From everyday AI to humanoid robotics and quantum breakthroughs, here’s how technology and supply resilience could shape the year ahead.
Despite market volatility in 2025, the electronics industry has demonstrated resilience and, in many areas, achieved measurable growth – which, at Mouser, we are witnessing globally. Although EMEA has been slower to recover than North America and APAC, we have seen encouraging growth in all of our main product categories in EMEA.
Market participants, from engineers to semiconductor fabs, have adapted to volatility through technology investment and operational flexibility, enabling innovation to continue even under pressure. Nevertheless, persistent challenges from the past few years, as well as more recent unexpected complications, have impacted the industry. Sector-specific unpredictability, geopolitical tensions such as tariffs and trade restrictions, and ongoing supply chain disruptions, including manufacturer-specific bottlenecks, have continued to be obstacles for the industry.
Yet, there have also been clear drivers this year. Once again, as in 2024, artificial intelligence (AI) has remained a central focus. Beyond the broad hype, it continues to advance, with pioneering, practical, high-value applications across industrial, automotive, and consumer segments coming to the forefront and driving growth. Simultaneously, sectors such as humanoid robotics and quantum technologies are breaking new frontiers, with innovations driving concepts into real-world deployments.
Arguably, it is this combination of technological opportunity and operational challenge that has defined the year and contributed to the positive broader market picture. Global semiconductor revenue is projected to reach $789.28 billion in 2025, up from $627.6 billion in 2024, reflecting an industry that, while navigating significant headwinds, continues to adapt and grow. While these conditions provide a solid foundation for 2026, the focus now is on identifying which trends and opportunities will shape the electronics industry in the year ahead.
AI: moving from hype to targeted applications
AI currently appears to be undergoing a shift, with the trajectory for 2026 pointing toward AI becoming more specific in purpose and more deeply embedded in everyday devices. Personal everyday AI is expected to expand rapidly, with wearables, smart home systems, and consumer assistants gaining richer, context-aware functionality. These devices increasingly blend multimodal sensing with on-device inference as users demand faster responses, improved privacy, and reduced dependence on cloud connectivity.
This shift is driving the integration of compact, low-power AI subsystems, including neural accelerators, heterogeneous system-on-chips (SoCs), and tightly coupled memory architectures with high-speed interfaces, capable of sustaining continuous inference.
Beyond consumer products, 2026 is likely to see a wider adoption of Edge generative and agentic AI within industrial and other embedded environments. More focused and powerful local AI models will support autonomous decision-making, predictive control, and adaptive optimisation, increasing demand for FPGAs, AI-enabled microcontrollers, power-efficient inference engines, and secure connectivity modules.
While scrutiny has centred on large-scale AI deployments, high-performance computing (HPC) and data centre AI are not expected to slow down. Analysts forecast a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.9% through 2031, although rising energy consumption and system costs could represent a limiting factor in 2026. For engineers and buyers, anticipating these hardware pressures will be essential to ensure scalable and cost-effective AI solutions across both edge and centralised systems.
Humanoid robotics: convergence meets practicality
2025 delivered credible signs that humanoid robotics is moving beyond the ambitious concept phase. At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2025, more than 150 humanoid robots were displayed by over 80 firms, designed for applications such as logistics, warehousing, manufacturing support, healthcare assistance, and commercial service robotics.
In these environments, robots can provide flexible automation, augment human labour, and operate safely in spaces designed for people. They can also help address repetitive, hazardous, or physically demanding tasks that are unsuitable for humans, while moving naturally within environments optimised for human ergonomics.
Experts anticipate 2026 to be a pivotal year for humanoid robotics, driven by the convergence of enabling technologies, including AI‑enabled controllers, force‑controlled actuators, precision servo motors, multimodal sensor arrays (e.g., lidar, depth cameras, tactile skins), higher-density power systems, and low-latency connectivity modules. The maturity of development platforms and modular, interoperable architectures is also allowing integrators to prototype more quickly, tailor systems to specific use cases, and scale production more cost-efficiently.
Still, major challenges remain, and cost-efficient mass production, energy management optimisation, and the ability to prove reliability in dynamic, real-world environments will be the defining factors for success. For humanoid robots to transition from pilot deployments to widespread adoption, disciplined design and rigorous field testing will be critical, alongside careful cost and reliable component supply.
Quantum computing and sensing: from lab to deployment
The last two years have seen a number of major milestones in quantum computing, including Microsoft’s Majorana 1 topological qubit processor and Google’s Willow superconducting qubit system, which bring hardware stability and fault tolerance closer to reality. According to industry analysis conducted by Research and Markets, global investment in quantum computing, communication, and sensing more than doubled in the first quarter of 2025 compared with the previous year. This wave of capital reflects growing confidence from both public and private stakeholders that quantum systems are moving from experimental labs into application-specific deployment.
For 2026, this momentum suggests a tangible increase in early practical adoption, particularly in quantum sensing. Quantum sensors that exploit entanglement, superposition, or atomic-scale precision are becoming increasingly compact and robust, enabling applications in areas such as medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and navigation, where they can provide accurate positioning without reliance on GNSS networks.
As these devices transition from lab benches to deployable systems, demand will rise for robust supporting hardware, including high-performance control electronics, low-noise measurement circuitry, interface components, interconnects, and classical processing systems.
Meanwhile, quantum computing is showing early signs of crossing the threshold from research curiosity to strategic capability. Recent developments, from error-rate reductions to more stable control subsystems, indicate increasing reliability in quantum control hardware. For industries such as materials science, pharmaceuticals, finance, and climate modelling, 2026 may bring the first commercially meaningful quantum-accelerated workloads. However, this transition will rely heavily on a maturing supply of specialised components.
The enduring themes shaping design and sourcing
Beyond these technologies, several enduring themes will continue to shape engineering, design, and sourcing decisions in 2026. Hardware security remains a critical priority, particularly as regulatory frameworks such as the Network and Information Systems Directive (NIS2), the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) are increasingly applied across a growing number of markets. For engineers, embedding robust security measures at both the component and system levels is now an imperative.
Lifecycle management and component availability will also remain central considerations. With ongoing pressures from global supply chains, planning for long-term reliability and sourcing continuity is essential. Procurement teams must anticipate component obsolescence, maintain alternative component strategies, and leverage design approaches that can extend system longevity.
Sustainability is another area of increasing importance and influence on design decisions. From optimising the efficiency of intensive AI workloads to integrating renewable energy solutions, across applications ranging from battery-powered Internet of Things (IoT) nodes to electric vehicles (EVs) and high-performance data centres, engineers are tasked with balancing performance, cost, and lifetime environmental impact.
Prepared for 2026 and beyond
As 2026 begins, the electronics industry faces a landscape shaped by several enduring trends and some rapidly emerging opportunities, yet uncertainty and disruption remain constants. While the sector has strengthened resilience across supply chains and operations in recent years, new challenges, from component constraints to shifting tariffs, remain unpredictable and often unavoidable.
Mouser Electronics, with its comprehensive product portfolio and support ecosystem, including product lifecycle notifications and real-time updates on mouser.com, is ready to help engineers and buyers navigate these complexities with confidence. Although the future cannot be predicted with certainty, engineers and procurement teams who combine proactive planning, effective design practices, and the right supply partnerships will be best placed to respond to all that 2026 has to offer.
About the author:
Marie-Pierre Ducharme, Vice President, EMEA Marketing & Business Development, Mouser Electronics
