Addressing the most pressing challenges at FII

People often ask me how we come up with the topics for our three days of discussion at FII.  

You won’t be surprised that we don’t simply pluck them out of thin air. In fact, we carry out extensive global polling to identify the issues that matter to citizens.  

Across 24 countries, speaking to 60,000 respondents, we work hard to understand the cares and concerns of the people on this planet. We call this the PRIORITY Compass.

Understanding what makes people tick, their hopes, fears, dreams and aspirations is a skill and a science.  And that’s important to us because we’re in the business of tackling some of humanity’s biggest and most intractable problems.   

In recent years we learned from our polling how the priorities of people in the Global South were diverging from the rest of the world. This has profound implications if we are to come up with global consensus on problems such as climate change. 

To tackle this we have convened groups from the Global South and Global North to address divergent perspectives head on, and it is one the reasons we held a summit in Rio earlier this year. 

Loneliness has leapt up the list of concerns, perhaps as a consequence of a more atomized society because of new technologies and the pandemic. Our polling showed this issue was particularly prevalent in Asia, and so we investigated this with groups of technologists and investors to examine what is going on.

Economic inequality is a major challenge, exacerbated by globalization and technological advancements that can leave vulnerable populations behind.  

The people we survey in our PRIORITY Compass are unequivocal that their main concern is financial — their cost of living. How governments respond to this will have profound implications on the future wellbeing of the planet.  And this is why, we will be talking about it at FII with renowned experts such as the leading economist Prof. Jeffrey Sachs.

In this year’s polling respondents tell us they’re less interested in handouts, and more interested in job creation, accessible education, and skills programs. This level of analysis can guide not just policy makers, but innovators in EduTech enabling skills development at levels not seen in the analogue world. 

The pandemic highlighted the vulnerabilities in global health systems and the need for preparedness against future health crises.  Unsurprisingly healthcare ranks as the third concern globally. This is why at this year’s FII we will be hearing from CEOs from healthcare, pharma and life sciences, alongside the world’s leading investors.

Our research shows that most people are uneasy about technology-related issues, with more than two-fifths dissatisfied with data privacy and protection.  

With the data also showing that regular use of generative AI has doubled in 10 months, to 65 percent (McKinsey Global Survey on AI), the policymakers need to balance off these apparent contradictions.  

Throughout the week, we will examine the big issues confronting tech and society with the CEOs and investors who are overseeing transformative innovations in this sector. Technology must be designed around humanity’s needs, not act as a negative force. 

The program for this year’s FII, over three days, contains hundreds of speakers and panels, on a huge array of topics. The future of humanity depends on our ability to listen and learn, and then to leverage our collective strengths to create a more sustainable, equitable, and peaceful world.  

• Rakan Tarabzoni is COO of Future Investment Initiative Institute.