Historians often shy away from proclaiming pivotal shifts in time, but Adam Tooze, Director of Columbia University's European Institute, is unequivocal.

We are living through a new era, he argues, because of the scale, speed and seismic change for substantial slices of society, driven in no small part by a new breed of entrepreneurs.

“We really are in a new epoch of transformation, especially entrepreneurially-driven innovation,” he said during a session at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions - also known as Summer Davos. The event has wrapped up after three days of conversations in Tianjin, China, with the theme of 'Entrepreneurship for a New Era'.

“The types of innovations that we're talking about in the current moment touch the deepest foundations of our existence as a species on the planet, no less.”

These innovations are reshaping how we power our homes and cities, how we build and scale companies, how we compete globally - and how we collaborate with intelligent machines.

Now in its 16th year, the meeting brought together leaders from business, policy, civil society and academia, along with the Forum’s global communities of innovators, to explore how ingenuity is powering growth amid uncertainty.

Five key shifts emerged:

As the geo-political environment fragments and key players focus on their national interest rather than historic relationships, innovation hasn’t suffered, it has soared, argues Jin Keyu, Professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s School of Business and Management.

“DeepSeek did not happen in a time of comfort. It happened in a time of crisis. This is called crisis innovation,” she told the China’s Economy Analysed session.

“A lot of technological breakthroughs happen in times of crisis… even if trade and investment can come back to some sort of normality between the US and China, there's no certainty that technology is going to happen in parallel,” she said.

Verena Kuhn, Head of the Forum’s Innovator Communities agrees. “The focus on regional and national sovereignty has created hotbeds of innovation – this has happened in the US, in China and in Europe,” she said, noting that while we are perhaps seeing fewer collaborations between the US and China, we are seeing more between China and Europe.

Entrepreneurs today aren’t just adopting AI - they’re co-creating alongside it.

As the technology becomes more embedded in workflows, some experts believe it could upend traditional business metrics - from headcount to revenue per employee. Some experts argue it will also lead to one-person billion-dollar companies.

At Summer Davos, it was evident AI is increasingly seen not just as a tool to automate tasks, but as a creative partner shaping what businesses build and how they build it.

Take Archetype AI, a company from the Forum’s Innovator Communities. It’s pioneering a new category of 'Physical AI' – training foundational models not on text or language but on real-world sensory data. In a factory, for example, this AI can observe what's happening and anticipate the next move - bringing intelligence closer to the edge of decision-making.

“We are getting to the new frontiers – going beyond text models to train AI because there is only so much you can capture with text. Now it’s about sensory data and perception," says Verena.

That kind of intelligent responsiveness is changing not only products but entire workflows. “From the perspective of machine development, we should treat machines as a part of the labour force,” said Professor Zhu. “What we are discussing now is how human beings and AI or machines can coexist and complement each other.”

Leadership, too, is being redefined. “Very soon, the valuation metric for a good manager is how many digital workers you can manage,” said Wang Guanchun, Chairman and CEO of Laiye. “It’s not just about communication with people, but how you can prompt your agents to do the best work, ensure their performance, their safety, and their productivity.”

“If you want to stay competitive, every leader should think about how to embrace agents - digital workforce - because that’s going to allow you to remain a Fortune 500 company,” Wang added. “For start-ups, the adoption of AI agents will be even faster.”

In countries like China, a robust and fast-moving talent pipeline is enabling this shift. “If you have a lot of people playing soccer, you eventually have a team go to the World Cup,” said Li Haitao, Dean at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, pointing to China’s scale in AI training and education.

Workera CEO Kian Katanforoosh echoed this, highlighting the pace at which knowledge - and people - must evolve. “People keep learning all the time. The velocity is high. That’s what makes places like San Francisco special.”

But rapid innovation also demands responsibility. “It’s going to change a lot of things, a lot of social norms,” said NTT DATA's John Lombard. “We talk a lot about the ethical use and correct governance of these projects… and we need to make sure there’s inclusion. Globally, there are over 2.5 billion people that don’t have access to the internet.”

