Every year analysts highlight current industry trends, during presentations at the annual Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo events.
Gartner defines a strategic technology trend as one with substantial disruptive potential that is beginning to break out of an emerging state into broader impact and use, or which are rapidly growing trends with a high degree of volatility reaching tipping points over the next five years.
Over the past 10 years we have seen many 'trends' come and go, and to help you recall what has been anticipated as a 'big impact' we have complied a list of the top ten from each year.
Let's begin at 2016 and run through all the way to the current day...
2016
- The Device Mesh
- Ambient User Experience
- 3D Printing Materials
- Information of Everything
- Advanced Machine Learning
- Autonomous Agents and Things
- Adaptive Security Architecture
- Advanced System Architecture
- Mesh App and Service Architecture
- Internet of Things Platforms
2017
- AI and Advanced Machine Learning
- Intelligent Apps
- Intelligent Things
- Virtual and Augmented Reality
- Digital Twin
- Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers
- Conversational System
- Mesh App and Service Architecture
- Digital Technology Platforms
- Adaptive Security Architecture
2018
- AI Foundation
- Intelligent Apps & Analytics
- Intelligent Things
- Digital Twin
- Cloud to the Edge
- Conversational Platforms
- Immersive Experience
- Blockchain
- Event-Driven
- Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust
2019
- Autonomous Things
- Augmented Analytics
- AI-Driven Development
- Digital Twins
- Empowered Edge
- Immersive Experience
- Blockchain
- Smart Spaces
- Digital Ethics and Privacy
- Quantum Computing
2020
- Hyperautomation
- Multiexperience
- Democratization of Expertise
- Human Augmentation
- Transparency and Traceability
- The Empowered Edge
- Distributed Cloud
- Autonomous Things
- Practical Blockchain
- AI Security
2021
- Internet of Behaviors
- Total Experience
- Privacy-Enhancing Computation
- Distributed Cloud
- Anywhere Operations
- Cybersecurity Mesh
- Intelligent Composable Business
- AI Engineering
- Hyperautomation
2022
- Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Data Fabric
- Distributed Enterprise
- Cloud-Native Platforms (CNPs)
- Autonomic Systems
- Decision Intelligence (DI)
- Composable Applications
- Hyperautomation
- Privacy-Enhancing Computation (PEC)
- Cybersecurity Mesh
2023
- Digital Immune System
- Applied Observability
- AI Trust, Risk and Security Management (AI TRISM)
- Industry Cloud Platforms
- Platform Engineering
- Wireless-Value Realization
- Superapps
- Adaptive AI
- Metaverse
- Sustainable Technology
2024
- AI Trust, Risk and Security Management (AI TRiSM)
- Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)
- Sustainable Technology
- Platform Engineering
- AI-Augmented Development
- Industry Cloud Platforms
- Intelligent Applications
- Democratized Generative AI
- Augmented Connected Workforce
- Machine Customers
2025
- Agentic AI
- AI Governance Platforms
- Disinformation Security
- Post-Quantum Cryptography
- Ambient Invisible Intelligence
- Energy-Efficient Computing
- Hybrid Computing
- Spatial Computing
- Polyfunctional Robots
- Neurological Enhancement
Finally for 2026, this is what Gartner believe are the next 'big trends' - time will tell!
- AI-Native Development Platforms
- AI Supercomputing Platforms
- Confidential Computing
- Multiagent Systems
- Domain-Specific Language Models
- Physical AI
- Preemptive Cybersecurity
- Digital Provenance
- AI Security Platforms
- Geopatriation
Read more
If you would like to explore more about each strategic trend, then follow the below compiled list of sources (where available).
https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2015-10-06-gartner-identifies-the-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2016
https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2016-10-18-gartner-identifies-the-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2017
https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2018-10-15-gartner-identifies-the-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2019
https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-10-21-gartner-identifies-the-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2020
https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-10-19-gartner-identifies-the-top-strategic-technology-trends-for-2021
https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-10-18-gartner-identifies-the-top-strategic-technology-trends-for-2022
https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/gartner-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2023
https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/gartner-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2024
https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/top-technology-trends-2026
