Azernews.Az

by Alimat Aliyeva

On June 23, participants of the 2026 Davos Forum in Dalian released the report “Top Ten Emerging Technologies of 2026”, which highlights breakthrough innovations expected to reshape the global economic and social landscape over the next three to five years, AzerNEWS reports.

The report focuses on ten high-potential technologies that are moving rapidly toward commercialization and large-scale real-world application, signaling a shift from experimental development to industrial integration.

The list includes grid-based energy systems, where buildings, vehicles, factories, and data centers increasingly function as both energy consumers and suppliers, capable of storing and returning electricity to the grid, thereby improving energy efficiency and supporting renewable integration.

Another key innovation is direct lithium extraction, which enables lithium to be obtained from brine within hours instead of months, significantly reducing water usage and land impact, while also strengthening global battery supply chains.

Passive radiative cooling materials are also highlighted, as they reflect sunlight and dissipate heat into space without electricity consumption, offering an effective solution for reducing cooling demand in increasingly hot climates.

The report also emphasizes PFAS decomposition technologies aimed at breaking down persistent “forever chemicals” that accumulate in water and soil, addressing one of the most challenging environmental pollution issues.

Precision fermentation is included as a sustainable method of producing food ingredients, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals through engineered microorganisms, reducing reliance on traditional resource-intensive production.

Exosome-based drug delivery systems are gaining attention for their ability to transport therapeutic agents directly into targeted cells, potentially enabling treatments for previously inaccessible areas such as the brain.

Personalized mRNA cancer vaccines represent another major breakthrough, activating the immune system to recognize tumor-specific mutations and improving post-surgical cancer prevention.

In addition, quantum pulse modeling in drug discovery allows highly precise simulation of molecular interactions, accelerating the identification of promising pharmaceutical compounds.

World models for artificial intelligence are also featured, enabling AI systems to integrate multimodal data and form a deeper understanding of the physical environment, improving prediction, planning, and interaction with the real world.

Finally, lattice-based cryptography is identified as a key future security technology, designed to resist both classical and quantum computer attacks, ensuring long-term protection of digital infrastructure.

Forum organizers noted that after years of focusing primarily on software-based artificial intelligence, technological innovation is now increasingly shifting toward physical systems such as energy, materials, biology, and industrial infrastructure, with eight of the ten selected technologies directly impacting the physical economy.

They also highlighted a growing trend of “de-geographicalization” of production, where critical resources and manufacturing become less dependent on specific natural or climatic conditions, potentially redistributing industrial capacity across regions.

The 17th Summer Davos Forum was held in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China, from June 23 to June 25 under the theme “Innovation at Scale,” bringing together more than 1,700 participants from over 90 countries to discuss global economic transformation.

One of the key takeaways from this year’s report is that future technological competition is likely to shift away from purely digital platforms toward control over energy systems, advanced materials, and biological processes, which could significantly reshape global economic power structures in the coming decade.