Exploring the Futures of Technology 2.0

Understanding the shifts in an AI-mediated world

"As seen in the AI-mediated framework, the deeper transformation is not only about augmentation at the level of the individual. It unfolds across workflows, organisational systems, and the wider competitive ecosystems in which organisations compete."

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.

Introduction

This report reflects the ongoing thinking of the CIFS H3 AI Lab, with a focus on AI-mediation, organisational preparedness, futures-driven innovation, and the structural shifts shaping technology and its impact on business environments across three horizons.

The report begins by positioning technological developments within a broader ecosystem of structural shifts, then introduces the lab’s AI-mediated frame-work, our three horizons of transformation, and defines what we understand to be a futures driven approach to innovation. Next, it moves into 10 signals to watch in 2026. These signals should not be interpreted as isolated developments but as indicators of wider shifts in our AI-mediated reality.

The final section presents a set of strategic questions for leaders.

Content

Emerging technologies within a wider nexus
When AI-mediation becomes agentic
The AI-mediated framework with an agentic loop
The three horizons of AI-mediated transformation
The need for organisational preparedness
Futures-driven innovation
Liquid foresight: When foresight becomes AI-mediated
10 signals to follow in 2026
Strategic future-driven questions to ask

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