2026 Predictions- What I think we’ll see in the next 12 months.
AI led firms win: Companies that redesign processes around what AI can do- with humans focused on oversight and creativity, massively outperform those that bolt AI onto old workflows. The gap between those who led early and those who dithered widens.
Skills, not titles = most valuable: Hiring & progression move toward skills portfolios and fluid roles, with AI literacy, data fluency, and change-navigation becoming baseline expectations.
Personalised education sees university applications drop sharply: Students learn faster from AI tutors & the chances of getting an entry level job are slim. Proving your worth with AI start ups before entering workplace higher up the ladder with tech literacy & real AI director creds becomes the ambition. Those youngsters who do this leapfrog older more ‘senior’ employees who can’t or wont adapt.
The fastest wealth creation path in 2026: Spotting assets mispriced because people underestimate AI’s speed. Entire markets move before the public notices.
Agent-run media companies appear: Daily shows, newsletters, and channels where one human editor supervises AI agents that research, write, and distribute content at scale.
Google vs OpenAI: distribution beats IQ: Google will claw back market share from OpenAI not with a better model, but with better real estate & frictionless integration. The extra 5% intelligence of GPT-5 won’t matter to the average user. Convenience & familiarity are worth a lot when it comes to the mass adoption play.
Anthropic wins the coding war and becomes the place for top 1% power users.
The YouTube moment for ‘vibe coding’: Just as YouTube made video creation & distribution accessible, vibe-coding tools make software creation accessible to non- coders. We have our first totally non-technical multi-million £+ apps and vibecoders become the new ‘creators’ of the moment. Just like gaming has a huge YouTube following, Vibecoders gather fame from sharing their skill and UI design becomes THE #no1 skill to master.
Entertainment goes infinite: Netflix lets you continue cancelled shows just for yourself. AI generates new episodes of The Office or Friends dynamically based on your mood.
Meta Vibes Flop: Zuckerberg integrates “Meta Vibes” (AI video generation) into Instagram. It flops because people don’t want AI content in personal feeds.
2026 Predictions- What I think we’ll see in the next 12 months. XTwitterGames: Musk/xAI releases a tool allowing users to build and play video games directly inside the X feed. It’s popular initially, then fades.
Sora turns into a social player & positions itself as a major competitor to both social & streaming platforms. Create, publish, discover, remix.The accelerant is big IP partnerships and distribution power.
Massive backlash and craving for connection. People crave genuine human connection, leading to a rise in ‘dumb phones’ and IRL experiences.
AI-free” becomes the new organic: “made by humans” becomes a premium signal, not because it’s better, but because people crave human imperfection again.
Human-in-the-loop becomes a luxury feature: customer support is 99% AI. Talking to a real human becomes a platinum-tier upsell.
The rise of “authentic” influencers: influencers prove they’re human. Verification shifts from blue checks to “human-generated” badges.
The rise of analog status: analog becomes the flex. Film cameras, handwritten notes, acoustic instruments rise because they signal something AI can’t fake: friction.
Zero AI platform & return of the invite-only web: A new platform strictly bans AI, likely disallowing video uploads or editing entirely, forcing raw, real-time moments. It takes meaningful market share. Social platforms for verified humans only with tech to review all uploads to ban any use of AI across all posts. The best become gated & reputation-scored.
Death of the keyboard and the transition over to voice being your primary method of input into your computer and your phone and any way you interact with technology. Keyboards start to look like archaic tools reserved for coding or academic writing.
Hyper-personalised everything: media, shopping, health all become more tailored as agents customise feeds, offers, and micro-interventions by default.
AI glasses hit the third iteration- i.e. usually the version that’s actually useful, goes mainstream, and drops into accessible pricing.They become a default must have/ cannot function without tech accessory. Within 12 months, we wonder how we lived without them.
Waymo comes to the UK- There are teething problems with roundabouts- nobody giving way & british humour resulting in a minor level of carnage on the roads.