Global Agenda Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2015

The World Economic Forum's Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies identifies ten key technological trends for 2015, ranging from hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and recyclable plastics to neuromorphic computing and digital genomes, highlighting their potential to transform industries and improve sustainability.

• Fuel cell vehicles offer a zero-emission alternative to hydrocarbon-powered cars with a cruising range of up to 650 km and refill times of approximately three minutes. While they produce only water vapour, their mass-market adoption depends on the development of a hydrogen distribution infrastructure and the economical production of hydrogen from low-carbon sources, such as wind and solar electrolysis or carbon-captured fossil fuels.
• Next-generation robotics are moving beyond factory assembly lines into precision agriculture and healthcare, such as nursing roles in Japan. These robots are becoming more adaptive, flexible, and connected via cloud computing, shifting the paradigm from replacing human workers to collaborating with them.
• The discovery of poly(hexahydrotriazine)s (PHTs) provides a way to recycle thermoset plastics, which were previously impossible to recycle and typically ended up in landfills. These recyclable polymers maintain the rigidity and heat resistance of traditional thermosets and are expected to be ubiquitous in new goods by 2025.
• Precise genetic-engineering techniques, including CRISPR-Cas9, ZFNs, and TALENS, allow for the direct editing of plant genetic codes to improve nutrition and climate resilience. Additionally, RNA interference (RNAi) is being used to protect crops like papaya, wheat, and rice from pests and pathogens, potentially reducing the need for chemical pesticides.
• Additive and distributed manufacturing are disrupting traditional supply chains by using digital templates to build products locally. Additive manufacturing is expanding into bioprinting living tissues and 4D printing of responsive materials, while distributed manufacturing reduces environmental impact by shipping digital information instead of physical products.
• Emergent artificial intelligence is evolving toward machines that learn automatically from large volumes of data, such as the NELL project. While AI offers productivity gains and improved medical diagnostics, it poses risks including the potential for social inequality due to job displacement and long-term existential risks.
• Neuromorphic technology mimics the human brain's interconnected architecture to overcome the energy and heat bottlenecks of linear computing. IBM's TrueNorth chip demonstrates power efficiency hundreds of times superior to conventional CPUs, which could enhance climate forecasting and AI processing.
• The digitization of the human genome has dropped in cost to a few hundred dollars and can be completed in minutes. This enables precision medicine and targeted therapies for genetic diseases and cancer, though it raises significant privacy concerns regarding access by employers or insurance companies.

APA

World Economic Forum (2015). Global Agenda Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2015. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Top10_Emerging_Technologies_2015.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Global Agenda Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2015. 2015. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Top10_Emerging_Technologies_2015.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Global Agenda Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2015 |date=March 2015 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Top10_Emerging_Technologies_2015.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2015global, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Global Agenda Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2015}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2015}, month = mar, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Top10_Emerging_Technologies_2015.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }