The University of Johannesburg (UJ) will host Professor Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, for a major public lecture examining how artificial intelligence and accelerating technological change are reshaping universities, economies and society itself.
Schwab, who led the World Economic Forum for more than five decades before stepping down from executive leadership in 2025, will speak on what he describes as the “Intelligent Age” and why current education systems are no longer equipped for the scale and speed of global transformation.
The lecture draws on his latest book, Universities, Professors, and Students in the Intelligent Age, and forms part of a broader international project exploring the future of leadership, work, trust and human capability in an AI-driven world.
Schwab argues that higher education faces a fundamental turning point. Universities, he says, can no longer operate as institutions that simply transfer knowledge. Instead, they must prepare students for continuous adaptation in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, quantum computing and rapid economic disruption.
He is also expected to address the growing global crisis of trust, the future of stakeholder capitalism, the impact of technological disruption on inequality, and the role of leadership in navigating an era of deep uncertainty.
The discussion takes place at a moment when universities across the world are confronting difficult questions about artificial intelligence, the future of work and whether education systems can adapt quickly enough to technological change.
