The World Economic Forum (WEF) has unveiled its Top 10 Emerging Technologies Report 2026, highlighting a new wave of scientific and engineering breakthroughs that could significantly reshape global industries, healthcare systems, energy networks and digital infrastructure over the next three to five years.
Developed in partnership with Frontiers, a scientific publishing platform, the report focuses on technologies that are moving beyond laboratories and pilot projects towards commercial deployment and broader societal adoption.
According to the WEF, the technologies selected this year reflect a growing shift towards more decentralised, intelligent and resource-efficient systems, with innovations spanning energy, medicine, manufacturing, environmental sustainability and cybersecurity.
Among the technologies identified are everything-to-grid energy systems, which enable buildings, electric vehicles, factories and data centres to both consume and supply electricity to power grids, and direct lithium extraction, a process that can recover battery-grade lithium from brine significantly faster while using less land and water than conventional methods.
The report also highlights passive radiative cooling materials that can lower temperatures without electricity, potentially reducing energy consumption in regions facing rising cooling demands, as well as emerging technologies capable of destroying PFAS, commonly known as “forever chemicals,” which have become a growing environmental concern due to their persistence in water and soil.
In manufacturing and biotechnology, precision fermentation was identified as a key innovation with the potential to transform the production of food ingredients, chemicals and pharmaceuticals by using microorganisms to manufacture products more efficiently and sustainably.
Healthcare-related breakthroughs featured prominently in the report. The WEF pointed to personalised mRNA cancer vaccines, which are designed to train a patient’s immune system to target the unique genetic mutations of a tumour, and exosome-based drug delivery systems that could enable therapies to reach previously difficult targets within the body, including the brain.
Advances in computing and artificial intelligence also made the list. Quantum simulation technologies are expected to accelerate drug discovery by modelling molecular interactions with unprecedented accuracy, while so-called “world models” could allow AI systems to develop a deeper understanding of physical environments, improving their ability to predict outcomes, plan actions and interact with the real world.
The report further identified lattice-based cryptography as a critical technology for the future of cybersecurity, noting that it is designed to safeguard sensitive information against threats posed by both current computing systems and future quantum computers.
Stephan Mergenthaler, managing director of the World Economic Forum, said the technologies collectively point to broader shifts in how innovation is evolving across sectors.
“While each of these technologies has the potential to make a meaningful impact on its own, together they tell a broader story about where innovation is heading,” Mergenthaler said.
He noted that the innovations reveal emerging patterns across energy, medicine and manufacturing that could challenge long-standing assumptions about how technology can be used to address global challenges, including climate change, food security and difficult-to-treat diseases.
The report suggests that future economic competitiveness may increasingly depend not only on access to natural resources but also on infrastructure readiness, technical expertise, manufacturing capability and the ability to deploy advanced technologies at scale.
It also argues that several of the emerging technologies could help governments and industries tackle challenges that have historically proven difficult or costly to address, ranging from environmental pollution and energy efficiency to data security and healthcare delivery.
However, the WEF cautioned that the successful adoption of these technologies will depend on factors such as regulatory frameworks, public trust, investment levels, manufacturing capacity and supporting infrastructure.
Frederick Fenter, chief executive editor of Frontiers, said open scientific collaboration will play a crucial role in ensuring that promising innovations progress from research to real-world impact.
“Understanding which technologies are approaching a true inflection point requires access to the best available evidence and expertise,” Fenter said, adding that open science helps accelerate discovery while strengthening transparency and trust across the research ecosystem.
