Web Desk: The World Economic Forum (WEF) has unveiled its annual list of the world’s 10 most promising emerging technologies, highlighting innovations that could transform healthcare, energy, manufacturing and cybersecurity as governments and businesses grapple with economic uncertainty and rapid technological change.
The report, released during the Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions, commonly known as “Summer Davos,” in Dalian, identifies technologies that experts believe are approaching a stage where policy decisions, commercial investment and scientific research will determine how widely they are adopted.
Jeremy Jurgens, Managing Director of the WEF’s Centre for Frontier Technology and Innovation, and Fred Fenter, Chief Executive Editor of Frontiers Media, said the selected technologies stand out for their novelty, technical progress and potential to deliver significant real-world impact.
The report identifies three broad themes shaping next-generation innovation.
First, emerging technologies are becoming increasingly personalised, offering treatments and services tailored to individual patients or specific local needs.
Second, innovation is moving toward decentralised production, allowing communities to generate energy, manufacture essential materials and produce food closer to where demand exists.
Finally, many of the new technologies focus on achieving greater efficiency by reducing costs, conserving resources and delivering improved performance with lower environmental impact.
Leading this year’s ranking is “everything-to-grid” technology, which enables electric vehicles, industrial batteries and other distributed energy storage systems to feed electricity back into power grids during periods of peak demand.
The approach could help utilities reduce dependence on fossil fuel-powered backup plants while making greater use of renewable energy sources. Pilot projects have already demonstrated the technology’s ability to stabilise electricity networks during high-demand periods.
Another energy-related breakthrough highlighted in the report is direct lithium extraction, a process that significantly accelerates lithium production for batteries while reducing water consumption and expanding supply beyond traditional mining regions.
The report also highlights passive radiative cooling materials, which can lower building temperatures without consuming electricity by reflecting most incoming sunlight.
Researchers and manufacturers are increasingly developing these coatings for buildings, infrastructure and power transmission systems to improve energy efficiency and reduce cooling costs.
Meanwhile, scientists continue to make progress in eliminating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), often referred to as “forever chemicals.” New treatment methods use high temperatures, electrical currents and ultraviolet-driven chemical reactions to permanently destroy the highly persistent pollutants instead of merely filtering them from water.
Biotechnology features prominently in this year’s list.
Precision fermentation, which uses engineered microorganisms to manufacture proteins, medicines and industrial chemicals, is expanding beyond food production into pharmaceuticals and sustainable manufacturing.
The report also identifies exosome-based drug delivery as a promising approach for improving targeted therapies. Because exosomes are naturally produced by the body, they may deliver medicines more effectively than many synthetic drug carriers, particularly for cancer and neurological disorders.
In addition, personalized mRNA cancer vaccines continue to advance. By designing vaccines around the unique genetic characteristics of an individual’s tumor, researchers aim to strengthen the immune system’s ability to identify and destroy cancer cells while reducing the likelihood of recurrence.
Artificial intelligence and quantum technologies also feature prominently among this year’s emerging innovations.
Quantum simulation could transform pharmaceutical research by accurately modeling molecular interactions during early-stage drug development, potentially lowering research costs and improving success rates for new medicines.
The report also highlights “world models,” an emerging class of AI systems capable of understanding and predicting physical environments rather than simply recognizing patterns in data. Such systems could significantly improve robotics, autonomous machines and climate forecasting by enabling AI to adapt more effectively to unfamiliar situations.
Completing the list is lattice-based cryptography, an encryption method designed to withstand attacks from future quantum computers.
Unlike conventional encryption systems that could eventually become vulnerable to quantum computing, lattice-based methods rely on complex mathematical structures that remain resistant to both classical and quantum attacks. Technology companies have already begun incorporating the approach into secure communications and digital infrastructure.
The World Economic Forum said the technologies featured in this year’s report have progressed beyond theoretical research and are approaching broader commercial deployment. As a result, decisions taken now by policymakers, businesses and research institutions will play a decisive role in determining how these innovations are developed, regulated and adopted over the coming years.
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