Financial markets based on emotions and perceptions, says futurist Gerd Leonhard

The Futures Agency CEO and futurist Gerd Leonhard, speaking at the Doing Digital Forum 2025 in Yerevan, said that financial markets are based on emotions and perceptions. 

“We can confidently say that we are in a world where everything is changing. What was reality 10 years ago is questioned today. We must be better prepared to understand the next step,” he said.

“People don’t change if there is no love or pain. Financial markets are likewise based on emotions and perceptions. This is the most dangerous part of AI, we could appear in a place where AI would offer financial reaction. That’s how we reached Brexit,” he said, referring to the withdrawal process of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union.

He also spoke about self-driving cars and showed a video of himself taking a ride in such a vehicle in San Francisco. Such cars are not used widely, he said. 

“It definitely felt safe. The car was doing all it had to do. But the traffic in the US is slow, motorists aren’t too tense in most cases like in Germany. For example in Berlin there would have been an accident 40 seconds later,” he said.

Self-driving cars will work in the US but not in most cities around the world. “But this is how the future comes,” he said.