What I'm preparing for in 2026
Seven themes that I believe will define the year.
Welcome to issue #63 of next big thing.
Though I drafted this post in the first few days of January, the month went by so quickly that I did not have a chance to refine it and hit “publish.” Oh well… better late than never.
Each year, it sharpens my thinking to try to identity what I believe will be the key trends that will define the year ahead. I graded last year’s predictions here and did alright (3 As, 3 Bs, 1 C). It would be great to hear what you think of this year’s.
Agentic AI: 2026 is the year that agentic AI moves beyond coding to other areas (while code generation of course keeps getting better and more automated, enabling agents to be more powerful). I think we’ll realize how difficult it is for AI to actually complete many tasks end-to-end (i.e. expectations are too high and we will be underwhelmed), but there is so much investment here that we’re bound to see some really great production use cases of agents. We will be wowed by some demos and use cases, and we will also be scared by some of what the agents are able to go off and do.
Enterprise AI ROI, Consumer AI Fun: if I could use one acronym to describe what I think will happen in Enterprise AI in 2026 it’s ROI. The onus is now on AI to deliver real results: revenue growth, cost savings, more profit. There’ll be consolidation after a period of high adoption at companies that were early to experiment and now have a better sense for what is really working. And for later adopters, AI platforms that get adopted will be the ones that are too obvious in terms of ROI to ignore. In Consumer IA, the one word that I think will describe 2026 is Fun. We humans love to be entertained. While AI has started off as a productivity tool, I think we’ll see several AI products capture our attention in 2026 that are entertaining and whimsical, and were just not possible until the advances of the past couple years.
AI-Enabled Entrepreneurship: one of the mega-trends that I am most excited about in this AI era is that the barrier to starting a business has been lowered by AI, and with certain jobs being eliminated, many people will actually be forced to think of entrepreneurial paths for their careers. With apps and digital products being easier than ever to build, there will several inspiring stories of unlikely entrepreneurial success in 2026. And I expect that the venture-backed kind of technology entrepreneurship will flourish as well.
Energy: It is hard to ignore the amount of attention and investment going in to one of the key substrates for AI: energy. With power increasingly seen as the bottleneck to compute, and the projected data center build out enormous, this is an all-hands-on-deck effort in the U.S., as it has been in China for some time. The energy bottleneck will be at the forefront of the AI conversation in 2026.
Consumerization of Healthcare: the secular trend we’ve seen over the past five years that has led to enormous enterprise value creation has been the consumerization of healthcare. Since COVID, people have increasingly taken healthcare into their own hands. Couple that with innovations such as GLP-1s, and an increasing awareness of the importance of exercise, nutrition, and sleep to one’s health, and it is no wonder that companies such as Hims and Ro, Oura and WHOOP, Function and Rythm, and many others have experienced rapid growth. At Footwork, 1/3 of our portfolio touches healthcare in some way, and we believe that 2026 will be another banner year for this theme.
A Banner Year for Exits: speaking of banner year, as I predicted last year, I think 2026 should be an awesome one for both M&A and IPOs. There are so many private companies of public company scale. I hope to see many of them embrace retail investors this year.
The World Cup: the event I’m most excited about in the U.S. this year is the World Cup. In a country with immigrants from every nation, I expect there to be phenomenal crowds and atmospheres at most of the matches, in spite of the high ticket prices. And with talent spread across so many teams, it is anyone’s tournament to win. While I don’t see the beautiful game becoming much more popular in the U.S. as a result of the World Cup, it will provide lasting memories for those fortunate enough to experience it live, or follow along from home.
I started next big thing to share unfiltered thoughts. I’d love your feedback, questions, and comments!
👇🏽 please hit the ♥️ button below if you enjoyed this post.
i wish The World Cup was taking place during a time when we were more welcoming to others here and across the world