Ten. That's how many AI developments MIT Technology Review named as the most important right now, in its 2026 annual roundup published this week.
Agent orchestration - the infrastructure for AI systems that complete multi-step tasks on their own, rather than responding to one prompt at a time - is among the highlighted topics. The connection to the biggest AI predictions (accelerated drug discovery, large-scale job displacement) runs through agents: ChatGPT proved AI could talk to millions of people; agents are what would make AI actively work in the world.
The publication covers both near-term technical developments and harder questions about deployment and governance. MIT Tech Review's annual framing pieces aim to identify what matters in 18 months, not what's generating press releases today. The full list is at the link above.