Oliver Wyman Forum CEO in New Delhi: The World Is Watching the Wrong AI Race

On October 13, 2026, Bloomberg published a session with John Romeo, managing partner and CEO of Oliver Wyman Forum, from the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi. The title is blunt: "We're Watching the Wrong AI Race." The stated topic is how people can adapt and keep their agency, the ability to make their own decisions and run their own work, as AI gets stronger. One session, one speaker, and one thesis in the title.

What the source tells us

The item in Bloomberg's Tech feed is very short. It is an announcement of the conversation, with no transcript. It contains no figures, quotes, study names, or specific recommendations. Everything below analyzes the framing of the discussion and does not retell Romeo's words. Where I am interpreting, I say so.

Which race people talk about, and which they ignore

Public conversation about AI usually revolves around visible metrics: benchmark results, cluster size, data center capital expenditure, access to chips, model releases. Romeo's title suggests that attention is pointed at the wrong track. The wording of the announcement hints at which track matters more: the speed and quality with which people and organizations adapt. That is my interpretation, not a quote.

The venue reinforces this reading. India is one of the largest markets for IT services and outsourcing, where automation of coding, support, and back-office work hits employment faster than in most countries. For that audience, the question of who makes decisions, and how, when agents work alongside people is about today's jobs.

The word agency is the key one here. It is about whether a person keeps real control over the outcome as a model takes more and more steps on its own. A formal signature on a decision that an algorithm prepared does not guarantee that control.

The event in figures and facts

• Venue: Bloomberg New Economy Forum 2026, New Delhi.
• Speaker: John Romeo, managing partner and CEO of Oliver Wyman Forum.
• Publication date: October 13, 2026.
• Topic: how people adapt and keep their agency as AI grows more powerful.
• Thesis of the title: the industry and the public are watching the wrong AI race.
• What the source does not contain: statistics, study names, specific measures.

Practical takeaways for leaders and teams

Until the full text of the talk is available, it is useful to turn the thesis itself into diagnostic questions for your own company. These are my editorial recommendations, not a summary of the session.

First: which decisions in your organization are already effectively made by a model or agent, with a human merely approving the result? Make a list. It is usually longer than you expect.

Second: who can stop or roll back an automated process, and how quickly? If there is no answer, the control is nominal.

Third: how much time does it take to retrain employees after a new tool is rolled out? This metric deserves tracking alongside token cost and response speed.

Fourth: identify where you measure only model performance, and where you also measure how the work of the people alongside it changes.

Once Bloomberg or the forum itself publishes the full recording or a transcript, these questions will get concrete figures and Romeo's actual positions. Until then, only the topic and the title are reliable: an argument that the AI industry is focused on the wrong thing.