Section 6

The Road Ahead

What 2026 Looks Like

2026 Outlook

It will be boring infrastructure that works.

Like databases in the 1990s. Like cloud computing in the 2010s. The technology will transition from competitive advantage to table stakes.

AI becomes infrastructure. By 2027, asking "do you use AI?" will be like asking "do you use databases?"
Integration quality determines success. The model choice matters less than how well you deploy it.
Talent profiles evolve. Systems thinking and domain expertise beat pure ML knowledge.
Regional approaches diverge. Privacy, efficiency, capability: different markets optimize differently.