As Rwanda’s ICT Minister Paula Ingabire put it: “We can’t afford not to adopt these technologies – we’ve seen the catalytic effect it has on economic development."

More than ever, entrepreneurs are prioritizing impact and community in their work – a strategy that delivers not just impact, but also a competitive advantage.

“Entrepreneurs shouldn't just live a rich life, but they should also live an enriching life. We want them to make an impact," said Li Haitao, Dean, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.

Pay-as-you-go solar and battery company Easy Solar’s Co-Founder Enyonam Mosia is one such entrepreneur who participated in Summer Davos. Her company works with off-grid households in Sierra Leone and Liberia, giving them much-needed access to sustainable electricity.

The company has powered over 1 million people, created over 1,000 jobs, and saved families around $5 million annually.

As China witnesses a transition from the "the old, property-based, export-based model to an advanced manufacturing, high-tech model" according to Professor Jin Keyu, it will "hopefully be supported by a new generation of entrepreneurs – who are very focused on innovation, focused on improving the livelihood of their local economy, rather than just lining up factories for the purpose of exporting".

“I see them as a very socially conscious new generation, they’re highly innovative, highly entrepreneurial, they’re not following some traditional playbook, they see the opportunities there and it’s up to them to grab them,” she added.

Opportunities for these impact-driven innovators are on the rise. “The decentralization of opportunity has also lowered the barriers of entry to those who don’t have a background, don’t have connections, don’t have a capital base, to really go after their dreams".

The accelerating potential of AI, combined with increasing levels of education and young populations in countries that are innovation hubs, is multiplying the speed of change.

These three combined forces are creating a new breed of younger founders and CEOs.

“The younger generation [...] have more knowledge. They have better education. They are better connected to the world. In recent years, you can see many young and important enterprises emerging… working in robotics, brain interface, AI and large language models,” explained Zhu Qiuguo, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Deep Robotics, in a session.

These young people have grown up with AI, seen the gaps in the market and used it to launch and scale businesses at breakneck speed, reaching stages of development that, historically, would have taken years.

“The logic of building a company has completely transformed,” said Verena. “It used to be about scaling it while preserving its culture. Now, with AI you can do so much more with just a few people. You can fit an entire company in a single conference room. And that nimbleness is a competitive advantage.”

Polygone, a Princeton University spin-off chosen as an UpLink Top Innovator, mimics natural design to filter microplastics from waterways and is one example of this new breed.

Founder Yidian Liu, who is originally from Tianjin, began the company when she was just 25. Just a few years on, she and her founder have seen their almost zero energy system used to clean microplastics from wastewater in a pilot plant in Atlanta, serving 220,000 households.

Venture-capital funding is a vital resource for young companies that is not always in abundant supply. Some places, like the San Francisco Bay Area, may enjoy relatively copious amounts, but most other places are less well-endowed. In much of Europe, for example, start-ups often depart for the US in search of investment – particularly those that have moved beyond the early stage and are pivoting into a period of more intensive growth.

Recently, even venture firms in traditional US hotspots like Silicon Valley have suffered an exodus of investment normally provided by their own backers, who are grappling with elevated interest rates and volatility.

Now alternatives are popping up to fill the void.

The WTFund, an India-based investor that doesn’t require an equity stake to fund young entrepreneurs, distributed its first grants last year. Government grants are also a possibility; the EU’s European Innovation Council announced plans earlier this year to grant €2.5 million each to a series of start-ups focused on quantum technology.

New varieties of funding and other types of support were a focus of discussion at Summer Davos.

Rwanda’s Paula Ingabire said the country recently launched a national AI policy and strategy to drive economic development.

And Professor Zhu Qiuguo said that in China’s Zhejiang province, “the local government requires state enterprises and departments to open possible use cases to high-tech enterprises – so they can give more opportunities for high-tech companies to apply their latest technologies”.

Explore more quotes, sessions, and stories from the meeting: