A public dashboard observing signals, trends and issues.
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2026-10-08
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2026-10-08 19:44 KST
The Futures

Trend radar

667 confirmed trends — 6 topic sectors × 4 horizon rings

Selecting an item opens its trend card; empty cells are written as 0.

Placement follows the main topic's major category and the time-horizon assignment; the region axis is not duplicated here.

E Economy · 0-3 years — 75 75 Trend 2: core back-office workflows move from assisted work to autonomous execution Korean manufacturers are expanding overseas production and localisation AI reengineers how technology organizations are structured, governed and led Emerging powers' trade deals undercutting UK partnerships Employees will want more AI - not less Developing regions diverge in capital mix while Southeast Asia's six concentrate on FDI Korean core inflation likely to stay in the mid-to-upper 2 percent range for a prolonged period Capital leaving China is redistributed among developing regions without being replaced State capitalism with American characteristics Global demand for Korea's key industries is capped by war, tariffs and high oil despite AI and emerging markets Speed becomes the priority: finance strengthens scenario planning and agile governance Korea combines solid macro aggregates with widening sectoral asymmetry Structural expansion of the global semiconductor cycle driven by AI infrastructure investment Agents pay off only when operations are redesigned, not when agents are layered on Trend 5: discovery, comparison, and checkout collapse into one AI interface Finance leaders move from stewardship to leading enterprise strategy Demand-side inflation pressure building in Korea as the chip export boom spreads to domestic demand The GOI's indicator base modernizes toward digital-economy measures and Business Ready data Uncertainty will be your greatest asset - if you embrace it Long-term government bond yields stay sticky in 2026 and diverge in 2027 Technical talent is infused into finance as data science and accounting converge War-driven costs and AI demand push product prices up, tempered by Chinese oversupply Record trade surplus without corresponding corporate earnings Production bases are diversifying and supply chains are forming regional blocs Major economies enter 2026 on divergent balance sheet pathways Chinese capacity expansion and low-price offensives intensify global price competition Products are wrapped in data, diagnostics, coaching, monitoring, and subscriptions Cryptoassets and DeFi threatening financial stability without regulation AI investment boom fuels a memory semiconductor supercycle unlike past cycles Automotive: EV adoption rises while margins lag on battery cost and Chinese competition Force 2: value priority spreads across income segments and categories Shift 3: shared-services centers become AI-native global business services Undervalued nature and ecosystem collapse becoming costly Returns on technology investment follow zones rather than a single optimum World economy stays on a sub-par growth path under overlapping shocks Blockchain finance widening inclusion but also risk taking Retail repositions itself as the place where consumers navigate health choices Global growth diverging according to countries' participation in AI supply chains Three overlapping inflection points redefine corporate competitiveness in 2026 Chinese circumvention exports routed through third countries including Korea increase Korean industry is splitting between AI and green growth sectors and pressured commodity manufacturing Trend 4: stablecoins move from crypto trading rails to corporate finance Renminbi and Chinese capital gain weight in Korea through a balloon effect Shift 5: value capture depends on work flow rather than on organizational structure Wellness brands reposition plastic reduction as self-care rather than sacrifice Cost of living pressure increasing susceptibility to investment scams Government debt keeps expanding as interest rates approach or exceed growth rates New engineering and AI professions emerging as others are replaced Wealth growth shifts from real investment to paper gains Protectionism and sanctions pressuring supply chains and living standards Supply chain technology improving traceability but concentrating dependence E-commerce expected to grow significantly Shift 6: concentration on the core displaces breadth as the growth strategy Macrotrend 5: semiconductors become a strategic asset and nations build end-to-end ecosystems Growth paths split among advanced and emerging economies Asymmetric US, EU and China policies expose technology-intensive exporters to layered risks Shift 7: the focus moves from retention to performance as the Great Attrition ends Real estate and private debt recalibrate toward 25-year GDP ratios, helped by inflation DLT and smart contracts improving financial efficiency under governance Menopause support becomes a talent-retention priority for employers Economic risks expected to materialize sooner Phygital parity: digital tools are judged by whether they strengthen human contact Workplace wellbeing moves from standalone programs to enterprise architecture China's weak domestic demand and strong supply capacity push low-price exports Anxiety about declining prosperity Finance-led cost management becomes a continuous discipline built on ownership and tooling AI augmenting rather than replacing work in service fields From allocating talent to orchestrating capability and capacity in real time Mineral-rich and processing countries gaining geopolitical leverage Insight 16: robots leave controlled industrial settings for ordinary environments Korea's IT-led expansion broadening into other sectors of the economy Intentional design of human-AI interaction becomes the differentiator China's deflation trap Financial health is proposed as strategic infrastructure, not a peripheral