Organizations that can simulate future outcomes will gain an edge in decision making and resilience, according to Gartner, which names world models one of its Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2027. World models learn representations of real-world environments and simulate potential future states, helping organizations evaluate decisions, test alternatives and navigate uncertainty, shifting AI from generating responses to anticipating consequences. Ethan Cai, Principal Analyst at Gartner, says world models imagine the unseen, making the invisible world visible. Organizations that fail to operationalize world models in the next three to six years could become slower to respond to change, miss opportunities or inflection points and make decisions with less confidence than competitors. World models remain an emerging technology but are delivering their most immediate impact in robotics, autonomous systems, digital twins, intelligent simulation, gaming and media production. As embedded causal physics, longer-term memory and fleet learning are introduced between 2027 and 2030, capabilities will evolve rapidly, and training costs are predicted to drop 10 times within three years, making deployment economically viable. In manufacturing and supply chains, world models can simulate production operations, optimize processes and test different operating scenarios; in healthcare, high-fidelity simulations can support training, improve clinical decision making and help evaluate treatment outcomes.