Exploring the Futures of Technology 2.0

“The real risk in 2026 is not about moving too slowly. It is optimising a logic that may become less relevant as the surrounding system changes.“

This report explores the accelerating shifts characterising an increasingly AI-mediated technological landscape, through the lens of the CIFS H3 AI Lab. It aims at connecting developments in emerging technologies with broader transformations across value chains and organisational systems. Through a futures thinking perspective and across multiple time horizons, it helps to identify emerging signals that point to deeper systemic change.

It builds on the 2025-edition with updates informed by developments identified within the CIFS H3 AI Lab. This edition places stronger emphasis on organisational preparedness, futures-driven innovation, and the broader structural shifts shaping technology and its impact on business environments over three horizons.

How do you navigate a world where technological advancements accelerate faster than we can adapt? Where AI no longer exists solely as a workplace assistant, but increasingly mediates decision-making, workflows, interfaces, and even the competitive ecosystem itself?

Some organisations ask whether the rise of AI will truly have an impact on their business. In 2026, that question feels inadequate. The question to ask is not so much if it will have an impact, but when, to what extent, and how. While AI adoption in the workplace has yet to deliver the ROI that large AI corporations promise, and while employees attempt to use AI assistants meaningfully and efficiently to complete tasks, the contours of a deeper transformation are beginning to appear. A transformation in which different kinds of AI becomes embedded across digital interfaces, organisational systems, physical surroundings, and strategic processes.