---
title: "Clarity is a Leadership Responsibility"
date: 2026-01-23
slug: clarity-is-a-leadership-responsibility
summary: "I spent the week following Davos conversations at World Economic Forum 2026, looking at them through an insurance & risk lens."
questionTitle: ""
tags: [AI, Capital, Energy]
readingTime: "2 min"
legacyUrl: /blog/f/clarity-is-a-leadership-responsibility
linkedinUrl: ""
siteUrl: ""
audio: ""
---

![](/images/clarity-is-a-leadership-responsibility.png)

I spent the week following Davos conversations at World Economic Forum 2026, looking at them through an insurance & risk lens.

Across different sessions, the people making trillion-dollar decisions are all watching the same constraint: **Energy**.

Not just as a climate issue, but as an economic bottleneck. **Why**?

Because the cost of intelligence is plummeting and is effectively and eventually becoming the cost of energy. (Peng Xiao noted this shift explicitly).

*Context: The price per million input tokens dropped from ~ $20 in 2022 to just 7 cents in 2024.*

If you operate at the intersection of AI, Energy, and Risk, here are three useful frames of thinking:

1️⃣ **For Risk Managers**
Andrés Gluski noted we are "operating the grid like it is the 1950s."
**The takeaway**: Your infrastructure vulnerability is now a multiplier. The work done here is critical to the stability of the entire AI ecosystem.

2️⃣ **For Underwriters**
Marc Benioff asked, "What is more important - trust or growth?"
**The takeaway:** This resonates deeply with the eternal underwriting tension: growing topline vs. protecting the bottom line. Growth without trust is just borrowing time from your future balance sheet.

3️⃣ **For Brokers & Risk Advisors**
While we are all proud specialists in a particular area, we need to think across the full lifecycle: Get it - Fund it - Build it - Run it.
**The takeaway:** AI doesn’t spin up out of nowhere. Risk travels from the power, concrete, and labor phase (execution risk) all the way to operation. 

4️⃣ **Signals to Watch**
• Power price volatility → intelligence cost trend
• Grid delays → cost of capital from schedule risk
• Physical climate risk → retained risk via deductibles and exclusions
• AI load growth → concentration risk for utilities and reinsurers

**Bottom Line**: If the price of intelligence is the end game, are power contracts becoming as strategic as financing terms? Curious where this is showing up most for you right now.

**--------**

**Clean Power Whisperer™ Perspectives**
Educational insights on risk, insurance, and capital for **AI • Energy • Climate**

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**Links**

Building AI for the Long Term (Minute 5 and 8, Link [https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/how-can-we-unlock-new-sources-of-growth/](https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/how-can-we-unlock-new-sources-of-growth/))

Conversation with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft (Minute 9, Link [https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/conversation-with-satya-nadella-ceo-of-microsoft/](https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/conversation-with-satya-nadella-ceo-of-microsoft/))

Conversation with Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase (The very first question! Link [https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/conversation-with-jamie-dimon-chairman-and-ceo-of-jpmorgan-chase/](https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/conversation-with-jamie-dimon-chairman-and-ceo-of-jpmorgan-chase/))

Where Can New Growth Come From? (Minute 44, Link [https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/how-can-we-unlock-new-sources-of-growth/](https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/how-can-we-unlock-new-sources-of-growth/))

Who is Winning on Energy Security? (Minute 21, Link [https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/who-is-winning-on-energy-security/](https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/who-is-winning-on-energy-security/))

Scaling AI: Now Comes the Hard Part (Minute 42, Link [https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/scaling-ai-now-comes-the-hard-part/](https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/scaling-ai-now-comes-the-hard-part/))

Microsoft, On the Issues, April 2025 (Unlocking AI’s global potential: progress, productivity, and workforce development) [https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2025/04/10/unlocking-ai-global-potential/](https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2025/04/10/unlocking-ai-global-potential/)