From AI agents and quantum computing to robotics and space infrastructure, emerging technologies could reshape how businesses operate, compete and serve their customers.

New technology rarely changes things on its own. Cost, regulation, infrastructure and people's willingness to use it decide when it starts to matter. A change that makes life easier for customers can also leave them with less control over their data. That raises questions about privacy and trust. Businesses face a different problem: a technology can alter who owns the customer relationship before it overturns the business model.

Our H1 2027 Disruption Watch Trends report looks at the signals behind such shifts, including what could slow or redirect them. We have identified eight longer-term tech-led trends that we believe have the potential to create future business disruption. 

What are agentic AI workflows?

Agentic AI is the ability of AI to plan, make decisions and execute them without human supervision, while AI agents are the autonomous systems that undertake tasks. The trend is towards AI agents becoming more capable, able to execute increasingly complex tasks and increasingly deployed to support businesses.

Why it matters for businesses

Agentic workflows can bring efficiency and productivity gains to businesses and have the potential to broaden capabilities, unlocking new revenue streams. They come at a cost but used effectively can bring a competitive advantage. Longer-term, agentic workflows have the potential to reshape the entire economy. 

What are AI assistants?

AI chatbots are evolving into proactive assistants that act as advisors, coaches, friends and co-workers, accessible wherever users are present, not just on computers and smartphones. New devices, such as smart glasses, are also being designed around AI assistants.

Why it matters for businesses

AI assistants have the potential to change the way users undertake everyday activities, both personally and at work, with users increasingly relying on AI assistants to surface information, provide advice and carry out tasks on their behalf. Businesses will need to adapt to changes in how customers engage with them through AI assistants and how employees might utilise AI assistants to support their work. 

Why does AI need so much power?

To scale deployment and use of AI, the data centres that sit behind it will need the energy to power them. Innovation in both energy supply and energy efficiency is helping to meet the challenge. The former is focused on delivery of existing sources, such as modular nuclear reactors, and new forms, such as fusion. Efficiency is looking at both the use of energy and new computer hardware designs.

Why it matters for businesses

The ability of AI vendors to secure the energy needed to operate AI at scale will ultimately dictate the availability and cost of AI to businesses, potentially having wide-ranging impacts on operational and strategic decisions.

How could AI affect digital trust?

As AI takes on more decisions, trust depends on systems working reliably and being used safely. Two risks stand out: the use of AI to conduct cyber-attacks, increasingly autonomously, and AI agents acting beyond their mandate. Innovation is helping to combat these risks, with frontier AI models at the forefront of cyber-defence and new frameworks being developed to govern AI agent actions.

Why it matters for businesses

Customer trust is core to the success of every business. The dynamics of trust are changing, with both attack and defence operating at machine speed. Not only do businesses need to adapt to mitigate the escalating risks to trust, but there is also a fundamental question about where people sit in the process of protecting trust and the decisions they need to make. 

What is physical AI?

Robots are becoming increasingly commonplace. Humanoid robots are starting to appear in workplaces, mostly in pilots. Autonomous vehicles are already an everyday sight in parts of China and the US, and robots are delivering life-changing procedures in healthcare. Beyond hardware, the real innovation is in physical AI, the brains that control the hardware, where developers are looking beyond large language models to world models.

Why it matters for businesses

Just as AI is transforming the digital world, robots are set to transform the physical world. If robots become cheap enough for scaled deployment, questions about insurance, regulation and work become more immediate. 

What is quantum computing?

Quantum computing is a fundamentally different way of computing, using the properties of quantum particles to perform computations beyond the capability of classical computing. It is expected to have the capability to solve many real-world problems that have previously been intractable. Applications are likely to be wide-ranging, from finance to logistics and from AI to pharmaceuticals.

Why it matters for businesses

Although quantum computing might seem irrelevant to many businesses today, experts suggest the economic impact could be as significant as AI. Its ability to solve optimisation problems and determine patterns in very large datasets makes it surprisingly applicable to many businesses, and it could become a competitive imperative. The expectation that quantum computing could disrupt current encryption methods, potentially by the end of the decade, is likely to be critical to every business. 

What is healthspan technology?

New technologies could help people live longer in good health, extending what researchers call healthspan. AI is at the heart of this transformation, helping researchers analyse vast datasets, identify disease risks earlier and accelerate drug discovery. Proactive healthcare AI assistants working with smart devices are moving towards delivering increasingly comprehensive personalised medical diagnostics.

Why it matters for businesses

Longer healthspan across the population has wide-reaching policy and business implications. If people live longer in good health, what happens to working lives, retirement, insurance and the products and services built around a shorter old age?

How is space becoming infrastructure?

The commercial space sector is accelerating worldwide, with activity increasingly driven by private capital, reusable launch systems and large-scale satellite services. Innovation in launch systems, satellites, data analytics and orbital infrastructure is turning space into a foundational layer of the global economy, while broader benefits, such as advanced connectivity, environmental insights and scientific progress, will flow from commercially viable use of space.

Why it matters for businesses

The future space economy is expected to deliver substantial societal and commercial benefits. Although some industries could benefit directly, such as manufacturing and pharmaceuticals, there are also indirect benefits, for example from always-on communications. For most businesses, the near-term question is practical: as critical services come to depend on satellite links, is that dependence understood, and is it resilient?