In partnership with
AI Trends to Watch in 2026
What's emerging, what's maturing, and what to prepare for
December 9, 2025 Edition
What's Coming Next
As 2025 closes, the AI landscape is shifting beneath our feet. Corporations invested over $50 billion in AI infrastructure this year—Google ($40B), Oracle ($3B), Nvidia ($10B)—and the AI hardware market is projected to reach $250 billion by 2027.
But spending isn't success. Here's what to actually watch in 2026.
Trends to Watch
1. The EU AI Act Goes Live—Globally
What's happening: The EU AI Act will transform global business operations by 2027. Penalties up to €35 million or 7% of global turnover for prohibited AI violations. All organizations using AI in the EU market—or whose AI output is used in the Union—are affected.
Why it matters for 2026: Like GDPR before it, the AI Act will create de facto global standards. Organizations that wait until enforcement will scramble. Those that prepare now will have competitive advantages in regulated markets.
What to do: Map your AI systems against the Act's risk categories. High-risk systems need governance frameworks, documentation, and human oversight measures before deadlines hit.
The best marketing ideas come from marketers who live it.
That’s what this newsletter delivers.
The Marketing Millennials is a look inside what’s working right now for other marketers. No theory. No fluff. Just real insights and ideas you can actually use—from marketers who’ve been there, done that, and are sharing the playbook.
Every newsletter is written by Daniel Murray, a marketer obsessed with what goes into great marketing. Expect fresh takes, hot topics, and the kind of stuff you’ll want to steal for your next campaign.
Because marketing shouldn’t feel like guesswork. And you shouldn’t have to dig for the good stuff.
2. AI Infrastructure Becomes Geopolitical
What's happening: The OpenAI-Foxconn partnership signals the start of AI infrastructure as a strategic asset. The India-Canada-Australia trilateral tech partnership focuses on AI sovereignty and supply chain resilience.
Why it matters for 2026: AI compute is becoming like oil—strategically important and geopolitically contested. Organizations dependent on a single cloud or chip supplier face concentration risk.
What to do: Evaluate your AI infrastructure dependencies. Multi-cloud, multi-vendor strategies are becoming risk management, not just cost optimization.
3. Agentic AI Moves to Production
What's happening: 88% of companies are using AI in at least one business function, but agentic AI—systems that can act autonomously—is still largely experimental. 2026 is when pilots become production.
Why it matters for 2026: The shift from ”AI that answers questions” to ”AI that takes actions” changes everything: liability frameworks, governance requirements, and operational models all need updating.
What to do: Identify where agentic AI could create the most value in your operations—and where the risks are highest. Build governance frameworks before you scale.
4. AI and Human Judgment Converge
What's happening: AI is best used to augment human analysts, not replace them. High-stakes decisions remain human purview. The most successful implementations integrate AI into human workflows rather than automating humans out.
Why it matters for 2026: The backlash against AI replacement narratives is real. Organizations that position AI as augmentation—and can demonstrate it—will face less resistance from employees, regulators, and customers.
What to do: Design AI systems with human oversight baked in. Don't just because you can automate doesn't mean you should.
5. The Customer Data Platform Market Explodes
What's happening: The CDP market is projected to grow from $3.5 billion in 2024 to $12.5 billion by 2033, at 15.7% CAGR. Unified customer data is becoming the foundation for AI-powered personalization.
Why it matters for 2026: AI personalization without unified data is expensive guessing. CDPs are becoming the infrastructure layer that makes AI customer experiences actually work.
What to do: Audit your customer data architecture. Fragmented data means fragmented AI experiences.
Learn AI in 5 minutes a day
What’s the secret to staying ahead of the curve in the world of AI? Information. Luckily, you can join 1,000,000+ early adopters reading The Rundown AI — the free newsletter that makes you smarter on AI with just a 5-minute read per day.
By The Numbers
- $250 billion projected AI hardware market by 2027
- €35 million or 7% of global turnover—maximum EU AI Act penalties
- 88% of companies using AI in at least one function
- 26-30x forward earnings for AI giants—more grounded than dot-com's 70x
- $12.5 billion projected CDP market by 2033
The Secret to a 7-Figure Coaching Program? Kajabi!
See how Julie Ciardi scaled her coaching business to $3M by connecting her courses, community, coaching, and digital products in one seamless system. Learn how to retain, upsell, and scale.
For Your Team
Strategy Teams:
Build your 2026 AI roadmap around these trends. The EU AI Act timelines, agentic AI maturation, and infrastructure geopolitics should all factor into planning.
Technology Leaders:
Evaluate your AI infrastructure dependencies. Single-vendor concentration is becoming a strategic risk, not just a technical consideration.
Product Teams:
Design for human-AI collaboration, not human replacement. The augmentation narrative wins with employees, regulators, and customers.
Data Teams:
The CDP explosion is a signal: Unified customer data is prerequisite for AI value. Audit your data architecture before your AI ambitions outrun your data foundations.
What We're Watching
As we head into 2026, these are the developments that will shape the landscape:
- Q1 2026: EU AI Act compliance deadlines begin hitting
- Ongoing: Agentic AI moves from labs to production
- Accelerating: AI infrastructure becomes geopolitically strategic
- Rising: Human-AI collaboration over AI replacement
The organizations that prepare now will be positioned when these trends hit full force.
Behind the Scenes
929 articles on AI trends analyzed. Here's what mattered.
This newsletter was curated from six weeks of technology forecasting using our AI-powered platform. What used to take hours of research now takes minutes.
What we're building:
- Massive Insights — We extracted emerging patterns from nearly 1,000 forward-looking articles
- Topic Evolution — Watch trends emerge and mature over time
- Grounded in Sources — Every projection links to its original analysis
- Research Accelerator — Analyst predictions distilled into actionable foresight
Want early access to our AI powered platform?
Got questions about 2026 planning, AI strategy, or what we're building?
Join me for Office Hours — no pitch, just conversations. https://letstalk.7wdata.be
Curated with AI. Grounded in sources. Built for practitioners.