This week, our data visualizations focus on technology trends shaping our world, from the AI revolution to the future of energy and more.
In 2024, the investment climate for frontier technologies stabilized and often rebounded, despite 2023’s macroeconomic challenges and market weakness, note Senior Partner Lareina Yee and coauthors. The latest McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook focuses on 13 frontier technology trends with the potential to transform global business. Last year, investment went up for ten of these trends compared with 2023, with agentic AI seeing the biggest jump of 1,562 percent. The two trends with the highest equity investment, the future of energy and sustainability technologies and the future of mobility, both declined in 2023, but the former made a comeback in 2024. Equity investments in cloud and edge computing, bioengineering, and space technologies grew, while AI and robotics also saw a dip that reversed, and both exceeded 2022 levels.
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A series of line charts illustrates the equity investments in 13 technology trends from 2022 to 2024. In 2024, investments were highest in future of energy and sustainability technologies and in future of mobility (roughly $223 billion and $132 billion, respectively). Investments in ten of the 13 trends began to ramp up in 2024, despite investments in seven of those trends declining in 2023. Investments in agentic AI were very small compared with other trends but had the highest annual change in 2024: 1,562%. Other significant increases were in digital trust and cybersecurity (57%), cloud and edge computing (50%), and quantum technologies (50%).
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To read the report, see “McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2025,” July 22, 2025.