Integrating technologies can reshape value chains: WEF

Trade Arabia

2 days ago

World Economic Forum (WEF) has unveiled a framework showing how integrating technologies at varying maturity stages can reshape value chains and create new business models.
A new WEF report examining how emerging technology combinations are reshaping industries and how business leaders can harness these insights to guide investment, build capabilities and position ecosystems strategically.
It also offers valuable insights to policy-makers by highlighting how emerging technologies intersect and amplify one another, which can help break down regulatory silos and anticipate wider, system-level impacts.
The Technology Convergence Report, developed in collaboration with Capgemini, introduces the 3C Framework – combination, convergence and compounding – to help decision-makers identify where emerging technologies intersect to spark new business models.
'Rapid advances across multiple technology domains are creating an undeniable shift in industries. The Technology Convergence report gives leaders a clear model to harness what is coming next,' says Jeremy Jurgens, Managing Director at World Economic Forum.
By considering both technological maturity and deployment context, the report identifies 23 high-potential combinations drawn from over 230 subcomponents across eight critical domains: artificial intelligence, omni computing, engineering biology, spatial intelligence, robotics, advanced materials, next-generation energy and quantum technologies.
While the framework focuses on the impact of technology combinations over individual breakthroughs, it highlights AI as a key enabler, making many of these synergies commercially viable. Several standout combinations demonstrate the transformative potential of technology convergence across sectors like infrastructure, healthcare, energy and transportation, including:
Cognitive robotics: Agentic AI, spatial intelligence and robotic advancements in manipulation and adaptive control are enabling autonomous systems to make intelligent decisions in complex environments, driving progress in automotive and smart manufacturing.
Digital twin ecosystems: Advances in sensor networks and AI simulation systems are enhancing digital twins, enabling more integrated, end-to-end impact, and expanding their efficiency and applicability across sectors from aerospace to healthcare.
Hybrid quantum-classical computing: By combining quantum capabilities with the reliability of classical systems, this approach is already unlocking quantum's potential in finance, molecular simulation and complex optimization.
Materials informatics: Predictive modelling and transformers are accelerating R&D in advanced materials by enabling virtual testing of combinations and structures before synthesizing them in a lab, driving more efficient development cycles in manufacturing, chemicals and beyond.
'The question is not about whether technology convergence will reshape industries. That journey has already begun. The real challenge is how companies can position themselves to be champions of convergence,' says Aiman Ezzat, Chief Executive Officer of Capgemini.
This report serves as a practical guide for leaders seeking to turn insight into action, calling for a systems-thinking approach, balanced investments across tech maturity stages, value chain repositioning and ecosystem readiness. It combines qualitative and quantitative insights from the World Economic Forum's Technology Convergence Community, composed of subject matter experts from the Forum's global network of business, academic, civil society, public sector leaders, who provided domain expertise and case studies. This was complemented by Capgemini's global survey of 2,000 senior executives across 18 countries, 10 industries and five continents. - TradeArabia News Service