These are the Top Ten Emerging Technologies of 2024
The 2024 list of Top Ten Emerging Technologies has just been published by the World Economic Forum. It includes some that may surprise you.
This year’s much-anticipated list of top ten emerging technologies has just been published by the World Economic Forum, and as usual it it’s an intriguing mix of trends you might expect, and capabilities that you might not.
I’m currently in Dalian China for the release of this year’s report at the Annual Meeting of New Champions (informally known as the “Summer Davos”). As well as being a contributor to the report, it’s a chance to engage with public and private sector leaders on the list, and trends in transformative tech more broadly.
Having been involved with the list since its inception in 2012, I always look forward to seeing what emerges from the process. This year though I must confess that I was worried that AI would end up dominating the technologies we selected.
Thankfully my worries were unfounded. While AI has been grabbing headlines for the past 12 months, we were able to strike what I think is a constructive balance between AI-related technologies, and those that aren’t but are nevertheless likely to be transformative.
The result was a list that reflects two areas of development related to AI (AI in scientific discovery, and privacy enhancing technologies), but that also focuses other technologies that are emerging as having the potential for substantial impact.
Amongst these is one that wasn’t previously on my radar, but definitely is now: Elastocalorics.
Elastocaloric materials emit heat when they’re subject to mechanical stress, and cool down when that stress is removed. The result is a highly effective form of cooling (and heating) that is more efficient than many existing technologies, and that can even be deployed off-grid.
Given growing concerns over the health implications of excessive heat events, elastocalorics is one of a number of technologies that could become pivotal in managing the impacts of climate change. It’s also potentially transformative in many other areas, including heat management in data centers, cryogenics, and even temperature-modulated actuators.
It’s the inclusion of technologies like this which, to me, differentiate the WEF list from other lists of emerging technologies. Rather than being digital tech- or consumer tech-heavy, the WEF list casts a broader net to include technologies that are not necessarily trending on social media or making headlines, but that nevertheless have the potential to be transformative.
Reflecting this, this year’s list includes:
AI for scientific discovery
Privacy-enhancing technologies
Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces
High altitude platform stations
Integrated sensing and communication
Immersive technology for the built world
Elastocalorics
Carbon-capturing microbes
Alternative livestock feeds
Genomics for transplants
The full report and a number of supporting resources are available on the WEF website. These include “transformation maps” for each technology that allow its broader context to be explored.
Highly recommended reading.