benefit East Asian firms challenging incumbent technology leaders E Economy · 4-10 years — 80 80 Capitalism rebalanced Talent rewritten Redefining Finance and Monetary Systems Technology and globalisation eroding low-paid and routine office work Platform and gig work fragment the labour market and open new safety blind spots Ageing is structurally lowering Korean households' propensity to consume Competitiveness shifts from cost efficiency to geopolitical and regulatory agility ICT exports carry Korean growth while external uncertainty and AI reshape the sector China's economic coercion toolkit matures and its retaliation becomes swifter China prepares for a protracted contest through self-reliance and domestic strength The secondary sector keeps growing but raises its skill barrier to entry Growth opportunities are narrowing for regions outside the capital, small firms and low-income households Technology convergence speeds development and pushes emerging technologies into industrialization Washington moves from de-risking to strategic decoupling from China Story 4: efficiency is redefined around reliability and political alignment Growth demand versus replacement demand in Korean job openings Polymer regulation splits the wellness economy into compliance risk and first-mover advantage Fraud and illicit finance threat growing with AI-enabled scams Borderless World - Fluid Economies Safety polarisation concentrates risk on SME and non-regular workers Competition and complementarity coexist between Korean and EU strategic industries K-shaped growth: output and income increasingly polarise between large IT firms and the rest Online and platform commerce displacing offline sales jobs in Korea Cross-border positions widen and face political limits EU China policy shifts from engagement to de-risking AI data centre investment drives demand for enterprise SSDs and revives HDDs Superfluid enterprise Trend 14: orchestration rather than individual capability becomes the robotics frontier Emerging financial systems harder to track, regulate and secure Population ageing reshaping Korean labour demand toward health and care OLED adoption in tablets, laptops and monitors expands the display market Cross-border M&A binds the six to Asia's advanced economies and the United States US equity grows into nearly half of the sampled world's corporate equity Eroding global OLED share limits Korean display export growth Unfair trade practices and labour market dualism are weakening incentives to innovate Digital transformation and AI chip competition broaden long-term semiconductor demand Trend 3: the next generation of large companies grows up outside public markets Advanced economies compete aggressively for global talent with national recruitment strategies Onset of labour supply constraints in Korea US and Chinese extraterritorial controls push third countries to take sides Korea's catch-up growth model has reached its limits Skill-biased restructuring: high-skill jobs grow while mid and low-skill manufacturing jobs decline in Korea Skills shortages and mismatches rising with technological and demographic change Economic security drives reconfiguration of strategic supply chains, including clean energy Rising female labour force participation in Korea Global supply chains strained and trade relations fragmenting Differentiation shifts from technology to the human edge Financial size and depth expand across the six growth markets The importance of circular economy is growing Offshoring of device and component production caps domestic ICT output growth Doubts over dollar hegemony and a gradually rising global role for the renminbi Corporate functions are being deconstructed and reassembled around outcomes Servicisation of Korean employment with divergence inside services Faster and less predictable technology change makes demand for technical workers volatile Surging demand for critical raw materials amid geopolitical rivalry Mature smartphone market and relocated production restrain Korean communication equipment exports Heavy reliance on knowledge and labour migrants US-China maritime rivalry spreads from navigation rights to shipbuilding and logistics Chinese overcapacity pressure concentrates on strategic EU manufacturing sectors Structural decline of energy demand in Korea's steel and petrochemical industries Persistently high income and wealth inequality within countries Materials Revolution AI as a system technology reshaping work Growth of the knowledge economy amid Europe's innovation gap Deglobalization turns energy-transition materials into geopolitical bottlenecks The productivity reset EU industrial policy moves to direct support for strategic production and supply-chain resilience From efficiency and open trade to economic security; scarcity broadens Revival of industrial policy fragments global supply chains Relative US decline and protectionism accelerate the retreat of globalization Relative decline of the EU economy and a widening productivity gap with the United States The EU uses free trade agreements to diversify markets and suppliers Resource nationalism rises while major economies race to stabilise critical mineral supply chains Korea risks sliding back to middle-income status as low growth meets demographic and trade headwinds A Turnberry trade system beyond the WTO reshapes Northeast Asian production networks Structural labour-market tightness from ageing and de-greening Growing inequalities fueling discontent The balance sheet detaches further from the real economy, driven by the US and China US reliance on China falls while China's global supplier role holds US-centred restructuring of supply and value chains accelerates amid slowing globalization E Economy · 11-30 years — 13 13 Trend G: Post-population-growth economy Korea's economic fundamentals erode as potential growth falls about one point per administration Ten global shifts since the 2008 financial crisis reshaping economy, technology, geopolitics and society Megatrend 3: Decline and reordering of the free-trade system Trend A: Deepening social polarisation and inequality Sustaining employment with a shrinking and ageing European population Korea's potential growth rate trends toward zero in the 2040s Korea's potential growth is sliding on a shrinking workforce, weak investment and stalled productivity Korea's potential growth rate is on a structural decline that science and AI could reverse Megatrend 6: growth of the middle class and of consumption worldwide Home and distributed 3D printing decentralising manufacturing Transition to a silver economy reshapes industries Korea's income catch-up with the United States stalls E Economy · Unspecified — 0 0 E Economy (168) N eNvironment · 0-3 years — 34 34 Climate, population and overconsumption accelerating biodiversity loss Ultra-processed food backlash pushes scrutiny from ingredients to production methods Livestock losses in heatwaves hitting farm livelihoods People staying home to avoid extreme weather UK veterinary antimicrobial reductions levelling off The water weapon Water companies needing infrastructure upgrades to cut water pollution Climate Change boundary strongly transgressed and still worsening Human disturbance of streamflow and soil moisture keeps spreading Industrial and fertiliser pollution creating coastal dead zones Metal pollutant exposure remaining a global challenge Biosphere integrity deep in the high-risk zone Hotter, drier summers bringing heat illness, drought and wildfire Decarbonisation raising prices of clean energy minerals AMR causing animal treatment and crop protection failures Climate change enabling new plant pathogens and invasive species Ocean heat uptake accelerating Warming extending the range and season of disease-carrying insects Great Acceleration of human pressure continuing Global agricultural supply failures causing food shortages Novel entities released faster than they can be tested Forest cover below the safe level and declining across biomes Ocean acidification pushed past its planetary boundary Global warming accelerating since about 2015 Ocean losing dissolved oxygen Nitrogen and phosphorus flows far beyond safe levels Tree and plant imports raising risk of pests like ash dieback Environmental risks losing perceived importance while climate inaction stays first Global aerosol imbalance easing while aerosol pollution shifts regionally Stratospheric ozone recovered within the safe space but recovery may be stalling Tellurium and rare earths harder to source, worsening price volatility Land carbon sink weakening and stagnating Human reach extending across the global seafloor Extreme weather becoming more frequent and intense under climate change N eNvironment · 4-10 years — 34 34 Climate and trade intensifying plant pest outbreaks Functional foods are adopted as a pre-emptive tool for extending healthspan Accelerating global warming and irreversible impacts Parametric insurance for ecosystems to finance nature restoration The climate crisis threatens the whole economy and society while carbon-neutrality momentum weakens Trade-linked carbon regulation makes climate capacity a core of industrial competitiveness Technology 5: microbes given transferred genes produce target molecules in fermentation tanks Biodiversity decline undermining ecosystems, economy and wellbeing Technology 4: PFAS treatment moves from containment to destruction of the carbon-fluorine bond Climate-responsive food production technologies building hybrid food systems Unprecedented global biodiversity loss Warming driving more frequent and severe extreme weather Race for scarce resources New forms of pollution adding to a persistent health and equity threat Steep long-term decline of Dutch biodiversity Wetter winters, drier summers and more water extremes in the Netherlands Climate change turns into a core economic variable as carbon regulation tightens Dutch water quality under pressure Disasters grow larger and more compound under the climate crisis, while infectious disease risks rise Evolving Ecosystems Fossil-free ammonia and fertilisers through electrolysis, new catalysis and biological fixation Global resource rush Routine climate disasters and hyper-uncertainty outpace experience-based disaster management Biomining: using microorganisms to recover critical minerals Solar radiation modification back on the agenda and the need for preventive atmospheric governance Gene-edited 'super trees' engineered to store more carbon More heat-related illness, deaths and productivity loss Accelerating climate change makes disasters real and tightens global climate regulation Macrotrend 6: efficiency gives way to sufficiency as the organizing goal Rising, geographically concentrated demand for critical minerals Shift of emphasis from mitigation toward adaptation Diet is being individualised by biology and widened by unfamiliar raw materials Intensified nature restoration producing results Technology 3: surfaces that cool below ambient temperature without electricity N eNvironment · 11-30 years — 9 9 Trend J: Accelerating climate crisis Megatrend 1: climate change demands ecological reform Climate change becomes a physical operating risk inside energy systems Megatrend 2: resource scarcity Biodiversity is declining Trend K: Ecological and environmental crisis Climate driver: three variant paths from halted warming to failed survival Megatrend 4: Climate and ecological tipping points Megatrend 4: Climate crisis and sustainability N eNvironment · Unspecified — 1 1 Insight 20: the same technology that raises emissions is offered as climate infrastructure N eNvironment (78) P Politics & Governance · 0-3 years — 28 28 Psychedelic developers converge on FDA approval as the main route to scale Eroding confidence in multilateral capacity to reduce risks Malicious actors combining AI and engineering biology for bioweapons Political risks moving to the centre of global risk perceptions National governments are writing men's health into formal strategy for the first time Great power tensions destabilising aid-dependent regions The Sahel's G-Zero: jihadist expansion into coastal West Africa Insight 18: jurisdictions diverge on what AI regulation is even for Global AI resilience will require a local safety net Shift 4: geopolitical fragmentation reshapes value chains and organizational design Veteran mental health makes psychedelics a rare bipartisan agenda in Washington Music becomes a named modality inside social prescribing systems in over 30 countries Trend 12: defence AI companies shift from research to mass production Securing national technology sovereignty becomes the key to winning the AI race Growing sovereign-citizen movement Stronger regulation making the UK a less attractive fraud target Declining academic freedom Resource competition opening routes for organised crime Protectionism fracturing technology ecosystems and interoperability Mass protest still able to trigger change Insight 19: scarcity of quality data turns acquisition into a contest over rules Supply shocks pushing drug markets towards synthetics Political fragmentation and longer caretaker periods Shift towards self-initiated terrorists outside organised networks Governments framing ecological breakdown as a security risk More people sliding into online extremism, reaching younger ages Rising global tensions triggering more state activity and challenger actors Transparency and user control become the price of AI-mediated commerce P Politics & Governance · 4-10 years — 70 70 Global science and technology governance fragments into a regime complex of rival technology blocs Terrorism threat to the UK evolving and exploiting technology Climate litigation to enforce policy Securitisation of science and technology slows international research collaboration More and longer armed conflicts driven by economic interests Quadruple transition breeds super wicked problems that strain government capacity China pursues a China-oriented international order through BRICS ties and non-binding partnerships Story 1: technology companies and their owners contest the primacy of states Korea-Russia relations stall under prolonged sanctions and structural change Hybrid threats as a structural feature A few global technology firms dominating markets and concentrating risk Shift toward strategic technology foresight linked to national strategy Disinformation and conspiracy thinking fuelling institutional distrust Washington pursues a composite strategy of burden sharing and restored great-power politics Gradual erosion of the rule of law in EU member states State threats to the UK increasing and diversifying Political polarisation deepening after the martial law and impeachment crisis From liberalisation to scarcity, rivalry and defending own values Europe takes on greater defence responsibility within NATO Compound economic and new security threats weaken multilateralism and global governance From cooperation to competition: a fragmenting world order Consumer neurotechnology spreading beyond clinics and generating neurodata Four pillars of the liberal international order come under simultaneous pressure Geopolitical instability raising the threat of violence Resilient citizen movements and institutionalised citizens' assemblies Trend 10: national AI strategies fragment the global market into regional ecosystems US-China rivalry hardens into a prolonged structural clash of national strategies Great-power rivalry and protectionism push the world toward a multipolar, bloc-based order Europe is repositioning toward regulatory guardrails and digital sovereignty Global spread of autocracy and declining freedom China-Russia partnership deepens toward an entente that knits Eurasia together Transformative innovation policy is becoming a global science, technology and innovation norm International institutions constrained in promoting peace and cooperation Korea's rapid rise coexists with a deepening sense of national crisis Erosion of the external pillars behind Europe's post-Cold War growth America First retreat lets China fill multilateral gaps in a post-American world Conflicts proliferating and intensifying Major powers treat science and technology as strategic assets for sovereignty and innovation ecosystems Story 6: network states, digital nations and global citizenship contest statehood Big tech firms as a geopolitical power factor Structural reordering of the international order and the return of great-power politics Regional S&T policy evolves through a sixty-year thesis-antithesis-synthesis cycle Populist nationalism and strongman leadership erode the post-Cold War structure The drone age: violence gets cheap enough for everyone Mass incarceration becomes a primary engine of global health inequality for men Organised crime gaining undermining influence Science and technology policy is being securitized amid geopolitical conflict and technology rivalry Global South moving to flexible multipolar partnerships Story 3: smaller states holding strategic resources gain outsized influence Territorial defence back on Europe's agenda after Ukraine The post-Cold War order enters a structural transition with 2025 as the turning point NATO and EU eastward expansion provokes an assertive Russian counter-strategy in Eurasia Financial, regulatory and public institutions are failing to support innovation Extreme uncertainty becomes the everyday condition for national strategy Geotechnomics: geopolitics, technology and economics converge into one change dynamic US national security strategy fuses tariffs, export controls, R&D and AI around advanced technology Embedding foresight inside the core of government decision-making Governments institutionalize demand-driven strategic foresight US and European influence in Eurasia recedes behind that of Russia and China Eurasian regionalism underpinned post-Soviet stability and growth Growing influence of the Gulf states Serious and organised crime growing and exploiting technology Uncontrollable global shocks drive demand for strategic foresight in government Political and social polarisation persists and trust in democratic institutions declines Creeping democratic erosion in the Netherlands The rules-based international order is eroding Competing alliance networks in the Indo-Pacific as US coordination loosens Regulators worldwide shift to risk-based and experimental rules for emerging technologies EU demand for foresight shifts from program design to long-term structural questions Democracy weakens and authoritarianism gains ground P Politics & Governance · 11-30 years — 13 13 Trend P: Breakdown of political and institutional stability US security strategy shifts from unipolar hegemony toward selective engagement Trend F: Harmonising technology with human values Emerging technologies reshape the military balance and the character of warfare Geopolitics driver: three variant paths from a second globalisation to a wild era Trend C: Risks becoming routine, diversified and global Megatrend 7: shift of power towards the East and the South Trend N: Fracturing of global governance into rival blocs Global megatrends converge and interlock into a polycrisis Trend O: Complex geopolitics of technology, economy and security A 'great regression' of the world order: wavering globalisation, populism and depleted civic solidarity Megatrend 5: Uncertainty of the global order US-China strategic rivalry broadens from tariffs toward military competition P Politics & Governance · Unspecified — 0 0 P Politics & Governance (111) S Society · 0-3 years — 23 23 High mortgage rates and rents widening intergenerational wealth gaps Over-65 share projected to rise from 19% to 22% by 2032 Nursing shortages colliding with an older, sicker population Change management and training give way to real-time adaptiveness Trade shifts exposing the UK to new animal diseases Male-predominant crises in the Global South do not fit Western men's health frameworks Crisis lines, tour mental-health providers and industry funds expand for music workers Fatherhood is being reclassified as a perinatal health event for men New trade partners raising risk of imported resistant foodborne strains Health shifts from episodic and institution-led to continuous and consumer-led Trend 8: US employers break the bundled group health plan into a fixed budget Healthcare strain expanding private care and waiting time gaps AI tutoring democratising education and retraining Housing is being built as a point of care rather than a place near care Pandemic and biorisk concern receding Environmental AMR transmission via untreated wastewater Falling pupil numbers making schools unviable Rising perceived insecurity after a long decline Extreme weather increasing contamination of salad crops and shellfish Developers are designing projects around the land's ecology instead of clearing it first Economic pressure pushing consumers towards food fraud exposure Pandemic education effects deepening child poverty Declining vaccination coverage S Society · 4-10 years — 41 41 Toward permanent preparedness and One Health as organising model Lifestyle-driven loss of healthy years; overweight rising Social security systems under pressure and being reformed Aging populations push health systems from acute treatment toward prevention and function Widening digital education gaps and concern over children's overreliance on AI Digital infrastructure, energy transition and the Arctic route as new growth windows for the regions Foodborne disease a persistent health and economic burden Ageing of Korea's workforce around the baby-boom generation AI and digital transition intensifies the global race for advanced talent Migration to innovation cities shifts from job-driven moves to settlement-driven moves Growth of rural municipalities near large metropolitan areas Healthy longevity is reframed as workforce infrastructure rather than personal health Shrinking and increasingly inactive youth labour supply in Korea Advanced Health and Nutrition AI-based population health risk prediction and intervention platforms Emergence and recurrence of animal diseases rising Long-run global progress in health, development and equality Rising zoonotic spillover and viral zoonoses Health paradigm shift from treatment toward prediction, prevention and continuous management Antimicrobial resistance as a rapidly growing global threat Risks falling disproportionately on vulnerable groups with compounding disadvantage Population decline turns regional depopulation into a crisis of community safety Growing antimicrobial and antifungal resistance Capital-region concentration is spreading production and income gaps into asset polarisation Cities growing inward: redensification replacing urban sprawl Kinship is being assembled deliberately rather than inherited Persistent educational inequality and segregation Structural pressure on mental health, especially among young adults Progress toward equality stalling UK population ageing despite migration Migration infrastructure Inequality in the Netherlands driven by social class rather than place Accelerating regional decline as manufacturing jobs shrink and young people leave Trend 2: health broadens into many measurable dimensions and outruns consumers' sense of progress Everyday insecurity deepens under rapid ageing, polarisation, uneven care and poor working conditions Rising forced displacement tied to conflict Active seniors emerge as a core demand group and reshape the silver economy Providers move from reactive care to proactive, decentralised, personalised models AI companionship chatbots as a response to unwanted loneliness Deepening regional gaps in healthcare despite public medical support A triple burden of capital-region concentration, regional industrial crisis and rapid demographic change S Society · 11-30 years — 25 25 Trend I: Restructuring of national territory and space Concentration of young people in