| Mariette DiChristina, Dean and Professor, Practice in Journalism, Boston University College of Communication

| Bernard S. Meyerson, Chief Innovation Officer Emeritus, IBM

The Fourth Industrial Revolution continues apace, filling this year’s Top 10 Emerging Technologies report with a striking array of integrative advances that address global gaps and concerns. Our selection reflects the diverse nature of technological emergence – some technologies, like structural battery composites, represent novel approaches to longstanding challenges, while others, such as GLP-1s for neurodegenerative diseases and advanced nuclear technologies, demonstrate how established innovations can find transformative new applications. Each represents a critical inflection point where scientific achievement meets practical potential for addressing global needs. (For more on how the Fourth Industrial Revolution sparks “waves of further breakthroughs”, see the final chapter of this report, “From weak signals to societal transformation”.)

Take, for instance, the integration of energy systems and materials, which provides dramatic improvements in functionality and efficiency as seen in this year’s list. In structural battery composites, transport gets an upgrade with “massless” energy systems that blend into the load-bearing elements. Turning to other sources of energy, advances in materials for semipermeable membranes enable “salt power” in osmotic power systems. Finally, in the search for non-carbon energy sources, new designs for next-generation nuclear power plants are coming online.

Biotechnology also offers some striking additions to human health in this year’s top 10. Biologically based interventions are gaining momentum as both treatment and monitoring solutions, moving beyond traditional pharmaceutical approaches. Witness engineered living therapeutics, microbes genetically engineered into living factories that could produce medicines and other therapeutic substances as needed by the body. A new class of drugs, called GLP-1s (glucagon-like peptide-1), well-known in weight-loss medications and management of type 2 diabetes, are now being brought to bear on brain-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. It is anticipated that autonomous biochemical sensing, where analytical devices continuously monitor chemical or disease markers, will soon replace single-use tests at scale.

Core industrial processes are being fundamentally reimagined for sustainability and efficiency. Examples in this year’s top 10 include green nitrogen fixation, in which atmospheric nitrogen is converted into crop-feeding ammonia for fertilizer with a vastly lowered carbon footprint. Meanwhile, nanozymes, laboratory-produced nanomaterials with enzyme-like properties that act as catalysts in important industrial processes, offer increased stability, lower production costs and simpler synthesis processes.

Trust and safety in connected systems are clearly essential to our networked future. Collaborative sensing, for example, will rely on that. Sensors distributed in homes, vehicles and workspaces are increasingly being connected to each other and used by artificial intelligence (AI)-infused systems. Last and not least, this year, the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 again highlighted misinformation and disinformation as key current risks. Generative AI watermarking, which embeds invisible markers to verify authenticity and origins, may help offer a way forward.

Applied collaboratively and wisely, as always, emergent innovations inspire more confidence in humanity’s ability to improve the state of the world. We invite you to engage with this year’s list in detail and welcome your feedback.