The World Economic Forum Reveals Top 10 Emerging Technologies to Watch in 2025
June 24, 2025 — The World Economic Forum (WEF) has unveiled its highly anticipated "Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2025" report, highlighting breakthrough innovations poised to significantly influence industries, economies, and daily life over the next three to five years. Presented at the Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Summer Davos, the report sheds light on technologies at the critical intersection where scientific progress meets practical application.
A Systems-Based Approach to Revolutionary Technologies
This year’s cohort of emerging technologies extends across sectors including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, materials science, energy, and environmental sustainability. The report emphasizes a growing trend toward technological convergence—where different disciplines and innovations combine to create more integrated and effective solutions. For example, AI applications are increasingly intersecting with biological systems, while novel materials are driving advances in clean energy technologies.
Jeremy Jurgens and Frederick Fenter, leaders of the WEF report, explain the purpose:
“By identifying technologies at their turning point—where scientific achievement meets practical potential—we provide leaders in government, business and science with the insights needed to make forward-thinking decisions in a rapidly evolving landscape.”
Four Dominant Trends Shaping Technology
The report identifies four overarching themes characterizing the emerging technologies of 2025:
- Trust and Safety in a Connected World
- Next-Generation Biotechnologies for Health
- Redesigning Industrial Sustainability
- Integrating Energy and Materials
Together, these focus areas reflect a commitment to tackling some of the globe’s most pressing challenges including misinformation, climate change, pollution, and healthcare inequalities.
The Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2025
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Structural Battery Composites (SBCs)
SBCs represent a novel kind of battery that integrates energy storage directly into structural materials, such as carbon fiber or epoxy resin. Unlike traditional lithium-ion batteries that occupy dedicated space, SBCs bear weight while storing electricity, potentially making electric vehicles and aircraft lighter and more efficient. Widespread adoption depends on establishing safety standards. -
Osmotic Power Systems
Tapping into the energy created from differences in salt concentration between freshwater and seawater, osmotic power systems offer a clean, renewable electricity source with minimal environmental footprint. Using technologies like Pressure Retarded Osmosis and Reverse Electrodialysis, these systems harness the Earth’s natural equilibrium-seeking process to generate power. -
Advanced Nuclear Technologies
Nuclear energy is experiencing a renaissance with innovations including Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) designed for cost reduction and improved safety. Long-term ambitions remain focused on nuclear fusion, a potentially transformative energy source under development by international efforts like the ITER project, which aims to mimic the sun’s power by fusing hydrogen atoms. -
Engineered Living Therapeutics
By converting beneficial microbes into "living drug factories," this biotechnology promises to deliver medicines internally within the human body at much lower costs. These programmable microbes — including bacteria, cells, and fungi — can produce therapeutics on demand, offering sustainable and long-lasting treatment options for chronic diseases such as diabetes. -
GLP-1s for Neurodegenerative Diseases
Originally developed for diabetes and obesity management, GLP-1 receptor agonists are now demonstrating potential in treating neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. These drugs reduce brain inflammation and aid the removal of toxic proteins, addressing symptoms that afflict over 55 million dementia patients worldwide. -
Autonomous Biochemical Sensing
These self-powered, wireless devices continuously monitor biochemical markers relevant to human health and environmental safety. Initially popularized by wearable glucose monitors for diabetes, the technology is expanding into areas such as menopause management and food safety, enabling real-time, autonomous health and pollution monitoring. -
Green Nitrogen Fixation
Essential for producing fertilizers that support roughly half of the world’s food supply, nitrogen fixation traditionally relies on energy-intensive processes with high environmental costs. The new generation of green nitrogen fixation technologies aims to provide cleaner, more sustainable methods to convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, reducing pollution and carbon footprint in agriculture.
Driving Global Energy Transitions
Despite advances, the report also sounds a note of urgency about the global energy system. The WEF’s Energy Transition Index reveals that although climate change demands rapid decarbonization, 81% of the world’s energy still relies on fossil fuels — a figure unchanged over three decades. Readiness for the energy transition is particularly lacking among major emitters such as the US, China, India, and Russia.
To support the transition, the Forum’s Centre for Energy & Materials is spearheading initiatives focused on clean power, electrification, transition intelligence, and industrial ecosystem transformation. Partnerships like the Mission Possible Partnership aim to decarbonize heavy industry and mobility sectors through the collaboration of public and private stakeholders.
Looking Ahead
The Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2025 outlines a roadmap of innovation addressing critical challenges—from improving health outcomes and advancing renewable energy to fostering sustainable industrial processes. As these technologies mature and converge, they promise to reshape economies and societies, ushering us closer to a safer, healthier, and more sustainable future.
For more information, the full report and related resources are available on the World Economic Forum’s website.
Image Credit: World Economic Forum