Tokyo and Seoul drives local extinction Megatrend 3: demographic imbalances Migration and growing cultural diversity Socio-economic shocks from falling births, rapid ageing and regional population imbalance are materialising Migration-driven population growth in the Netherlands Spain's health risk factors diverging: less tobacco and alcohol, more obesity Shrinkage in peripheral regions despite national growth Megatrend 1: Demographic system transition Compressed modernity drives an extreme demographic transition in Korea and Japan Population growth continues, with wide uncertainty Rapid population ageing weighs on both labour input and productivity Capital-region concentration hardens into a question of regional survival Antimicrobial resistance eroding antibiotic effectiveness Population pyramids turn into obelisks as low fertility spreads from rich to emerging economies Population decline is spreading to Korea's non-capital regions and their metropolitan hubs Low fertility and ageing are bringing a demographic onus to the Korean economy Double ageing and shrinking household size Ageing spreading to the Global South as life expectancy rises Megatrend 3: Demographic change and transition to a shrinking society More age-related disease and multimorbidity Megatrend 4: urbanisation Trend M: Threats to sustainable health systems Trend H: Transition to a decline-adaptive society Redefining old age by remaining life expectancy rather than a fixed 65 threshold S Society · Unspecified — 0 0 S Society (89) T Technology · 0-3 years — 71 71 Self-working AI agents reshape the future through collaboration and automation Genetic risk assessment is being paired with behavioral health coaching Open models empowering less sophisticated malicious actors Macrotrend 2: AI takes emotional, embodied and socially responsive form Expansion of e-commerce and digital government Floating solar panels on reservoirs that also curb evaporation Macrotrend 1: task automation turns into purpose-led autonomy under human intent Physical AI moves from digital space into industrial sites Trend 6: healthcare becomes the proving ground for voice AI AI chatbots becoming indispensable in daily life Trend 9: data centres stop being pure load and start supporting grid stability AI raising scam volume and credibility while aiding detection Finance AI adoption is broad while measurable value and agent integration lag behind Sustainable biomanufacturing from agricultural waste Physical AI turns robots from preprogrammed machines into adaptive learning systems Capability uplift letting opportunistic actors scale cyber attacks Convergence of 6G and satellite communications from space to ground Rising concern over AI, frontier technology and tech-driven power concentration AI take-off and unprecedented data-centre build-out The AI problem moves from enabling experimentation to scaling it AI data-centre investment is structurally shifting memory demand and supply toward high-value chips AI is simultaneously the source of new security risk and the means of defending against it Smarter AI security technologies rise to counter smarter AI-driven attacks Shift 1: AI adoption moves from piecemeal pilots to a double transformation Shift 2: work is redesigned around human-agent collaboration rather than agent insertion Overpowered: China masters the electric stack while the US cedes it Sustainable energy infrastructure becomes the power behind AI Personalization becomes the default value-creation move across the journey AI-enabled Earth observation for boundary monitoring Trend 7: defence moves from detecting attacks to preventing them Quantum advantage will demand strength in numbers A single treatment opens a wider pathway of behaviour, support, and spending Telemedicine and digital services expanding with access and energy challenges Compute strategy shifts from cloud-first to workload-matched hybrid placement Non-hallucinogenic neuroplastogens shift the field from the trip to the underlying biology The first health move becomes digital, with AI and wearables answering before care does AI investment acts as the main growth engine but faces cost and cycle limits Trend 2: heterogeneous supercomputing platforms become the substrate for advanced models Quantum technology leaps forward to solve hard problems of the AI era Agentic AI becomes the operational frontier organizations are moving on AI is entering organizational decision-making ahead of the discipline to govern it The Intelligence Age extends access from information to machine reasoning and action Men's hormonal, metabolic and environmental health becomes a contested biological frontier AI-driven workforce anxiety is reclassified as a psychosocial risk to be governed Enterprise SSD shortages and AI devices are driving a premium upswing in Korean ICT equipment Trend 5: models trained for one industry or function displace general purpose models Trend 4: work is split across collaborating specialized agents Digital identity theft and ransom growing with online personal data Technology strategies expire before implementation as the landscape keeps moving Genomic and biometric data used for personalised care and authentication Engineered cells for drug development and personalised cancer therapy Widespread data breaches eroding trust in digital services Mobile-first AI platforms become Africa's route to mental health access On-device AI opens an era of hyper-personalisation Macrotrend 3: trust becomes the operating layer as AI enters critical operations Digital twins of cities and territories to test public policy before acting Pharma: payers demand real-world value while regulators tighten scrutiny of AI and data integrity AI eats its users AI drives a bio revolution from genetic analysis to personalised medicine Macrotrend 4: infrastructure becomes cognitive, anticipatory and sovereign Innovation compounds: technology gains multiply rather than add Insurer and provider incentives driving wearable data collection Sleep