12 themes we see emerging from working firsthand with enterprises and teams building and deploying frontier models
Executive summary
Flip from a cost reduction mindset to one of abundance: how to get 1,000-person output from 10 roles.
1. 2026 is about going operational, not going autonomous
For all the noise about autonomy, we’re going to need human intelligence in the loop for another decade.
2. How AI goes operational in 2026
The leap is from pilots to production: senses (multimodal coherence), teams (multi-agent systems), and twins (safe training grounds).
3. Shifting focus from “how many pilots” to “how many scaled production work streams”
Most enterprises have a handful of enthusiasts. Scaling to thousands requires frameworks, culture change, and AI embedded in the tools people already use.
4. The constraint will be adoption, not capability.
AI won’t run the company in 2026. It could, however, let ten people do the work of a thousand... if you fix adoption.
5.
Read our predictions
Get ahead of the game in 2026 by understanding these 12 trends.
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