Growing automation “thanks to the development of agentic artificial intelligence (Agentic AI) and its deployment in specific applications such as robotics, advances in quantum computing, innovations in biotechnology such as precision fermentation and alternative proteins, and thermochemical technologies will be some of the technological trends that will evolve throughout 2026,” according to forecasts by the scientific director of the Eurecat technology centre, Daniel Casellas.
In this regard, he explains, “one of Eurecat’s key strengths is offering companies the ability to anticipate technological trends, with innovative, high-impact solutions, so that they can get ahead of market needs and deliver value to the economic and industrial fabric and to society as a whole, thanks to the vision of the centre’s multidisciplinary scientific team.”
Agentic artificial intelligence and advances in quantum technologies
In the field of digital technologies, agentic artificial intelligence “will reach a phase of consolidation by 2026, and we will also see the development of the agentic web that is, an internet equipped with services, protocols, APIs and other elements so that artificial intelligence agents can interact with each other in an automated and secure way,” notes the scientific director of Eurecat’s Digital Area, Joan Mas. By 2026, he adds, “the first specifications and pilot tests are expected ahead of a future widespread deployment.”
Next year progress is something expected in technologies of quantum nature, especially quantum computing. According to Joan Mas, “although quantum advantage is still a distant horizon in most cases, we will begin to see the first applications in specific sectors, with pilot tests and use cases in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, finance and logistics, whether using real quantum hardware or emulators capable of implementing up to dozens of qubits and therefore deploying significant computational potential.”
The coming year will also be important for the transition towards post-quantum cryptography systems, following standards and recommendations such as CNSA 2.0 (US) or NIS2 (European). “During 2026 we will see some organizations begin migrating their security systems based on classical cryptography towards architectures that are resistant to the quantum challenge,” adds the scientific director of Eurecat’s Digital Area.
Physical AI: the bridge between artificial intelligence and the real world
Robotics and automation are a clear example of convergence between digital technologies and industrial applications, especially as large language models and agents are defining a step forward towards more cognitive robotics. This evolution gives rise to the new concept of physical artificial intelligence, directly connected, as its name suggests, to the physical world.
Currently, generative AI models “have already consumed virtually all the information on the internet for training, so the next rounds of data for artificial intelligence to continue learning must come from the real world, becoming what is known as physical or embodied AI,” continues the scientific director of Eurecat’s Industrial Area, Ricard Jiménez.
As he explains, this is an artificial intelligence that “perceives, reasons and acts in the real world through a ‘body’, which may primarily be robots, but also autonomous vehicles, drones or industrial arms, among other elements.” Within this framework, “physical artificial intelligence will begin to be deployed across different fields, with industrial ones being particularly important, as they already have a large number of robots that will progressively be equipped with algorithms arising from this new paradigm—an area in which Eurecat is already leading European initiatives.”
Advances in flexible electronics, a growing demand
Meanwhile, “flexible carbon-based chips will never replace silicon in terms of ‘heavy’ computing, but in the coming years they will see widespread deployment in areas such as sensors and low-cost Internet of Things (IoT),” stresses Ricard Jiménez.
In the industrial field, he notes, “flexible electronics are on the rise and there is a clear demand for circuits that can bend and stretch for wearables, health, smart packaging, environmental monitoring, RFID tags and others, where the priority is not maximum power, but flexibility, cost, lightness and sustainability.”
“Carbon materials (graphene, carbon nanotubes, organic semiconductors) are a very good fit here, a line in which Eurecat is making progress, both in general and particularly in applications linked to its plastronics plant,” continues the scientific director of Eurecat’s Industrial Area.
Thermochemical technologies: enabling solutions for the circular economy and decarbonization
In the sustainability area, “one of the major challenges we face as a society is the proper management of our waste within the framework of the circular economy, resource efficiency and decarbonization,” so that “regulations increasingly aim to minimize the amount of waste going to landfill, with the objective of reducing the environmental impact of our activity. This is why technologies that enable the valorization of materials and energy are being promoted,” argues the scientific director of Eurecat’s Sustainability Area, Irene Jubany.
In this context, “as a technological trend for 2026 we find thermochemical technologies for waste management. We are referring to the pyrolysis and gasification of waste such as non-recyclable plastics, sewage sludge, residual fractions or digestates,” technologies that “make possible to obtain high-value products such as biofuels, biomaterials and energy-rich gases, and help promote a circular bioeconomy and the decarbonization of society,” she adds.
Pyrolysis and gasification are already implemented in some countries for the use of forest biomass, but they remain a technological challenge for complex waste streams, where further development is needed to make them technically and economically viable.
To address these challenges, specific pre-treatment solutions for heterogeneous waste are being developed, the processes themselves are being optimized through catalysts and innovative reactor designs, the purification of generated gases is being researched, and suitable applications for the different products obtained are being sought. All of this, notes the scientific director of Eurecat’s Sustainability Area, is “combined with the use of digital automation and advanced control tools to generate robust and safe processes.” Therefore, 2026 “will undoubtedly bring significant advances in thermochemical technologies in order to continue progressing towards a decarbonized circular economy model.”
Innovations in biotechnology such as omics, alternative proteins and precision fermentation
Overall, this 2026 “will continue the momentum of previous years, further establishing biotechnology as the application of renewed and updated traditional technologies to open up new innovation opportunities that Eurecat embraces to address emerging challenges in health and nutrition,” highlights the scientific director of the Biotechnology Area, Francesc Puiggròs.
Biotechnology is leading a transformation that impacts human nutrition, human and animal health, industrial processes and green agri-food, among others. Looking ahead to 2026, “one of the areas that will receive the greatest effort is innovation across all these fields, integrating sustainability, digitalization and food production,” Francesc Puiggròs anticipates.
From his perspective, “the alternative protein market is evolving and, after the plant-based boost, is expanding towards sources such as unicellular microorganisms, insects and revalorized biomass, with environmental, economic and nutritional benefits,” so that “although acceptance is uneven, the trend is clearly upward.”
Artificial intelligence, omics technologies and food technologies together are driving the development of ingredients and final food products, through the automation of processes such as fermentation and extrusion, reinforced by new genomic tools applied to precision fermentation.
This combined progress “will make it possible in 2026 to obtain safer, more scalable products with more suitable nutritional profiles than highly processed foods with complex compositions, although it remains to be seen whether 2026 will bring changes in the regulatory framework to enable the translation of research into market products,” specifies the scientific director of Eurecat’s Biotechnology Area.
In the field of biomedicine and health, genome sequencing technologies are entering a new stage of practical application. “An emerging challenge gaining increasing momentum is their use in addressing cases of rare diseases that are difficult to diagnose, or applying microbial DNA analysis as an alternative to traditional methods in critical situations such as the detection of sepsis. And, extending this to general medicine, the development of new tests based on biological markers that can be used directly in healthcare centres,” emphasizes Francesc Puiggròs.
For this reason, he anticipates, “one of the research trends is to evolve platforms that combine different types of biological data derived from the full range of omics technologies, moving beyond the separate study of each discipline.” In this regard, he specifies, “artificial intelligence helps to interpret this large volume of information, enabling more precise diagnoses and research.”