Thinkers360 Predictions Series – 2026 Predictions for Artificial Intelligence

2026 Predictions for Artificial Intelligence

Thinkers360 2026 Predictions for Artificial Intelligence are member-sourced from our opt-in B2B thought leader, analyst and influencer community with 100M+ followers on social media combined. The 2026 Predictions for Artificial Intelligence are part of a series to provide actionable insights for business and technology executives.

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We asked a selection of Thinkers360 global thought leaders, analysts and influencers about their predictions for Artificial Intelligence in 2026.

 

Turning Principles into Practice: How Responsible AI Will Power Performance in 2026

For years, Responsible AI (RAI) has been the boardroom buzzword – long on talk, but short on traction. According to PwC’s latest RAI survey, while 60% of executives see AI as a catalyst for ROI and 55% credit it with boosting innovation, nearly half of organizations still struggle to bridge the gap between high-level ethics and daily operations.

The year 2026 marks the end of this “experimentation era.” As we transition from simple assistants to agentic workflows – where AI systems autonomously plan and execute complex tasks – the stakes have never been higher. The good news? The technology required to govern these systems is finally catching up. From automated red teaming to AI-enabled monitoring, the tools for continuous oversight are now within reach.

However, success in 2026 isn’t just about the software; it’s about a structural shift in leadership and architecture. To move beyond “check-the-box” compliance, organizations must integrate accountability and human-centric wisdom directly into their digital DNA. In this post, we’ve gathered insights from leading Thinkers360 experts to explore how 2026 will redefine the intersection of performance, trust, and autonomy.

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2026 AI Predictions: Summary of Key Insights

Before diving into the detailed forecasts, here is a snapshot of how our featured experts see the landscape shifting in 2026:

• Jennifer Kosar (PwC US): Predicts 2026 will be the “operationalization year” for Responsible AI, where automated tools like deepfake detection and continuous auditing turn governance into a performance driver.

• William McKnight (McKnight Consulting Group): Foresees an end to purely “bottom-up” AI development, as organizations demand a more strategic, top-down architectural focus to handle enterprise complexity.

• Tim Canonico (PwC US): Highlights the shift in Managed Services from exploring agent-based pilots to fully operationalizing “agent-native” delivery for scaling complex operations.

• Indira Bunic (EmpowerU): Envisions the evolution from “smart AI” to “wise AI,” where systems are designed to consider context, human values, and long-term societal impact.

• Grant McGaugh (5 STAR BDM LLC): Forecasts that Agentic AI will become the “Digital COO” for small businesses, autonomously handling up to 60% of administrative and sales workflows.

• Terryel Hu, Ph.D. (Insight Bay): Expects a massive investment in the “governance space” as leaders move beyond pilots and seek to manage cross-functional teams with diverse technical skills.

• James Castle (Terranova Aerospace): Warns of an intensifying “Quantum Conflict” where AI-driven warfare and deepfakes force international coalitions to create the first binding treaties for AI weaponization.

• Tim Cortinovis (Future Sales Society): Predicts a “steep increase” in AI search share that will decimate traditional web traffic, forcing brands to compete for the 2–3 slots surfaced by AI answers.

• Frank Morales (The Boeing Company): Anticipates a shift to “Modular Hybrid AGI Architectures” in safety-critical fields, embedding ethical constraint layers to ground AI reasoning in real-world physics.

• Anthony J. (Tony) Rhem (A.J. Rhem & Associates): Argues that traditional “human-in-the-loop” policies won’t scale with agentic speed, forcing governance to be embedded directly into the code as a “first-class runtime component.”

 

Read on to explore our expert panelists’ opinions in depth and join us on Thinkers360.com to be part of the conversation!

 

What are your Predictions for Artificial Intelligence in 2026?

Turning Principles into Practice: How Responsible AI Will Power Performance in 2026

For years, Responsible AI (RAI) has been the boardroom buzzword, with plenty of talk but limited traction. In PwC’s latest RAI survey, 60% of executives said it boosts ROI and efficiency, and 55% reported better customer experience and innovation—yet nearly half admitted that turning RAI principles into real operational processes has been a challenge.

2026 could be the year that changes. As agentic workflows take hold and AI systems handle more human tasks, companies will need governance models that can keep up. The good news is that technology is starting to deliver what RAI needs: automated red teaming, deepfake detection, and AI-enabled monitoring tools are just a few of the solutions that make continuous auditing and oversight more achievable than ever.

But the tools alone aren’t enough. To make RAI effective, organizations need the right mix of upskilling, clear accountability, smarter risk tiering, and documentation that keeps humans in the loop. When those elements align, RAI stops being a check-the-box compliance exercise and becomes a driver of performance fueling innovation, reducing delays, and building trust.

– Jennifer Kosar, AI Assurance Leader at PwC US

 

Need for Top-Down Architecture

A lack of architectural focus (100% bottoms-up development) will not be tolerated in the future, as AI demands at least a partial strategic, top-down approach.

