WEF releases 3C framework to guide industries through tech convergence revolution

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has released a 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. The report presents a framework showing how integrating technologies at varying maturity stages can reshape value chains and create new business models.

The WEF’s Technology Convergence Report, developed with Capgemini, introduces the 3C framework – combination, convergence and compounding – identifies standout combinations such as cognitive robots and digital twin ecosystems. It can help leaders drive systemic change across infrastructure, energy, transportation and healthcare by investing in ecosystem readiness.

It also offers insights to policy-makers by highlighting how emerging technologies intersect and amplify one another, helping break down regulatory silos and anticipate wider system-level impacts. “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 WEF.

By considering both technological maturity and deployment context, the report identifies 23 high-potential combinations from over 230 subcomponents across eight domains: artificial intelligence, omni computing, engineering biology, spatial intelligence, robotics, advanced materials, next-generation energy and quantum technologies.

The report highlights AI as a key enabler, making many of these synergies commercially viable. Several standout combinations demonstrate the transformative potential of convergence across sectors like infrastructure, healthcare, energy and transportation, including cognitive robotics, digital twin ecosystems, hybrid quantum-classical computing and materials informatics.

In 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, says the report.

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.

By combining quantum capabilities with the reliability of classical systems, the hybrid quantum-classical computing approach is unlocking quantum’s potential in finance, molecular simulation and complex optimisation.

Predictive modelling and transformers are accelerating R&D in advanced materials by enabling virtual testing before synthesising in a lab, driving more efficient development 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, CEO of Capgemini.

The report serves as a guide for leaders to turn insight into action, calling for systems thinking, balanced investment across tech maturity stages, value chain repositioning and ecosystem readiness. Capgemini conducted a global survey of 2,000 senior executives across 18 countries, 10 industries and five continents.