Predictions for 2026

AI

People vibe-coding websites, apps, start-ups. There is a growing number of success stories from ordinary non-technical folks building businesses with genai - kids bootstrapping CRUD apps that become an overnight success is a new normal. Major LLM providers realizing huge potential in the mainstream over the enterprise.

There are dozens, hundreds of agentic frameworks, SDKs, libraries, best practices. Companies offering end-to-end agent building services helping develop, create, deploy, serve and monitor apps. The security aspects are often overlooked.

The genai agents for content creation, marketing, sales are among most successful. More conservative industries such as engineering, manufacturing are catching up and jumping on the genai train. Large content creators invest heavily into their local genai ecosystems. Genai-created content is growing in popularity to the point that it's impossible to detect if it's genuine. Many people don't mind engaging with such content.

The businesses investing into genai to optimize internal processes and systems. The genai projects getting a lot of excitement from C-suite but at some point the hype wears off.

Genai companionship apps and services are becoming a reality for people seeking emotional support, advice and validation.

Engineered systems

Amid fluctuating energy prices, local off-grid power plants is an emerging trend. The companies developing energy storage systems, power generation machinery are flourishing. There is an increasing number of energy collapses worldwide but especially in the developed countries.

Rust is increasingly present in industrial systems for real-time control and embedded programming. First choice language in the automotive sector, with medical and industrial systems catching up.

Requirements management becomes the most critical component in system engineering. Design engineering becomes obsolete as system architects manage and implement systems with a increasing support of genai.

Economy

Declining interest rates in US, EU help boosting job market. There are no major layoffs during 2026. New non-orthodox roles appear in job market.

Amid high chip demand, ASML reaches 750bln market cap, ASML retains monopoly in EUV but experiences pressure from new US competitor(s) emerging from stealth mode. China develops DUV lithography machines.

Politics

Russia-Ukraine war continues for another five years at least. The lasting peace deal is not reached. Military spendings are accelerated.