The 6 AI Trends That Will Actually Matter Next Year
If 2023–2024 were the years of pilots and prototypes, 2025–2026 will be about orchestration, governance and scale. The signal across serious researchers is consistent: adoption is widespread and business impact concentrates where companies redesign workflows, measure outcomes and hard-wire trust and controls into the stack. McKinsey reports that ~80% of companies use generative AI (GenAI), yet most still aren’t seeing material earnings contribution, because scaling practices and operating models lag the hype. This gap is a roadmap that can be leveraged by Frontier Firms and individuals looking for an advantage (or many) in today’s AI-powered world.