The World Economic Forum’s annual Top 10 Emerging Technologies report for 2025, co-chaired by Mariette DiChristina of Boston University and Bernard Meyerson from IBM, aims to guide global leaders in navigating rapid scientific and technological shifts. The initiative, now in its 13th year, identifies innovations on the verge of widespread impact, backed by substantial investment across industries and geographies. Its purpose is to help decision-makers mitigate risks while capitalizing on transformative opportunities that could improve quality of life worldwide.
DiChristina and Meyerson led a rigorous selection process involving over 300 global experts. It began with data analysis of trending scientific terms, followed by expert nominations. The team filtered out technologies previously featured or lacking potential for broad-scale advancement. Emphasis was placed on cross-sector applicability and real-world utility. The final deliberations involved assessing collective insights from the expert community to determine which breakthroughs are likely to have the greatest influence.
Past selections have proven remarkably prescient. Messenger RNA (mRNA) platforms were spotlighted years before their pivotal role in pandemic vaccines. Similarly, CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing was identified early, as were various forms of artificial intelligence—now deeply embedded in everyday applications. Over the past decade, the report has highlighted around 130 technologies, many of which have since shaped major developments in science and industry.
This year’s report reveals a growing trend toward interconnected innovation. Several listed technologies rely on or enhance one another. For example, collaborative sensing—using distributed networks of passive and active sensors—complements autonomous biochemical detection systems. Another highlighted advancement is engineered living therapeutics, where biological agents are designed to deliver targeted treatments inside the human body.
Recurring themes include extending human healthspan, sustainable food production, and clean energy. In healthcare, beyond engineered therapies, the report notes new applications for GLP-1 drugs—initially developed for weight management—now being explored for treating neurodegenerative conditions. To address food security, green nitrogen fixation is featured as a method to reduce the energy burden of fertilizer production. On the energy front, advanced nuclear technologies appear again, reflecting ongoing interest in low-carbon power solutions. Information systems remain central, with generative watermarking introduced as a tool to authenticate AI-generated content and combat digital misuse.
The report serves as a strategic resource for policymakers, entrepreneurs, and researchers seeking to anticipate change and steer innovation responsibly.
— news from Boston University
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COM Dean Cochairs World Economic Forum’s Top Technologies Report
COMtalk: What is the World Economic Forum’s Top 10 Emerging Technologies Report? n nMariette DiChristina: The goal of the report is to provide foresight to leaders the world over. How do you navigate science and technological change? How do we make the best use of these changes so that we are avoiding risk and also taking advantage of opportunities to help make the world a better place? The World Economic Forum has existed for a number of decades now, and that’s its mission: to bring people together to talk about global issues and define paths forward in an international way. The Top 10 Emerging Technologies Report started 13 years ago as a tool for business leaders, for policy leaders, for experts, technologists and researchers. The 10 technologies have serious investment going into them by multiple companies and in multiple places. They’re on the cusp of being extremely impactful. n nCOMtalk: What did your cochairing duties entail? n nMariette DiChristina: Since 2016, I have partnered with an amazing scholar and researcher and technologist named Bernard Meyerson, who is currently the chief innovation officer emeritus at IBM. The process starts with expert analysis about rising use of different terms in the scientific literature. And then we take nominations from more than 300 experts. Then comes the job of winnowing. We start with removing the obvious ones: if a nomination was touched on in previous editions, is not poised for massive growth, or is too duplicative of past themes. We also want items to be useful, cutting across a bunch of industries. That whole process takes a couple of months to run through. The most fun part, where the rubber meets the road, is that the committee then looks at all the data. What do we feel—as an expert community of observers and participants in these fields—will be most impactful? n nCOMtalk: What are a few examples of technologies or innovations you correctly predicted in the past? n nMariette DiChristina: One of my favorite examples is the mRNA technologies. We highlighted mRNA several years before that suite of innovations was used to create COVID-19 vaccines and also the CRISPR-Cas9 [gene editing]. Those two things we absolutely called ahead and then saw a really significant impact. [And here’s an interesting graphic of how both techs led to this year’s “engineered living therapeutics” entry.] We also had multiple types of AI nominations over the years, from the earliest days of the steering committee, and now we’re seeing it integrated in every way, throughout our lives. Many of the things that we’ve picked—now 130 items over the 13 years—have been significant at one level or another. n nCOMtalk: What did you learn putting together the 2025 report? n nMariette DiChristina: One thing that really struck me is how increasingly networked everything is. There is a lot of interconnectivity and convergence in this year’s list. For instance, one of the items is collaborative sensing. The notion behind it is that there are sensors, some passive, some active, sprinkled throughout the environment. Sensing is also applied in another item from this year, autonomous biochemical sensing. Another one of the nominations is engineered living therapeutics that go in your body and deliver medications. n nAs I look at the list over the years, I see some themes come up frequently. One is innovations that help us in living better, longer. Sometimes it’s a new type of innovation, like engineered living therapeutics. Sometimes it’s a novel application of an existing therapeutic agent. For instance, this year we included a new use for GLP-1s, better known for weight loss, to potentially help manage neurodegenerative diseases. Another theme: how are we going to feed more people in a sustainable way? This year, we have green nitrogen fixation, which aims to cut energy needed for fertilizing crops. Energy also comes up year in year, year out; this year, the list includes advanced nuclear technologies. And connecting all of those innovations is information, more rapidly shared, and more managed by increasingly sophisticated AI systems. This year, one of our information category items was generative watermarking. We’ve all heard of watermarking a photo to see, is it owned by somebody else but being misused? Could we somehow watermark our various AI files, or files manipulated by AI? n nCOMtalk: Why is this information important for people to have?