– William McKnight, McKnight Consulting Group

 

AI agents move beyond pilots and become integrated into core workflows in Managed Services

Given the nature of managed services work—continuously monitoring environments, handling issues, processing and analyzing transactions, and sustaining complex operations at scale – agentic technology creates material opportunities for disruption. Over the past 18 months, the industry has invested heavily in defining agent-based use cases such as triaging incidents, resolving tickets, and orchestrating workflows. This period has been exploratory by necessity, focused on understanding where agents add value, where human judgment remains essential, and how trust, governance, and control must be built in. By 2026, that foundational work will pay off as agent-native services delivery becomes operationalized rather than theoretical.

– Tim Canonico, Managed Services Leader, PwC US

 

The Great AI Evolution: From Demonstrations to Wisdom-Embedded Intelligence in 2026

2026 year will be the time that AI moves from amazing demonstrations to integrated wisdom – where artificial intelligence systems are created with enlightened leadership embedded in their design. The game-changing technology will be AI that doesn’t just query data, but considers context, values and the long-term impact of its proposed actions and recommendations. They will find that the most effective models for AI deployment are those championed by leaders who appreciate both technological potential and human consciousness. This shift from “smart AI” to “wise AI” will require a new kind of leadership capable of guiding both human and artificial intelligence toward shared flourishing.

– Indira Bunic, EmpowerU Ignite Your Leadership Journey

 

Agentic AI Becomes the New COO for Small Businesses

By 2027, Agentic AI systems will operate as autonomous business operators—handling 60% of administrative, sales, marketing, and customer service workflows for small businesses. These systems won’t just automate tasks; they will reason, plan, execute, and optimize daily operations, becoming the de facto “always-on digital COO.” Small businesses that adopt agentic workflows will grow 2–3x faster than those relying solely on traditional automation.

– Grant McGaugh, 5 STAR BDM LLC

 

The Focus on AI Will Shift Towards Governance

AI adoption continues to expand, but integration remains a major challenge to leaders. As they move beyond the pilot test, they may be asking, “What does success actually look like?” and “What tangible outcomes are we achieving from this?” They will become clearer about where AI drives value where it does not. We will also see newer ways of managing teams working on AI. Some companies already have employees with the technical skills to build AI solutions, but the process will be difficult to manage. These teams often bring together talent who have never worked closely before. I expect that companies will invest a lot more in the governance space.

– Terryel Hu, Ph.D., Insight Bay

 

Quantum Conflict 2026: The Rise of AI-Driven Warfare and Global Vulnerability

By 2026, the weaponization of AI will intensify as autonomous systems become deeply embedded in both military and cyber operations, erasing the boundary between defense and offense. Nation-states and rogue actors will exploit AI-driven misinformation, leveraging deepfakes and synthetic media to erode public trust and manipulate global narratives. Surveillance and predictive policing technologies will be turned against civilian populations, sparking serious ethical and human rights debates. Quantum-enhanced AI will emerge in defense prototypes, accelerating threat detection while exposing new cybersecurity vulnerabilities. AI-powered drone swarms and unmanned combat systems will disrupt conventional warfare strategies, prompting a re-evaluation of global deterrence models. In response, international coalitions will advocate for the first binding treaty to regulate AI weaponization and autonomous decision-making in conflict zones.

– James Castle, Terranova Aerospace and Defense Group, Security and Defense Division

 

The New Web Speaks in Answers, Not Pages

In the next 12 months AI search will have a steep increase in search share globally. People are experiencing how convenient AI search is, and switch over from classical search. Traffic on media pages will decline tremendously. The challenge for suppliers is, that AI search often includes not 10 but rather 2-3 suppliers and products.

– Tim Cortinovis, Future Sales Society

 

Agentic AI Systems / Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI)

By 2026, the industry standard for deploying AI in safety-critical domains (such as medical diagnosis and autonomous operations) will shift from single-model LLMs to Modular Hybrid AGI Architectures. This shift will be driven by the non-negotiable need for verifiable safety, forcing systems to incorporate explicit Ethical & Safety Constraint Layers and Validation Agents to ensure decisions adhere to regulatory or clinical ground truth. The use of integrated Analog-Digital Integration Layers will allow these systems to effectively ground abstract reasoning with real-world physics and sensory data, thereby validating the shift toward LeCun’s vision for Advanced Machine Intelligence.

– FRANK MORALES, The Boeing Company

 

Agentic AI Forces Policy to Become Code

Agentic AI systems decide, act, coordinate, and execute across systems. Once agents are autonomous, traditional governance artifacts, policies, guidelines, standards, and ethics will collapse under real-time decision velocity. In practice, Human-in-the-loop governance does not scale. This reality will force a structural shift: governance must become executable, embedded into the Agentic AI framework. Agentic AI frameworks (AutoGen, CrewAI, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, OpenAI Swarm-style orchestration, etc.) already rely on planners, routers, memory, and tool invocation layers. My prediction for 2026 is that policy will naturally become another first-class runtime component, not an external control, and will be an expectation of Agent implementation

– Anthony J. (Tony) Rhem, A.J. Rhem & Associates, Inc.

 

To see the full set of predictions in the Thinkers360 Predictions Series, please visit our Predictions page. Have comments on these predictions, or predictions of your own? Please join the community at Thinkers360.com and follow us on LinkedIn, X and YouTube to share your insights!

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