diagnosis migrates from clinical labs to home testing and telemedicine Beyond general-purpose limits toward specialisation: the spread of vertical AI Trend 1: measuring the return on AI agents becomes a moving target AI infrastructure becomes the new battleground for technological hegemony Trend 6: AI leaves the screen and acts on the physical world Continued fossil dependence and supply-security risk Ageing and chronic disease sustain steady demand growth for Korean biohealth Technology 10: encryption hidden in noisy multi-dimensional lattices Trend 1: social media and generative AI combine into a new path to purchase T Technology · 4-10 years — 98 98 Digital transformation driving ICT and STEM employment in Korea AI moves from back-office enabler to front-line purchase advisor Rapidly rising technical exposure of Korean jobs to AI automation Korea is falling behind in the AI and green industrial transitions Rising energy and electricity demand, now also in the West Energy security shifts from securing fuel to system resilience Stagnating Korean transport energy demand under population ageing and weaker freight Trend 1: software is written on platforms where generative models do the building BCI-based neural circuit modulation for precision mental health care Energy transition entering an uncertain phase The Netherlands as a fast-growing quantum and life-sciences ecosystem Physical AI medical and care robots interacting with patients in the real world Fixed voice keeps shrinking while broadband and 5G and IoT mobile services keep growing Technology 9: AI that learns physical dynamics from multimodal sensory data Frontier AI research has shifted from academia to industry Defensive industrial policy against China's green-industry dominance feeds protectionism Convergence of key technologies accelerated by AI AI hegemony race turns AI infrastructure and industrial ecosystems into interstate strategic competition States and big tech race to secure GPUs, data centres and power for AI Technology convergence, intensifying global competition and the push for technological sovereignty Renewables become the core of the power portfolio as energy volatility grows AI-enabled digital crime and transnational criminal networks outgrow domestic law enforcement Chinese dominance in clean-energy manufacturing and finance Hyper-personalised precision medicine and health management platforms US-China technology rivalry reshapes the global technology order into blocs Technology-driven disinformation, cyberattack risks and persistent industrial accidents raise safety stakes Fungal biology becoming a strategic frontier for science, health and biosecurity Preparation extends past agentic AI to quantum, AGI, and ASI Wider access to engineering biology raising misuse risk Digital and cyber threats as the largest structural threat CRISPR making biology programmable across agriculture, health and industry EU lag in digital technology and a static industrial structure The human-machine hybrid Technology 2: lithium moves from evaporation ponds to engineered direct extraction Technological innovation pushes electricity demand up and down at the same time Cyber attacks growing in complexity, severity and range of perpetrators Embryo and oocyte selection technologies for infertility treatment Market-driven micro-level efficiency innovation offsets part of new electricity demand Urban air mobility with eVTOL taxis, drones and vertiports From passive buildings to energy-producing cities through distributed microgeneration Quantum sensing and computing for personalised precision medicine Digital assistants become a distinct engagement channel, not a support utility New LNG supply, led by the United States, pushing global gas prices down toward oversupply by 2029 Global foresight sources converge on AI agents, AI coworkers and AI-native work Neurotechnology and affect sensing move from clinic to consumer device Energy security returns as a top priority alongside carbon neutrality Animal-alternative testing platforms: organoids, organ chips and medical twins Rapid AI advances posing enduring safety, misuse and disruption challenges A flywheel of AI, data, infrastructure and investment is automating scientific research Post-quantum cryptography to protect data against quantum computers Quantum computing and cyber-physical attacks threaten critical infrastructure Smartphone competition reorganises around AI agents and AI-based interfaces Trend 13: world models let AI learn physics and predict what happens next Interlinked 2026 strategic technology trends for an AI-powered hyperconnected world Engineering biology takes off as AI enters biomanufacturing and gene editing advances Electrification makes societies more dependent on a grid that transmits shocks quickly US climate retreat shifts clean-energy and climate-governance leadership toward China Frontier technologies accelerate innovation and become the core of national technology rivalry Electrification of Korean building energy driven by data centres and heat pumps Universal vaccine platforms for rapid response to emerging infectious diseases AI moves beyond ubiquity toward agentic collaboration and physical AI AI reclassified from frontier technology to systemic force Cellular reprogramming and senescent cell removal to reverse ageing at the cellular level New building materials for a hotter Spain: transparent wood and passive cooling aerogels Physics simulators and synthetic data become the main route to training physical AI Rising collection of human biological data creating misuse risk Data becomes both the power source and the chief risk of innovation systems Global AI competition shifts to how fast technology, markets and society form a virtuous cycle China is driving the rise of the electrostate Data centre growth and renewables raise grid complexity and supply volatility AI-driven surge in electricity demand collides with carbon neutrality goals Technology 1: every building, vehicle and