In a major re evaluation of global innovation priorities, the tech sector is undergoing a profound structural transition, moving away from a long standing fixation on purely screen based, digital software toward technologies capable of reshaping the physical world.
According to the newly released Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2026 report, jointly published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and open science publisher Frontiers, the focus of global competitiveness is shifting directly into the infrastructure, factories, and systems that sustain modern economies.
Unveiled at the WEF’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions, popularly known as the “Summer Davos,” the 14th edition of the report emphasizes that the primary arena for technological disruption is no longer found in application layer software or standalone chatbots. Instead, engineering breakthroughs are now targeting physical supply chains, healthcare delivery, and energy infrastructure.
“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,” noted Stephan Mergenthaler, Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer at the World Economic Forum, pointing to the overarching industrial realignment. He added that the breakthroughs “reveal new patterns across energy, medicine and manufacturing that could challenge long held assumptions about how we use technology to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges.”
Leading this wave of tangible innovations are three primary breakthroughs poised to achieve substantial commercial and societal scale over the next three to five years, Everything to Grid (E2G) systems, Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE), and personalized mRNA cancer vaccines.
The first major infrastructure pivot addresses the inherent volatility of the global energy transition. As power grids struggle with the evening drops in solar and wind generation, Everything to Grid (E2G) technology is scaling to bridge the shortfall. E2G transforms idle assets including electric vehicles, factories, and data centers into distributed power reserves, allowing a two-way flow of electricity that can feed power back to the grid during peak hours.
Simultaneously, the geopolitical and logistical hurdles of battery production are being challenged by Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE). Traditional lithium mining relies on vast evaporation ponds that can take up to two years to process, consumes intense amounts of water, and leaves supply chains highly centralized. DLE introduces engineered membranes and solvents capable of pulling battery-grade lithium from brine or geothermal fluids within mere hours before returning the water safely underground, promising to diversify the global battery supply network.
The shift toward physical execution is equally disruptive in biotechnology. Departing from generalized medical treatments, personalized mRNA cancer vaccines are moving rapidly into real world deployment. This therapeutic approach involves synthesizing a highly individualized vaccine directly from a patient’s unique tumor profile, training their immune system to identify and eliminate cancer cells that would otherwise escape detection.
As competitive advantages shift toward physical systems, the authors of the report emphasize that the ultimate trajectory of these innovations will depend heavily on regulatory frameworks, capital commitment, and infrastructure readiness.
“Open science enables researchers around the world to build on one another’s work, accelerating discovery while improving transparency and trust,” stated Frederick Fenter, Chief Executive Editor of Frontiers, emphasizing the collaborative scientific foundations required to bring these complex physical systems to global scale.
