Semafor World Economy Summit: Views from policymakers and CEOs on the future of mobility

On managing crises: Muñoz said the COVID-19 pandemic ultimately helped Hyundai perform better, and taught executives not to wait before acting in moments of turmoil. “I think one of the things we’ve learned in managing a crisis … is that we need to really pay attention to the operation,” Muñoz said.

On electric vehicles: Muñoz acknowledged that the global shift to electric vehicles is taking more time than expected. But he remains confident, pointing to strong sales in China and Europe. “We still believe the future is going to be electric, except that it’s going to take a little bit longer,” Muñoz said. As to why sales remain weaker in some regions than previously expected, Muñoz said that “simply, it depends on how many models you launch in the market and, basically, the infrastructure, and how much support you get [from] different governments.”

On whether travelers are staying home: Leisure and business travelers are worried about negative headlines and elevated uncertainty, and that’s starting to show up in bookings, Kirby said. “Our leisure bookings for the next two weeks are weaker than they were before,” he said, with the biggest slowdown in domestic travel. While summer bookings are comparable to last year, Kirby said some people are pulling back traveling in spontaneous scenarios such as: “we don’t have anything going on next weekend, let’s go to the Bahamas.”

On whether travelers should think twice before visiting the US: International travelers should “absolutely not” be afraid of coming to the US, Kirby said. “Our biggest export is culture, and people aspire to be like Americans, and as Americans, the vast majority are welcoming to others when they come.” Travel lends perspective, he added, which helps people “get through times of challenge.”

On attracting business and talent: Dubai is already a major hub for logistics and trade. But Badri said that the city also wants to become a player in financial services and areas such as manufacturing. To that end, he said, Dubai’s leaders ask: “Are the people, the residents, happy? And are businesses happy? Are they making money? Are we engaging with them?” The city’s location is also an advantage to leverage, he added. “Connectivity is definitely a superpower for Dubai,” Badri said. “We are connected by sea and by air to 400 cities directly.”

On benefits from artificial intelligence: Bozeman said deploying AI has led to productivity gains of 30% at his company in the past two years. The technology can now handle hundreds of thousands of queries in a fraction of the time it took previously. “We’ve seen just a world of change,” he said. Tasks that once took 30 minutes are now completed in 90 seconds. “We’re all in on AI,” he said.

On powering artificial intelligence: When Hochstein considers the data centers needed to support AI, his biggest question is: “Where the hell is the power coming from?” The former US diplomat said you’ve not only “got to build more power generation,” but we have to look at “what are the places in the country that have the land, a positive regulatory environment, water, an abundance of water, and the ability to get electricity?”

On immigration and attracting talent: Asked whether people should be afraid to come to the US, El-Khoury said that talented individuals will go wherever they can contribute. “We need a solid immigration policy in the US in order to attract talent to come but more importantly to stay,” he said. “What you don’t want is getting talent to the country, educating in our educational system, and then everybody leaves because there is no path forward.”

On retraining workers: Harik said his freight transportation company has filled available positions by opening driving schools in 130 locations, producing up to 2,000 truckers a year. That means dockworkers who were earning $20-$25 an hour at the company can get their commercial driving licenses, and many go on to earn six figures annually. “You have had a historic, chronic, driver shortage here in the US,” Harik said. “That’s an example of companies like ours up-skilling workers and training them and giving them a lot of good career development.”

On what companies need from workers: Prising, who leads a staffing firm, described retraining and upgrading worker skills as “the defining challenge of our time.” Companies are looking for employees who are adaptable, and putting more emphasis on softer skills, “because they realize to be successful in this job — which might be different two years from now — we need somebody who will continue to learn within the organization.” But Prising also noted that demographic trends mean the US will need more unskilled labor in coming years. 

On a collaborative culture: Bharadwaj said one key piece of Atlassian’s workplace culture surprises many people: “We don’t use email internally.” The company, which makes collaboration software, also doesn’t do a ton of meetings. “We replaced millions of hours of meetings with a video collaboration tool called Loom,” she said.

On consumer sentiment: Altice has conducted customer surveys that found the vast majority are worried about their monthly expenses, with half of respondents to one poll saying price is their top factor in choosing a mobile-service provider, Mathew said. “They are looking for quality and they are looking for value, but they have to have pricing value that meets their needs,” he said. That is why the broadband communications company is looking to develop more products for income-strained consumers. “Folks need broadband more than ever” to stay connected to each other, he added.

On competing with Elon Musk’s Starlink: Altice is constantly working on ways to grow its market share, but “there are places that are very difficult to reach,” said Mathew. He conceded that companies like Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service may be better equipped to serve some consumers living in remote areas, in part because it would just be too expensive for Altice to catch up.

On managing supply chains in a time of uncertainty: While consumer spending has been stable, the question is what happens if prices rise and product availability tightens, Niraj said, a situation he likened to “whac-a-mole … of trying to think about where it’s going next in different individual situations, and to plan.” The online retailer works with 20,000 suppliers, which it tries to advise so they can manage risk without losing sales. “This is the kind of threading the needle that they’re trying to work on,” he said.

On bikes: In the battle to reduce traffic on US roadways, Duffy said he wants to rethink the proliferation of bike lanes. “In New York, they want to expand bike lanes and then they get more congestion — they correlate,” he said. “I do think it’s a problem when we’re making massive bike lanes at the expense of vehicles.”

On government oversight: The US needs to develop a national standard for dealing with issues such as congestion and safety, said Duffy. “You can’t have an industry develop where every state has different rules,” he said. “It’s not going to work.” He added that autonomous vehicles could help reduce traffic jams and lower risk of accidents,. “I know a lot of Americans are uncomfortable with the idea of essentially letting robots take control,” he conceded, but said that while the industry is improving, states making their own rules could hold progress back. “You can’t have an industry develop where every state has different rules.”