Technology Trends Outlook 2026

McKinsey & Company

Michael Chui

Research

143 Pages

McKinsey examines 14 frontier technology trends spanning AI, compute, connectivity, robotics, mobility, space, life sciences, and energy. Five trends are on pace to more than double investment in 2026, while AI’s expansion is increasingly constrained by power, infrastructure, cybersecurity, talent, and the challenge of converting adoption into measurable returns.

Key Takeaways

Investment accelerates: Five of 14 trends are on pace to at least double 2025 investment in 2026, led by AI-linked and space technologies.
Adoption outruns returns: 89% of organizations regularly use AI, yet only 37% report positive EBIT impact and 93% say they exceed AI budgets.
Power becomes bottleneck: US AI data centers could consume California-scale electricity by 2030, while more than 2,500 GW of projects await grid connections.
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