Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2026 Unveiled at Davos Forum

A report identifying the top 10 emerging technologies of 2026 was unveiled at the Summer Davos Forum in Dalian, China, on Tuesday. Published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Frontiers, the report signals a shift in artificial intelligence (AI) development from software to the physical systems underpinning the modern economy, such as energy, medicine, food, and materials.

The selected technologies are deemed to have the greatest potential to shape industries, policies, and society over the next five years. The list spans next-generation clean energy, advanced materials, biotechnology, AI, and quantum technologies.

The top 10 emerging technologies are:

• Everything-to-grid energy, enabling electric vehicles and buildings to store electricity and feed it back into the grid as needed.

• Direct lithium extraction, replacing slow evaporation ponds with engineered systems to extract battery-grade lithium from salt flats in hours.

• Passive radiative cooling materials, which keep buildings cool without consuming energy.

• PFAS destruction, transforming ‘forever chemicals’ into harmless natural substances for clean drinking water.

• Precision fermentation for producing food ingredients and medicines.

• Exosome-based drug delivery, using the body’s natural cellular packages to deliver drugs precisely to diseased cells.

• Personalised mRNA cancer vaccines, training a patient’s immune system to recognise and destroy cancer cells.

• Quantum simulation for drug discovery.

• World models, which predict various real-world scenarios.

• Lattice-based cryptography, designed to protect sensitive digital data from future quantum computer attacks.