Forester '2026 Emerging Technologies'... Artificial Intelligence, surpassing screens and moving toward 'physical execution'

Forrester’s (FORR) released the “Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2026” report on the 15th, pointing out that the development trend of artificial intelligence is shifting from the digital experimentation stage to the “physical AI” that drives the real world. This means companies are moving beyond pilot applications of generative AI and entering a phase where it is applied to business operations, transaction execution, robotics, and security systems.

The report categorizes the technological commercialization timeline into short-term, mid-term, and long-term fields. In the short-term, the core technologies are “intelligent agent commerce” and AI security. Intelligent agent commerce refers to AI agents completing the entire process from product search and price comparison to purchase for users. AI security involves technologies to prevent risks such as data leakage, tampering, and model misuse that are exacerbated by the proliferation of generative AI and autonomous systems.

The mid-term focus is on “intelligent agent software development” and humanoid robots. Intelligent agent software development means AI surpassing code-writing assistance and participating in the full development process, including testing, modification, and deployment. Humanoid robots are considered highly practical in manufacturing, logistics, and service fields. Forrester believes these trends will go beyond simple automation and could fundamentally change business operation models.

Long-term technologies include quantum computing. The report notes that although it has not yet reached large-scale commercial use, it has enormous potential to change future industrial landscapes in terms of computational performance, especially highlighting its long-term business opportunities in new drug development, financial modeling, and logistics optimization.

The core of this report is that AI is shifting focus from “response within screens” to “execution in the real world.” This means that while most companies are still experimenting with chatbots or office assistants, investment is already turning toward applications that produce physical results such as transaction execution, automation development, and robot control.

Market attention to these changes suggests they will impact not only tech companies but also manufacturing, distribution, logistics, and security industries. Especially when “physical AI” becomes widespread, it can significantly improve productivity and reduce costs, but safety regulation and accountability issues will become increasingly important. Forrester’s report indicates that 2026 may become a critical year where execution surpasses experimentation in the AI industry.

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