Signals of Change

Why weak signals?

Weak signals can play a vital role in planning ahead. They help companies to:

Identify Emerging Opportunities and Risks: Weak signals can highlight new market opportunities or potential threats that may not yet be apparent through traditional trend analysis. This allows companies to proactively address these changes and stay ahead of the competition.

Enhance Strategic Foresight: Incorporating weak signals into strategic planning helps ensure that strategies are agile and future-proof. By regularly scanning for weak signals, companies can validate and adjust their strategic foresight plans to remain relevant and effective.

Improve Decision-Making: Weak signals provide additional context and insights that can inform better decision-making. By understanding the potential implications of these signals, companies can make more informed choices about their future direction.

Foster Innovation: Weak signals often point to nascent trends or technologies that could drive innovation. By recognizing these early indicators, companies can invest in research and development to capitalize on new opportunities and drive growth.

Get to know with the Signals of Change publications

Quarterly Foresight, Summer 2025

• Signals of Change
  • Race for critical minerals has become
    geopolitical
  • China is moving towards energy self-sufficiency
  • Tech War between the US and China Escalates
  • China to “stand shoulder to shoulder with Moscow
    against hegemonic bullying”
  • Maritime Rivalry Spirals between the US and China
  • Trump administration deepen alliances that participate in
    burden sharing
  • It is much about China and not just about defence spending
    – China defining the US trust on Europe
  • Great Split is Coming: the US appears demanding countries
    to choose between itself and China
  • Chinese PLA troops in Russian Army
• Focus
  • Mutualistic Technologies for Crucial Technologies
  • Mutualistic Technologies are Part of the Smart Spaces Puzzle
  • Dynamics Among Mutualistic Technologies
  • Mutualistic Technologies are Opening Market Opportunities
• Spotlight
  • Institute for the Future’s Systems Mythology
  • The four colors represent various aspects to consider
  • Colors make for very different systems and networks
  • Understanding the alternatives of future AI environments
  • Creating alternatives of systems

Quarterly Foresight, Winter 2025 

• Signals of Change
  • AI Agents
  • AI Training Centers
  • Soft Robotics
  • Addressing Growing Mental Concerns
  • Genetics Is Destiny
  • Climate as an Economic Factor
  • Data Centers Cause Concerns
  • Your Own Technology-Enabled Physical Bubble
  • Trade Lanes and Transportation in Flux
  • Consumer Tech = Military Tech …and Vice Versa
  • Unusual Urban Planning Tools
  • Humanoid Apps Are Becoming Household Items
  • Human Relationships with AI Cause Personal Harm
• Study
  • Introduction to Scenarios
  • Fragmenting world
  • Converging world
  • Fortifying world
  • Polarizing world
• Spotlight
  • Future AI Bots and Their Relationship to Users
  • Future AI Bots and Their Roles
  • Sorting AI Bots by User Relationship and Roles
  • Bots Create an Ecosystem of AI Relationships

Quarterly Foresight, Fall 2024

• Signals of Change:
  • Liberal Arts for Scientific Progress
  • The Marriage of Robotics and GenAI
  • Humanoid Robots Stretch Commercially 
  • Photgraphic AI - AI-s Mental Pictures
• Study:
  • The Consumer Metaverse
  • The Future of the Metaverse
  • Uncertainties Shaping the Consumer Metaverse
  • The Future Consumer
• Focus:
  • Emerging Climate Tech
  • Resilient Landscapes
  • Conversion Pathways
  • Emission Management