The World Economic Forum (WEF) has published its latest report, “Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2024”, providing an in-depth analysis of the 10 emerging technologies of 2024 that are set to have a significant impact over the next five years.
10 Emerging Technologies of 2024:
This report, published annually since 2011, is a valuable foresight exercise for strategies and intelligence systems as it brings together the perspectives of over 300 scientists, researchers, and global experts. It is an intelligence product of the global Frontiers network, whose contributions help understand the development of these technological trends, how they will attract significant investments, and how their potential can be scaled across multiple sectors to drive innovation.
The highlighted technologies of 2024 include:
- Artificial Intelligence for Scientific Discovery: Advances in deep learning and generative models are transforming scientific research, facilitating groundbreaking discoveries in medicine and the understanding of the human body and mind.
- Privacy-Enhancing Technologies: The use of synthetic data is protecting personal privacy while enabling safer global collaboration, especially in health research.
- Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces: These surfaces transform walls and other spaces into intelligent components for wireless communication, improving energy efficiency in networks.
- High-Altitude Platform Stations: These stations extend mobile network access to remote regions, helping to close the global digital divide.
- Integrated Sensors and Communication: This technology enables the simultaneous collection and transmission of data, useful for environmental monitoring in smart agriculture and urban planning.
- Immersive Technology for the Built Environment: Virtual and augmented reality are improving infrastructures and everyday systems, ensuring greater precision and safety.
- Elastocaloric Materials: These materials offer more efficient and sustainable cooling solutions through the use of mechanical stress.
- Carbon Capture Microbes: They transform carbon emissions into valuable products like biofuels, significantly contributing to the fight against climate change.
- Alternative Animal Feed: New sustainable protein sources, such as single-cell proteins and algae, are revolutionizing the agricultural industry.
- Genomics for Transplants: Advances in genetic engineering of organs offer new hope for millions of people on transplant waiting lists.
In recent years, the World Economic Forum’s report on the Top 10 Emerging Technologies has become an essential source of strategic intelligence for professionals worldwide. This edition highlights technologies that not only promise significant benefits for societies and economies but are also disruptive, attractive to investors and researchers, and are expected to achieve considerable scale within the next five years.
The selection process for the technologies included in the report is rigorous and comprehensive. This year, the report introduces an innovative trend analysis methodology that incorporates academic literature, funding trends, and patent filings. This approach ensures the accuracy and relevance of the selected technologies, highlighting those with the potential to significantly transform various sectors.
Collaboration with Frontiers has also been crucial in the production of the report. The highlighted technologies were identified through a process involving over 300 world-renowned academics and experts from the Forum’s Global Future Councils, the University and Research Network, and the Frontiers network, which includes over 2,000 chief editors from leading global institutions.
Therefore, the report not only provides a vision of the most promising emerging technologies but also serves as an invaluable tool for guiding strategic investments and fostering innovation. The technologies selected in this edition, such as AI for scientific discovery, privacy-enhancing technologies, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, and many more, are poised to have a profound and lasting impact in the coming years.
Consequently, this WEF report becomes an essential piece of strategic intelligence for anyone involved in strategic planning and investment in emerging technologies.
For more information: “Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2024”