Like electricity, when it works, you don't see it.
In 2026, something extraordinary will happen: talking about AI will become boring
The sign that artificial intelligence has won will not be an announcement.
It will be silence.
In 2026, AI will no longer be news.
Not because it will be less powerful — quite the contrary — but because it will be everywhere: integrated, reliable, invisible.
It will not be AI that becomes boring.
It will be talking about it that becomes boring.
Like GPS.
Like streaming.
Like electricity.
Technologies that truly change the world cease to be mentioned.
They simply work.
The great paradox of 2026
Today, everyone says, ‘We've implemented AI,’ just as in 1998, people said, ‘We're on the internet.’
In 2026, no one will say that anymore.
Not because AI will be dead (spoiler: it will be more alive than ever), but because mentioning it will be as ridiculous as saying ‘we use electricity in our company’.
Here's what will really happen.
1. Models will become commodities (and that's good news)
The war between GPT, Claude and Gemini?
In 2026, it will be folklore.
Not because one will have won, but because they will all be good enough to make the choice irrelevant.
Like the cloud today: no one chooses it for “computing quality”. They all do the same things.
Competition will return to where it has always been:
in execution
in user experience
in solving real problems
No longer “which model do you use?”, but “what problem do you solve?”.
2. In 2024–2025, everyone will be talking about “AI for SMEs”.
In 2026, it will actually happen.
For three very simple reasons:
Costs will plummet
The price war has already begun. In 2026, it will be a bloodbath.
Solutions will become stupid
In a good way: plug-and-play, zero configuration, zero endless onboarding.
Competitive pressure will become real
Those who don't use AI will be out of the market. Period.
3. The AI Act will end up in the newspapers (in the wrong way)
In 2026, the AI Act will begin to produce concrete cases.
Not yet for large penalties, but for the first visible applications of the rules.
Many organisations will discover that what they consider “experimentation” today
will tomorrow be interpreted as ungoverned operational use.
And that the distance between “we are testing it” and “we are responsible for it” is much shorter than it seems.
The good news?
Those who have already set up governance, processes and responsibilities by 2025 will have a huge competitive advantage.
Compliance will cease to be just a cost.
It will become a feature.
4. AI consultants will disappear
(and with them, the dinosaurs of consulting)
In 2025, everyone will be selling AI consulting.
In 2026, the market will demand results, not slides.
‘We'll implement AI for you.’
‘OK. What does it do, exactly?’
‘It increases productivity.’
‘By how much? How quickly? At what cost?’
And no, it's not just the improvised consultants who will disappear.
The McKinsey model is collapsing (and they know it)
For fifty years, the business model has been as follows:
1 senior partner (£800/hour)
3 managers (£400/hour)
10 junior analysts (£200/hour)
The juniors do 80% of the work.
The partner sells and supervises.
Magical leverage ratio: 1:10.
In 2026, this pyramid will collapse.
Data analysis → done in minutes ($2)
Presentations → generated in an hour ($5)
Research → real-time sources ($10)
Work that used to be billed at $200 per hour now costs $20.
And they can't compete on price because they have:
Huge overheads
Outdated facilities
Untouchable partnership models
Who will really win in 2026
Only three categories will survive.
1. AI-native boutiques that sell outcomes
‘We reduce analysis time by 40%’
ROI in 6 months
Fixed price, not hours
Three senior people + AI beat thirty traditional people.
2. The (few) large consultancies that reinvent themselves
Goodbye pyramid
Senior + proprietary AI tools
They sell IP, not manpower
Those who manage to build their own ‘GPT consulting’ will survive.
3. Those who solve specific problems very well
Not:
“generic AI consulting”
But:
supply chain for fashion
credit scoring for regional banks
demand forecasting for retail
AI does not replace expertise. It multiplies it.
The great levelling
In 2026, we will discover that:
the small beat the big
AI-native beats AI add-on
outcomes beat hours
Those who say today, ‘We have 100 years of experience,’ will discover that that experience is codified in slides that AI has already digested.
Mega-contracts worth €5 million will become €500k outcome-based.
Teams of 50 people will become 5 people + AI.
Pyramids of 200 juniors will become one senior + one model.
This is not democratisation.
It is disruption.
5. The real winner? Those who solve trivial problems very well
While everyone is chasing AGI and superintelligence, in 2026 someone will make money by solving “stupid” problems:
extracting data from PDF invoices without errors
responding to customer emails with common sense
creating reports that are readable by humans
The most complex technology at the service of the simplest problems.
This is the real revolution.
What to do in 2025 to be ready for 2026
If you don't want to be the one who, in 2026, is “evaluating AI”:
Identify a specific problem
Test, measure, iterate
Get yourself in order now, not later
Train people who understand business and AI
Ignore the hype (model names don't matter)
Only what you solve matters.
The uncomfortable truth
In 2026, AI will not be the future.
It will be the present.
Trivial. Integrated. Invisible.
And that's the best news possible.
Because we will stop chasing science fiction promises
and start building companies that work better, cost less, and serve customers better.
AI will disappear from the headlines.
And it will appear in the balance sheets.
This is the 2026 I see:
a boring year in terms of narrative,
concrete in terms of results,
productive in reality.
And I can't wait.
The owner of the pizzeria downstairs already uses AI to manage orders.
It's called Deliveroo. Or something like that.
He doesn't call it “AI.”
He calls it “that program that saves me time.”
And that's exactly how it should be.
Fabio Lauria
CEO & Founder, ELECTE
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