Dex Hunter-Torricke: the most disruptive moment in history (pic: DB Media Services)
DataFest 2026 offered a fascinating glimpse into the economic revolution now upon us, writes TERRY MURDEN
They came in their hundreds. From universities, small tech firms, government agencies and international consulting companies. And as they gathered, ironically, in the 18th century grandeur of the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, they had one thing in common: what does an AI future look like, for each of them, for society and the generations of workers to come?
DataFest 2026 drew 600 delegates, one of its biggest to date, to pose the biggest question facing the global economy. While energy supplies and food prices are grabbing the headlines, there is a revolution happening around us and some of the experts in the field say not enough of us truly understands how much AI will change everything we have taken for granted. And it is changing fast.
“The next three years will make the last three look like child’s play,” declares Dex Hunter-Torricke, a two-decade veteran of the global tech industry, who has worked alongside Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Eric Schmidt and other titans of the tech sector.
Standing alone on the stage in near darkness, as if to emphasise the deep unknown, he recalled the collapse of the shipbuilding and mining industries and how they impacted people’s lives, not just their livelihoods.
“We are on the cusp of something much greater,” he said. “The next decade will be the most disruptive moment in history. In many cases we have yet to spot the impact.”
He spoke about Chinese factories now turning out devices without any human involvement, of almost all customer interaction in the US now being shaped by AI.
The pace of change is such that talk has already moved on from AI to AGI – artificial general intelligence – a theoretical type of AI in which computers possess human-like, complex reasoning skills. “It is the most powerful technology,” said Hunter-Torricke, adding that he has travelled the world and that he has seen “no evidence of serious planning ” for the “mythical” re-skilling being talked about.
“I am flabbergasted at the number of people I meet who have no strategy for this. They are winging it. I wish them well.”
The second day of DataFest took place as the former Labour government minister Alan Milburn delivered his report stating that one million 16 to 24-year-olds are not in employment, education or training, a number likely to rise without determined action.
Jamie Jefferson: massively exciting (pic: DB Media Services)
It is a perfect storm of an increased cost of labour, the impact of wars in Ukraine and Iran, and the advance of technology which has given employers the option to remove humans from their workforce.
“Businesses have cut back on their labour force, in some cases assisted by AI advances which deliver productivity gains today,” says Danni Hewson, AJ Bell head of financial analysis.
“That could prevent tomorrow’s workforce from being given the opportunity to develop the skills that will be needed when older workers retire, particularly in the retail and hospitality sectors.”
As in any revolution, there are also some gains and there is talk about new jobs emerging from the AI transition, including roles we don’t yet know about. Hunter-Torricke listed “AI assistants” and “context engineers”, a new category of worker able to build things but who is also a deep domain specialist.
Urging all businesses to get on the AI train, he said that “your competitors will be using AI to take advantage of the slightest pause in your armament. Over the next five years you will have re-invented the core of your business. If you don’t, you will not be running it in 10 years time.”
Leadership is being examined like never before. Alex Van Sant of Accenture, speaking on AI’s impact on the future workforce, said: “Business leaders only see it as a tech challenge. It is a people challenge. It makes the role of leaders more important.” David McFarlane of Capco said simply: “AI is not a silver bullet. Understand leadership and use AI to drive value.”
Others were contemplating everything from AI’s ability to improve public services, to the way we do science and how it impacts on creativity. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales spoke about Google AI summaries leading to an 8% drop in human traffic to his site, a problem shared by news sites around the world.
The digital encyclopedia is the world’s fifth most popular website and is published in 300 languages. Wales said it had been set up to have “a good purpose”, but he said “public trust is in decline… and there is a huge trust problem with AI”.
Jimmy Wales: Google has taken traffic (pic: DB Media Services)
His comments come amid worries over AI stealing copyright and ideas which have forced worldwide reaction and government debates. Even so, there are some in the creative sector who see the benefits of the technology.
Brian Coan of Leith Agency told a break-out audience how it was speeding up the filming process. Jamie Jefferson of digital design agency Equator said she could not get enough of it. “We can do work we could not do before. Everything changes so quickly. We will get ever smarter tools. It is massively exciting.”
But others were less encouraged by the onset of AI. Prof Rachel Adams of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, expressed concern that the big tech companies “have more wealth and influence than some countries” and are able to sway the gains from the technology in their favour.
She told delegates that contrary to AI solving problems of poverty, progress remains uneven, fragmented, and fragile. It would also widen the skills gap as some people would inevitably be left behind.
“Politicians are not taking these matters seriously,” she said. “My sense at the moment is that AI has not significantly improved the lives of those in poverty.”
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