Forecast draws on insights from 168 IEEE tech experts across 38 countries for global view of the technologies, energy demands, and infrastructure shifts that will define the next decade of AI

PISCATAWAY, N.J., July 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization and public charity dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity, today released Technology Megatrends 2030 Report. This global forecast synthesizes insights from 168 IEEE technical and scientific experts across 38 countries and six continents, mapping the most critical technological forces projected to reshape industries, labor markets, and daily life over the next decade.

The Technology Megatrends 2030 Report evaluates 30 breakthrough technologies across five core areas—artificial intelligence (AI), energy, health and biotech, space tech, and physical AI (robotics)—to determine their potential to reshape industries and human life by 2030. It was developed via workshops and survey data from the IEEE Future Directions Committee’s Industry Advisory Board (FDC-IAB), the IEEE Computer Society, the IEEE Santa Clara Valley Section, and IEEE Industry Engagement Committee.

The panel’s central finding marks a major shift in how the future is typically forecast: rather than a checklist of independent breakthroughs, progress through 2030 will be driven by a massive, unseen domino effect of interconnected systems. The report reveals that AI scalability, compute infrastructure, and energy grids are now inextricably linked as a first-order problem. To succeed across industries, these technologies can no longer be examined separately; their growing interdependence will shape the pace and impact of the next digital era.

“For decades, technology forecasting has been about what machines will be able to do,” said Mary Ellen Randall, 2026 IEEE President, CEO, and IEEE Fellow. “This report shifts the conversation to something far more important: how these advances will intersect with one another to shape human lives. The data makes clear that trust, safety, and human connection must guide every major breakthrough in the decade ahead.”

What the Data Means for Everyday Life

The 168 IEEE panelists represent academia, industry, government, and professional organizations. They examined each technology across five dimensions: likelihood of technical success, impact on humanity, maturity, market adoption, and time to broad commercial adoption. Key findings include:

• Human-AI Interaction Rapidly Changing: Human-AI interaction has the shortest horizon to broad commercial adoption of any technology in the report. Within a brief two- to three-year market timeline, the panel expects an interface shift away from text-based typing to predominantly real-time, cognitive audio and video interactions.
• People Without Jobs and Jobs Without People: As automation reshapes white‑collar roles and new AI‑driven positions emerge across every sector, AI literacy becomes a basic work skill, essential for office, trade, and technical roles alike. Long‑term success for business depends not only on technical capability but on trust, security, governance, and safe human‑AI interaction — the human‑centered guardrails that allow AI to scale responsibly and support a workforce that must keep learning as technology evolves.
• Healthcare Gets Personal: Rated by the panel as the single highest-impact technological advancement across the entire study, personalized medicine scored 4.93 out of 5.00 for its potential to improve human life. The report highlights that accelerated, AI-driven breakthroughs are actively moving personalized treatments, early disease diagnostics, and individual genetic therapies out of the lab and into everyday medical care within the next four years.
• The Global Energy Strain: Energy generation and storage is increasing rapidly, with capacity expected to double in developed nations over the next two to three years. However, this progress faces a steep hurdle from AI. Tech infrastructure already uses an estimated 10% of global electricity. The report warns that improvements in AI chip efficiency won’t reduce energy use; rather, organizations will use the cost savings to run even more hardware, meaning data centers will continue to draw as much power as grids can supply.

“We are seeing a fundamental shift in how technology evolves,” said Dejan Milojicic, Chair of the IEEE Future Directions Committee Industry Advisory Board and IEEE Fellow. “AI is no longer operating in a vacuum—it is now deeply connected to our energy, infrastructure, and physical systems. Because these trends are so intertwined, we need a big-picture approach to building tech, alongside a workforce that is ready to continuously learn and adapt.”

Balancing Risks and Opportunities

The report includes a risk-reward analysis of emerging technologies beyond the core 30, including gene editing, autonomous weapons systems, artificial general intelligence, brain-computer interfaces, and geoengineering. The panel emphasizes that the technologies most likely to scale at a societal level are those built on trust, explainability, and safe human-AI interaction — not those that move fastest.

Another key takeaway from the report is the tug-of-war between technology and society: while powerful “drivers” like the AI race are speeding up technology, global “suppressors”, such as geopolitical challenges and talent shortages, are dragging down social progress.

“As a public charity dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity, IEEE believes progress must be measured by more than technology development and implementation speed,” said Sophia Muirhead, IEEE Executive Director and COO. “Whether retraining the global workforce or integrating AI responsibly into daily life, the success of these megatrends depends on ensuring innovation strengthens human well‑being and public trust.”

More information on the Technology Megatrends 2030 Report is available at https://engage.ieee.org/FD-Megatrends-2030.html.

About IEEE
IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization and is a public charity dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is a trusted voice across fields ranging from global standards, aerospace systems, computers, and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power, and consumer electronics. Learn more at https://www.ieee.org.

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SOURCE IEEE