers, and we're better together kind of story. Now, that said, I believe this idea that taking a strong 'America First' approach is good for this country.

"I think it's setting a tone and a change of direction from where we've been the last 50 years. So, I think it's refreshing. I don't even want to anticipate what's going to happen tomorrow because I have no idea."

Speaking earlier this morning, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he is skeptical about some companies claiming rapid AI transformation, and that getting it right comes down to culture.

Uber tried building customer service AI that followed its old policies, Khosrowshahi told the audience at Davos, but it was "only okay."

That changed after the developers started from scratch with AI in mind.

"Companies are essentially rule systems," he said. "To unlock AI's full potential, you have to break those rules and start over."

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who spoke in a morning panel led by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, shared how he has always prepared for Davos meetings — and how that's changed with AI.

He said his field team used to prep him for 50 or so meetings, according to a "particular workflow."

"Nothing had really changed since I joined in '92 to essentially even a few years back," he said about the year he joined the tech giant as an engineer. "Whereas now, I just go to Copilot and say, "Hey, I'm meeting Larry. Please give me a brief."

He added that the briefs generated by Microsoft's AI assistant give him a comprehensive overview of the relationship between his firm and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink's team.

AI tools are also changing the traditional bottom-to-top flow of information, he said.

"In fact, what I do is I take that and immediately share that back with all my colleagues across all the functions," he said. "Think about it. It's a complete inversion of how information is flowing in the organization."

Robot drivers will ultimately outperform humans on safety, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on Tuesday in Davos.

"If you think about the world 20 years from now, your Uber is going to be driven largely not by a human being, but by a robot driver — a piece of software on top of a car," Khosrowshahi said, adding that vehicles are becoming increasingly sophisticated and more like "computers on wheels."

Khosrowshahi said autonomous systems have clear advantages over human drivers. "There's no doubt in my mind that the robot driver can be safer than a human driver," he said. Robot drivers don't get tired or distracted, don't text while driving, and can operate continuously while improving over time, he added.

The key question, Khosrowshahi said, is what level of safety is "enough" for robot drivers — whether matching human performance is sufficient or whether autonomous vehicles should be held to a higher standard.

In the longer term, he said, human driving could resemble horseback riding today, becoming a niche activity done for enjoyment.

"There's no doubt that 10 years from now, there will be questions as to whether humans are safe enough," he said.

Trump is expected to arrive in Davos on Wednesday. While Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants business leaders to take a breath and chill out about Greenland, that may not be in the cards.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday that he had "a very good telephone call with Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, concerning Greenland."

"I agreed to a meeting of the various parties in Davos, Switzerland. As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for National and World Security," Trump wrote.

Trump on Sunday had sent messages to Norway's leader, saying the US requires "Complete and Total Control of Greenland." Greenland is a semi-autonomous Danish territory.

Bessent, speaking to the press on Tuesday morning, urged calm amid President Donald Trump's latest slate of trade tariffs on Greenland.

"You say: 'If there is a protracted trade war.' Why are we jumping there? Why are you taking it to the worst case? Calm down the hysteria, take a deep breath, this is where we were last year," Bessentt said. "I'm sure you would have asked me the same question if we were here on April 2nd. And you know what? It all worked out."

When asked about what European business leaders should do, Bessent's take was to "sit back" and "relax."

"What I am urging everyone here to do is sit back, take a deep breath, and let things play out," Bessent said.

"I am confident that the leaders will not escalate and that this will work out in a manner that ends up in a very good place for all, for national security, for the US, and for Europe," he said.

"M&A is high on the agenda," said Sharon Marcil, North America chair at BCG. "We're hearing it from so many CEOs." She pointed to a strong stock market and an overall tilt in Washington toward deregulation and robust business activity.

Winston Weinberg, CEO and cofounder of the legal AI startup Harvey, echoes the sentiment, saying he is hearing that 2026 will be an "insane" year for dealmaking. (Good for lawyers!)

Similar predictions predominated this time last year. The tariff tumult put a pause on M&A early on, but then dealmaking got its mojo back.

Fink took the stage at Davos to welcome more than a thousand chief executives to the World Economic Forum. In his opening remarks, he questioned whether anyone outside the room would care about this meeting of global leaders.

"Because if we're being honest, for many people this meeting feels out of step with the moment: elites in an age of populism, an established institution in an era of deep institutional distrust," the BlackRock CEO said.

"And there's truth in that critique," he added. "I've believed in this forum for a long time. I certainly wouldn't be leading it if I didn't. But it's also obvious that the world now places far less trust in us to help shape what comes next."

Fink said the capitalism now faces a big test: Whether it can "evolve to turn more people into owners of growth, instead of spectators watching it happen."

"And that kind of change is hard. Especially in a world of competing ideologies and assumptions about how the system should work," he said.

Fink's remarks ground what is expected to be a monumental week, in which deals are made and new alliances are forged amid turmoil in the wider political sphere.