NEXT Milan Forum 2026
Navigating geopolitical tensions, AI ethics, and the imperative for responsible leadership in 2026
Gathering in Milan
In May 2026, future leaders converged in Milan for the NEXT Forum, an initiative co-hosted by ISPI, Bocconi University, and the OECD, with Deloitte’s knowledge partnership. We came from diverse backgrounds: multinational corporations, think tanks, government agencies, and civil society organisations. Our shared mission was to engage with global policymakers, economic experts, and business leaders on the defining challenges of our era.
What we encountered over two days was not reassurance, but clarity. The world is in a turbulent transitional period where old structures have lost authority, with a new order on the verge of hatching: “the old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters” (Antonio Gramsci) are verses that were referenced several times throughout the event. The masterclasses and panels that we attended were attempts to chart a path forward.
The multipolar paradox: redefining global economic cooperation
The first masterclass set the stage. Andreas Schaal, speaking on “The future of global economic cooperation,” articulated a fundamental tension: the institutions designed to manage global affairs are struggling to maintain relevance in an increasingly fragmented world. Global economic cooperation lies in the capacity to improve policies, strengthen international law standards, and advance peacekeeping. Yet the G20’s perceived effectiveness has declined over time, owing to geopolitical tensions and an ever-broadening agenda that dilutes focus.
The challenge is structural. We no longer inhabit a bipolar world of competing superpowers. Instead, we face a multipolar landscape where interests diverge sharply, and consensus becomes elusive. The path forward, Schaal suggested, lies in streamlined agendas and new paradigms centered on partnership for development and artificial intelligence. Yet even this hopeful framing cannot obscure a fundamental reality: global cooperation is harder than ever.
The trust imperative: leadership in an age of acceleration
If global cooperation is the challenge, then trust is the currency. This was the central theme of Lisa Monaco, former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor and now a board member of Microsoft, in her masterclass on “Leadership in motion.” Monaco brought a unique perspective: 25 years in law enforcement and homeland security, where, as she put it, “resilience was my job.” The core of Monaco’s message was simply put, yet profound: “We all need to move fast, but not faster than the speed of trust.” In an era of rapid technological change, the temptation to accelerate innovation can override the careful stewardship required to maintain public confidence. Monaco’s advice was forthright: “Don’t be so much in a rush that you lose your principles.” This principle becomes especially acute when discussing artificial intelligence. Monaco acknowledged the paradox: AI harbours the potential to solve real-world problems in healthcare for instance, but it also accelerates threats, impacts democracy, and erodes trust in truth itself. The responsibility, therefore, bestows upon leaders to build and deploy technology that is “trusted, governed, secure, with humans at the centre.”
This vision is in line with the Rome Call for AI Ethics-a framework that asserts a fundamental principle: “AI ought to serve humans.” The question Monaco posed to future leaders seems straightforward, though it belies considerable depth: “Are we building these machines so that they are better than humans, or so that they make us humans better?” The goal, she emphasised, is not to replace uniquely human judgment, but to augment it. This topic resonates with me, having worked on the Human Capital side of AI transformation, and advocating for a human-centric, responsible and safe implementation and usage of AI.
Monaco also raised a critical concern that transcends technology: the global divide in AI adoption. The North has adopted AI at twice the rate of the South, and the gaps continue to widen. The fundamental enablers of AI diffusion-infrastructure, access to electricity, connectivity, and skills-are unevenly distributed. “AI should be a force of closing that gap, not widening it,” Monaco insisted. This is not merely a matter of equity; it is a matter of global stability.
Economic security in a fractured world: the new calculus of resilience
If trust is the currency of leadership, then resilience is the currency of business strategy. Kazuto Suzuki, known as “Mister economic security,” brought this principle into sharp focus during his masterclass on “Managing risk in the age of economic uncertainty.”
Suzuki’s framework shows that technology, economy, and security are no longer separate domains: they form a unified concept called economic security. The question facing every business leader is therefore existential: how do we maintain national sovereignty and competitive advantage in a world where economic leverage has become a geopolitical weapon?
The answer, Suzuki suggested, lies in deliberate diversification. Using a striking metaphor, he noted: “In a war, the companies are the soldiers. It is you who has to avoid the risk of getting hit by bullets.” How? Through strategic supply chain diversification and market-based resilience: “Prioritising resilience of economic security is like insurance. Deliberate and targeted diversification can serve as an insurance premium for business.”
When I asked Suzuki how other countries, in Europe, could draw on Japan’s pioneering model of balancing economic resilience with global supply chain openness, he shared that the government gathers and protects supply chain resilience information at the national level, enabling precise industrial policies implemented in the private sector. This approach allows Japan to maintain economic openness while building strategic redundancy.
The European Union, by contrast, faces structural challenges. With three levels of governance but limited power at the implementation level, Europe struggles to execute coordinated industrial policies. Nonetheless, the imperative is clear: businesses must think strategically about resilience, not merely efficiency.
Europe's path forward does not need to mirror Japan's top-down model. Rather than waiting for centralised coordination, the continent possesses a distinct advantage: a vibrant ecosystem of innovators, entrepreneurs, and institutional investors ready to drive change from within. As economist Philippe Aghion, Nobel Economics Prize laureate, argued in a plenary session about innovation and growth, that "Europe should pursue a bottom-up initiative to form a coalition of the willing to jointly advance innovation in key sectors, focusing on integrating high-tech markets and establishing institutional investors at the international level."
The responsibility of future business leaders
The NEXT Milan Forum was structured not to provide answers, but to illuminate the questions that will define the next decade of business leadership. We must become literate in the interconnections between geopolitics, economics, and technology. We must not lose sight of the human dimension: society is held together by trust, reciprocity, and shared purpose, yet these bonds are tested as never before.
The challenge is visceral. As leaders grapple with accelerating change, anxiety sets in: the longer you lag behind, the wider the gap. Anna Marks, Deloitte Global Chair, captures the paradox: "As a CEO, you place one foot in the present, one foot in the future. The problem now is that both feet are close to each other." The future is no longer distant, it is happening today.
Nevertheless, this urgency cannot come at the expense of our values. Paolo Petrocelli reminds us that culture is always present; without it, society would collapse. Culture encompasses our values and defines how we imagine the future.
The most successful leaders of the next decade will balance profit with purpose, efficiency with equity, innovation with integrity. They will embrace curiosity, balance AI fluency with deep reasoning, and enable their teams to thrive through change because they remain anchored in enduring human values. Change without culture is merely disruption. Change rooted in shared purpose is transformation.
We stand at a critical juncture, one fraught with risk yet brimming with possibility. Future business leaders are not passive observers, we are rather architects of the world struggling to be born. The question is not whether we will shape it, but how, and whether we will do so with the wisdom, resilience, and compassion our fractured world desperately needs.
To paraphrase ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano: "Where do YOU want to go? We are ready to fly."
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