Davos 2026: Despite AI advances, global health systems not ready for future pandemics, says WEF’s Shyam Bishen

Even as artificial intelligence emerges as a powerful tool for disease surveillance and outbreak response, the world remains inadequately prepared to prevent future health crises from escalating into full-blown pandemics, World Economic Forum executive Shyam Bishen said, warning that global readiness has failed to keep pace with rising risks.

Shyam Bishen, head of the Centre for Health and Healthcare and a member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum, said climate change, geopolitical conflicts and supply-chain disruptions are increasing the frequency of disease outbreaks, while momentum around pandemic preparedness has slowed. Speaking to Moneycontrol on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos-Klosters, Bishen said the world is not sufficiently equipped to handle the next pandemic despite lessons from Covid-19.

Bishen was speaking during the 56th edition of the Davos summit, scheduled between January 19 and 23, which will see nearly 3,000 leaders from over 130 countries gather, including around 400 political leaders and 850 chief executives.

He said structural shifts such as climate change, evolving human behaviour and intensifying geopolitical tensions are contributing to a growing number of disease outbreaks globally. At the same time, fragmented international coordination and disruptions to trade and supply chains during conflicts are making it harder to contain outbreaks before they spread across borders, increasing the likelihood of local health emergencies turning into global crises.

Bishen said the World Economic Forum is working with organisations including the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to build a global disease surveillance system capable of identifying new pathogens and variants at an early stage. He said artificial intelligence can play a critical role in tracking, diagnosing and analysing outbreaks in real time, enabling faster and more targeted public health responses once threats are detected, regardless of where they emerge.

However, Bishen said early detection alone is insufficient without rapid and transparent data sharing. He stressed the importance of making pathogen data available to pharmaceutical and healthcare companies so that medical countermeasures such as vaccines and treatments can be developed quickly. He added that progress towards interoperable global data systems has slowed amid current geoeconomic and geopolitical tensions, limiting the effectiveness of both AI-driven tools and human-led responses.

Bishen also highlighted the concentration of global vaccine manufacturing capacity as a major vulnerability exposed during the Covid-19 pandemic. He said vaccine production remains heavily skewed towards North America, Europe and parts of Asia, including India and China, noting that only around one percent of vaccines used in Africa are manufactured on the continent itself.

To address this imbalance, he said the World Economic Forum is working with public and private sector partners to support the development of regional vaccine manufacturing hubs across Africa, Latin America and other parts of Asia, with the aim of reducing dependence on a small number of suppliers during future health emergencies.

While efforts are underway to strengthen surveillance systems, improve data sharing and expand manufacturing capacity, Bishen said the world remains far from being adequately prepared. He warned that as memories of the Covid-19 pandemic fade and global attention shifts towards economic and geopolitical challenges, delays in fixing systemic gaps could leave countries dangerously exposed when the next outbreak inevitably emerges.