WEF 2022: How data and tech are driving change in predicting future

The advent of technology and the resulting change in our ability to foresee potential future events has coincided with an exponential increase in the range and variety of possible outcomes.

This is the dawn of the golden age of predictive technologies. Billions of sophisticated algorithms powered by vast computers enable forecasters to process ever-larger amounts of data. In a range of fields from weather to medicine to business, our ability to draw conclusions about the future should be better now than at any stage in history.

And yet, it isn’t. Indeed, our recent past – from Covid-19 to the great financial crisis – could be viewed as a history of our failure to predict the future.

The advent of technology and the resulting change in our ability to foresee potential future events