The big trends that will change your work in 2026

This year has been extraordinary. I’ve watched dozens of people go from their first experiments to coding with AI in just a few weeks. I’ve seen teams multiply their productivity thanks to AI. But I’ve also seen plenty of people who still don’t know which direction to take. Based on all of these experiences, the big trends that will dominate in 2026 are starting to come into focus.

1. The widening gap

The differences between people and companies in AI adoption are going to deepen dramatically. The same goes for tools. Many companies have only just rolled out ChatGPT, while far more powerful applications have already emerged that are completely changing the way work gets done.

I think we’ll start seeing friction inside teams for the first time:

Advanced users vs. everyone else. Rising quality expectations. Speed. Impatience.

All of this will become part of our working lives, and we’ll need to learn how to handle it.

The same shift will play out in hiring. Companies will increasingly favour people with an AI mindset. And that mindset and intuition can’t be acquired through a single training session – it takes time, experimentation, and practice.

2. Agents for everyone

Everyone talks about agents, but almost no one actually has them yet. Those using top-tier automation or coding tools do. Next year, however, the agent-driven way of working will make its way into the everyday tools we already use.

Agents built for very specific tasks will start to appear. An agent that turns rough ideas into a structured website brief. An agent that prepares materials for presentations. In short: specialised assistants for recurring workflows.

There’s one important catch, though – people will need to learn how to work with them even more than before. And they’ll need to shift their working style – from sculptors (who do the work) to gardeners (who tend the system).

Tuning prompts and tools. Documenting knowledge. And keeping data in order.

That last point is especially important. As one of my colleagues put it: “We all hear that data is the new oil. But it only just clicked for me that I’m the one creating that oil – through how I store and work with my data. Otherwise it stays an untapped resource.”

3. AI as a team member

AI will become a genuine member of the team. This will show up not only in how we talk (“I asked Claude to…”) but inside the applications where AI will work much like a person.

We’re only seeing early signs of this today, but I believe next year it will become fully visible:

AI agents will get user access to Teams and Slack. Agents will comment on tasks and complete assignments inside project management tools. When we want to review what AI has done, we’ll look in the same places where our human colleagues work.

Knowing which model to use for which type of task will also become essential. Just as with people – we’ll choose based on competence, speed, and cost. We’ll send Claude Opus in for the heavy lifting and use a more economical model for processing large volumes of text — Gemini, for instance. Either way, being able to make those calls requires hands-on experience.

4. Everyone will code

Vibe coding will reach everyday users – or at least those who are reasonably comfortable with AI by now.

From small things (joining a few spreadsheets with a script) to fully functional applications built entirely by AI. You don’t need to be a developer – you just need to be able to describe what you want and let AI build it. And it’s already genuinely good.

“On Wednesday I used my first script (to merge data). A few days later I already have around 15 more written by AI for various other operations, hundreds of documents processed automatically, and weeks of time saved – it’s absolutely brilliant.”

This will, however, start to show up in costs. Looking at my own usage, I’m at $568 on Cursor alone – and it’s only mid-December, and I’m not a developer.

It’s not a small amount, but it comes down to the value it creates. Projects that would have taken two months with three people, I now complete in a few hours. It will certainly be a major topic of discussion going forward.

5. From experiments to value

The shift from experimentation to concrete projects with measurable impact. It will no longer be about having access to app X or knowing how to write scripts with AI. It will be about what you actually do with it.

A service that brings in new clients. A tool that saves the whole team dozens of hours. A faster process that leaves customers more satisfied.

None of this will be the AI’s doing. It will be the work of specific people who know how to use it. That’s why one of the biggest trends of all will be the importance of the human in AI – something I now see as far greater than I believed at the start.

People who think differently. Who are curious, creative, and enthusiastic. Who want to keep learning. And who want to change the world around them.

The year 2026 will belong to exactly those people – working alongside AI.

The key question we should all be asking ourselves is: what can I do to make sure I’m one of them?

FD