The Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), in collaboration with the World Economic Forum (WEF), has released its annual “Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2026” report. The publication identifies breakthrough innovations expected to have a significant impact on economies, societies, and industries in the coming years. The launch coincided with the UAE delegation’s participation in the WEF’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as “Summer Davos,” in Dalian, China.
Quick Facts
- DFF co-published the annual emerging technologies report with WEF.
- The report identifies 10 key innovations for significant impact.
- Technologies range from energy and materials to AI and medicine.
A Strategic Guide for Decision-Makers
The report serves as a guide for governments, business leaders, investors, and policymakers to understand and assess the potential of new technologies. For the second consecutive year, the Dubai Future Foundation played an active role in the report’s development, contributing to the evaluation and selection process.
His Excellency Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Managing Director of Dubai Future Foundation, emphasized the importance of global cooperation in technology. “International collaboration in understanding and advancing emerging technologies is essential to accelerating human progress and ensuring that innovation delivers meaningful benefits for societies,” he stated.
Al Gergawi added, “Our partnership with the World Economic Forum focuses on expanding knowledge, accelerating innovation, and identifying opportunities to harness emerging technologies in ways that positively impact people and vital sectors, including healthcare, energy, food, education, and scientific research.”
From AI World Models to Cancer Vaccines: The 2026 List
The technologies were selected based on their novelty, transformative potential, and expected contribution to a more sustainable future. The report details ten specific innovations poised for major growth.
1. Everything-to-Grid Energy: Enables assets like vehicles, homes, and factories to contribute renewable energy to power grids, managed by AI and IoT.
2. Direct Lithium Extraction: A more efficient and environmentally friendly method for extracting lithium, a key component for batteries.
3. Passive Radiative Cooling Materials: Advanced materials that cool surfaces by emitting heat without consuming energy, useful for data centers and semiconductors.
4. PFAS Destruction Technologies: Methods to break down persistent chemical compounds in water supplies using heat, UV radiation, and electrochemical processes.
5. Precision Fermentation Micro-Factories: Using precision fermentation to produce proteins and other compounds for food, medicine, and materials, reducing pressure on agriculture.
6. Exosome Drug Delivery: Utilizes microscopic vesicles to deliver drugs to specific locations in the body, improving treatment effectiveness.
7. Personalised mRNA Cancer Vaccines: Trains a patient’s immune system to recognize and fight their specific cancer cells, improving outcomes.
8. Quantum Simulation for Drug Discovery: Applies quantum simulation to model molecular interactions with high precision, speeding up the development of new medicines.
9. World Models in Artificial Intelligence: AI models that analyze real-world phenomena and human behavior beyond just language data, creating more comprehensive systems.
10. Lattice-Based Cryptography: An advanced encryption method designed to protect data from the future threat of quantum computers.
About Dubai Future Foundation
The Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) is a government organization in Dubai created to institutionalize future-shaping. It leads initiatives and projects aimed at imagining, designing, and executing Dubai’s future in collaboration with public and private sector partners.
Source: Zawya
