Juniper Research Highlights IoT Trends for 2026

Juniper Research identifies the upcoming technologies that define strategies of the deployment of IoT, security, and infrastructure until 2026.

Juniper Research, based in the United Kingdom, has published its Top 10 Emerging Technology Trends to 2026, and the researchers have outlined important trends expected to affect how business enterprises invest and deploy their technologies, especially in the realm of IoT ecosystems. The report puts 2026 as an important crossroad because some of the technologies will be transformed into reality through their practical applications.

Another trend of utmost importance is post-quantum cryptography that Juniper declares to be moving out of theory to the practical hybrid IoT deployments. With the evolution of quantum computing, protective encryption standards have been customized by the manufacturers of devices and operators of networks in the long term.

Neuromorphic computing, physical AI, and multi-agent systems are other technologies described by the research as the solution to the performance and automation issues related to the IoT and industrial contexts. The future of microfluidics-based cooling enhances the adoption of dense data centers that serve AI-motivated IoT analytics, and multi-cloud strategies are increasingly popular due to mega crashes in 2025.

Other emerging trends are wireless EV charging infrastructure, counter-drone technology, open-source smart buildings and small modular reactors, all of which overlap with connected systems and intelligent infrastructure.

According to Juniper Research, increased maturity of these technologies is an indicator that deployments are shifting to scalable and resilient deployments. The adoption of IoT will be used on a large scale by many enterprises operating critical national infrastructure, so it is expected that they focus on its reliability, security, and interoperability prior to its widespread implementation in the coming years.