device becomes a two-way grid node Innovation versus diffusion: diverging US and Chinese AI strategies Faster decoupling of Korean energy demand from economic growth Climate regulation drives demand for biorefinery conversion and new green-bio niches AI turns sleep tracking into predictive health monitoring AI competition enters a second round centered on physical AI in factories Cloud providers, chipmakers and generative AI firms race to build AI data centres Energy security and industrial competitiveness merge into one policy agenda Electrification becomes the largest driver of additional electricity demand Foresight sources point to advanced nuclear, quantum and private space as deep-tech frontiers Boundless Multidimensional Data Energy agencies are moving from single-point forecasts to scenario and range outlooks Foresight sources flag AI infrastructure, physical AI and next-generation security Trend 11: falling launch costs and private scale reshape space markets KPMG macro scan: digital sovereignty, AI-linked finance, agentic work and a computing arms race AI becomes a general-purpose technology and a national strategic asset amid global hegemony competition Growing reliance on digital platforms raising exposure to disruption Early AI adoption with limited profit impact so far China's rise as a high-tech economy AI data centres are becoming the fastest-emerging source of new electricity demand Generative AI and AI agents move from pilots to deployment, lifting cloud infrastructure AI and digital transformation sustain stable growth across Korean software, security and games Technology 7: a vaccine synthesized around one patient's tumour mutations Trend 7: pharmaceutical R&D shifts from manual experimentation to AI-guided discovery Space rises in economic and security value while Korea's autonomous capability lags Technological Vulnerabilities Life with Autonomous Robots and Automation T Technology · 11-30 years — 7 7 Trend L: Great energy transition AI-driven technological acceleration and the platform economy produce 'growth amid confusion' Megatrend 2: General-purpose AI revolution Megatrend 5: rapid technological development and hyperconnectivity Superintelligence driver: four variant paths of AI pace and social acceptance Megatrend 2: AI, digital transformation and technological innovation Trend D: Transition to a superintelligent society T Technology · Unspecified — 2 2 Technology 6: the body's own vesicles are engineered as drug carriers Technology 8: molecular behaviour modelled directly instead of approximated T Technology (178) V Values & Culture · 0-3 years — 19 19 AI media drive a content big bang Rising pressure on journalists and media pluralism AI deepfakes lowering the barrier to convincing disinformation Customers will hold your AI accountable Absence of connectivity becomes a premium product Agentic AI era reorganises society around hyper-personalisation, hyper-connection and hyper-intelligence Retreat to trusted sources as information grows unreliable Social connection is entering the design brief as physical infrastructure Male appearance modification consolidates into an ideology with its own doctrine and tools AI-enabled disinformation increasing mistrust Indulgence shifts from luxury to emotional offset within disciplined budgets States using AI for information operations against social cohesion Shift 8: diversity and inclusion is being refocused rather than abandoned Disinformation targeting polarised issues such as climate and immigration Synthetic content at scale is eroding the authenticity of work and workforce data Familiar consumption occasions are recast through specific health goals Smart downshifting: consumers trade down and trade up within the same basket Trend 3: spending on meaningful experiences holds up against the instinct to cut back Discovery migrates to social feeds where recommendation reads as peer speech V Values & Culture · 4-10 years — 19 19 Korean culture gains international recognition and spills over into consumer goods and tourism Hybrid subscription and advertising models and Korean content hits drive gradual OTT growth Shifting media landscape amplifying dis- and misinformation Shift 9: leadership is redefined in human-centric, inside-out terms Cultural debt accumulates as AI reshapes human-to-human work Global backlash against gender, LGBTIQA+ and migrant rights Dying, memorialisation and the disposal of remains are being taken over by services and software Fairness in pricing and policy converges with product quality as the value test Structural decline of Korean broadcasting as live TV loses influence Digital Realities Fertile ground in the Netherlands for anti-institutional conspiracy theories Rise of alternative 'truths' and conspiracy theories Value expands beyond price into fairness, trust, and emotion Future Humanity Ageing, individualising and diversifying society straining cohesion Loyalty shifts from points accumulation to a two-way relationship Online advertising shifts to mobile, video and AI solutions as search fragments Trend 4: budget coping hardens into a durable repertoire of resourceful consumption The currency of trust V Values & Culture · 11-30 years — 5 5 Trend E: Changes in life and space Megatrend 1: Social change and diversification of values Rights of nature and a rising ecocentric worldview Trend B: Changing values and declining trust in institutions Five defining features of society a decade ahead, from digital life to normalised risk V Values & Culture · Unspecified — 0 0 V Values & Culture (43) 0-3 years 4-10 years 11-30 years Unspecified Confirmed trends 667

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Colour steps — five sector-tint bands (0 is neutral)
Placements by sector and ring
Topic sector0-3 years4-10 years11-30 yearsUnspecifiedTotal
E Economy7580130168
N eNvironment34349178
P Politics & Governance2870130111
S Society234125089
T Technology719872178
V Values & Culture19195043
Unclassified00000
Total250342723667