AI in the year ahead: Stepping into uncharted territory

If the last twelve months have shown us anything, it’s that AI will continue to transform business in the upcoming year. While it has been introduced and onboarded in most enterprises, it will now begin to have an impact in every part, taken out of silo and integrated into the chain of command.

This leads us to questions around the AI bubble – as many fear an imminent burst and devastating repercussions. While these concerns are likely to continue to surface many believe that current advancements are enough to secure an investment influx and protect the industry in 2026. Clearly opinion is divided, but organisations need to take all possibilities into account to secure success in the coming 12 months.

Below, top AI experts have come together to share their insight on how AI will develop as innovation continues to gain pace – divulging what 2026 could bring to businesses across the world.

1. Ali Chaudhry, Member of Oxylabs AI/ML Board, researcher, and founder of DataLumio

“2026 will be the year that AI really starts to make an impact at enterprises in every part of the organisation. We will see AI agents transition from being siloed helpers to being able to complete a whole chain of commands, such as ‘send this report to all involved parties and file away’.

“But this isn’t the only place that workers will feel the impact of AI, as a greater need to comply with growing legislation, think EU AI Act, will cause leaders to have to pivot and build this into their existing governance structure. This means we will also see the ROI become more measurable, and speculation around the technology decrease.

”Finally, we will start to see AGI transition to become more user-friendly by having safety measures put in place. There will be dedicated ‘Safety & Alignment’ budgets, third-party audits, and pre-deployment risk assessments for frontier releases as we work out what it means to operationalise such a ground-breaking technology.”

2. Adi Andrei, Member of Oxylabs AI/ML Board, Director at Technosophics, (Former Senior Data scientist at NASA)

“In the next three years, we should expect incremental improvements in AI model performance: slightly better coherence, faster inference, and improved multimodal integration.

Meanwhile, the hype machine will intensify. Venture capital, media narratives, and corporate PR will continue to inflate expectations — creating a speculative bubble that may eventually burst with catastrophic consequences for markets and jobs. But this could create the perfect opportunity to enforce the new system.

“We are witnessing the quiet dismantling of the old global financial order — and its replacement with a new, digitally enforced regime: programmable money, algorithmic censorship, predictive policing, and behavioral nudging — all under the banner of ‘efficiency’ and ‘security’.”

3. Julius Černiauskas, CEO at Oxylabs

“It is likely that in 2025, narratives around the AI bubble will continue to surface – but it probably won’t burst next year. The advancements we are seeing companies make are enough to secure an investment influx and protect the industry. Clearly, many are seeing gains with this technology, enough to fend off speculation.

“While AI may not have produced the expected ROI just yet, the money will likely continue to come in, even with the incremental improvements in AI. In the next few years, we will see fears be replaced by impact-heavy case studies which are able to speak to the power of AI when applied thoughtfully.”

4. Rytis Ulys, Head of Data & AI at Oxylabs

“I’m really looking forward to seeing how AI-native browsers affect what services people choose to use in 2026. The launch of AI-native browsers from OpenAI’s Atlas to Perplexity’s Comet marks the first serious challenge to Chrome’s 65% market share in over a decade. These aren’t just browsers with AI features bolted on—they’re fundamentally reimagined interfaces where the browser acts as an autonomous agent that completes tasks, manages workflows, and serves as a personal research assistant.

“To win the browser wars on privacy, AI models will increasingly run on-device. These ‘Edge AI’ models will read, summarise, and ‘collect’ web content locally into personal knowledge graphs. This trend will decentralise data collection, making it privacy-centric but also creating a new, untraceable form of data extraction.”

5. Denas Grybauskas, Chief Governance and Strategy Officer at Oxylabs

“Next year, if we continue to see companies in Europe backed into a corner and unable to collect enough data due to restrictions on public data, they might push forward with biased AI models built on small data sets.

“Some overly burdensome legislation might even drive Big Tech companies, such as those in the USA and China, to lobby for exemptions. Already across Europe, discussions favoring deregulation are starting to take shape. The conversation will intensify next year, and the first concrete proposals are likely to emerge.”

Based on these insights, we can expect AI to improve, develop and continue to impact our lives – one way or another. While speculation on the AI bubble is uncertain, the need to comply with growing legislation will likely require many businesses to pivot, or as suggested by Denas, encourage some governments to push back.

We are stepping into uncharted territory, as we find our footing with AI and its effect on everyday life. Next year will clarify the role AI plays in businesses at every level, as well as solidify its longevity as technology that’s here to stay – bubble or not.