Are there companies that withdrew emotion-recognition demos from WEF Davos 2025 due to backlash?

1. No evidence in WEF’s official coverage that demos were pulled

WEF pages describing Davos 2025 and the Open Forum outline programming, participant lists and thematic hubs for the Annual Meeting but do not mention publicised pull‑outs of emotion‑recognition demonstrations or of companies cancelling demos under pressure ^{[1] [5]}. Corporate microsites that promoted Davos participation — for example Fujitsu’s WEF 2025 microsite advertising “exclusive demos” — also promote hands‑on AI showcases with no note of withdrawals ^[4].

2. Reporting and partner coverage of Davos 2025 focus on attendance, not demo controversies

Multiple outlets and institutional overviews of Davos 2025 emphasize attendance, themes and major speakers — describing the meeting as bringing together “some 2,500” leaders and listing high‑level participants — without documenting a wave of companies that retracted emotion‑recognition exhibits ^{[3] [6]}. WEF and partner coverage discussed AI and the “Intelligent Age” broadly, but available sources do not mention specific backlash‑driven demo cancellations ^{[7] [6]}.

3. What the sources do say about AI at Davos — broad interest, not this specific controversy

WEF editorial material and event pages make clear that AI and technological change were central topics at Davos 2025, with the Forum framing conversations on jobs, skills and governance in the “Intelligent Age” ^{[7] [6]}. That broader AI focus in official material is documented, but none of the supplied pages report emotion‑recognition demos being withdrawn in response to public backlash ^{[7] [6]}.

4. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence — limitation of available reporting

The sources provided are largely institutional summaries, partner pages and descriptive coverage; they do not include an exhaustive archive of all press reports, corporate statements or social‑media controversies from January 2025. Therefore available sources do not mention company withdrawals of emotion‑recognition demos, but that does not prove such events did not occur beyond the scope of these documents ^{[1] [4] [3]}.

5. How to verify the claim beyond these sources

To confirm whether companies pulled emotion‑recognition demos at Davos 2025 you should consult contemporaneous independent news reporting, corporate press releases from companies known to have demonstrated affect‑analytics technology, and social‑media threads from January 2025. Those sources are not included in the dataset you provided, so they cannot be cited here; currently available reporting in this set contains no mention of such withdrawals ^{[1] [4] [3]}.

6. Competing narratives and likely reasons for confusion

There are competing framings around AI at Davos: institutional sources emphasise constructive dialogue and demos ^{[7] [4]}, while critics historically highlight ethical concerns about surveillance and automated judgement (Wikipedia’s historical criticism of WEF events shows recurring public dissent, though not this specific claim) ^[8]. Such tensions can create plausible rumours that individual companies might withdraw controversial demos — but none of the supplied WEF or partner pages document a backlash‑driven retraction in Davos 2025 ^{[8] [4]}.

7. Bottom line and recommended next steps

Based on the sources you provided, there is no documented evidence that companies withdrew emotion‑recognition demos from WEF Davos 2025 due to backlash ^{[1] [4] [3]}. To reach a definitive conclusion, review independent news archives (January 2025), corporate statements from AI vendors known for emotion‑recognition tools, and contemporaneous social media reporting; those sources are not present in the current set, so they remain necessary to corroborate or refute the claim.