Companies have grappled with what GenAI and, subsequently, Agentic AI will imply for enterprise workflows and processes. However with a better understanding of AI use instances for driving progress, alongside the implementation challenges concerned, the main focus has now turned to worth and deliverable outcomes.
Based on GlobalData Thematic Intelligence’s Tech Predictions 2026, the Agentic AI ecosystem will proceed to develop quickly “regardless of uncertainty about returns”. The analysis and evaluation firm expects the worldwide AI market to achieve $642bn in 2029, up from $131bn in 2024, supported by a rising ecosystem of integrators, startups, and tech giants.
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Verdict requested a cross part of senior expertise professionals about their enterprise AI predictions for the approaching yr:
Isabel Al-Dhahir, principal analyst at GlobalData
“In 2026, dozens of corporations will enter the market to supply industry-specific agentic AI options. Regardless of this momentum, enterprise adoption within the coming yr will proceed to be held again by uncertainty about whether or not these instruments can add demonstrable enterprise worth. Agentic AI is able to delivering way more worth than current GenAI instruments as a result of its better autonomy and methodical strategy to reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making. The subsequent step is crafting these brokers for high-value use instances that benefit substantial long-term funding.”
Chintan Patel, EMEA CTO at Cisco
“2025 was the yr UK enterprises realized what it actually takes to implement agentic AI. The largest lesson was that brokers can solely function successfully when constructed on unified information, sturdy governance and an built-in ecosystem. Many organisations found that DIY approaches, from coaching in-house fashions to sewing brokers onto scattered information sources, created extra threat than worth. The place adoption succeeded, companies paired enterprise-grade platforms with clear guardrails, permitting brokers to mix predictive perception, generative functionality and autonomous motion throughout techniques.
“In 2026, we’ll see a shift from experimentation to scale. Brokers will start performing as true digital co-workers, managing advanced workflows end-to-end reasonably than automating remoted duties. The differentiator gained’t be who has probably the most subtle mannequin, however who has probably the most coherent information technique and governance framework. The UK enterprises that pull forward might be people who transfer previous ‘automation dressed up as AI’ and put money into agentic techniques constructed for belief, interoperability and steady oversight.”
Rajeev Singh CEO at Smartsheet
“The query isn’t: What number of AI brokers do you will have? It’s what have they really improved? We’re transferring from AI as a novelty to AI as a measurable enterprise driver. The businesses that win would be the ones who deal with intelligence, human and synthetic, as a system for actual outcomes: higher pace, high quality, and margins. End result-first AI will finish the pilot purgatory.”
Christian Pedersen, chief innovation officer at IFS
“Whereas many corporations have centered on AI-first methods, the subsequent section is about seamless integration: embedding AI into current techniques and workflows. Integration is transferring past the digital and into the bodily. We’re now seeing the emergence of robotic AI deployed to examine belongings, collect real-time operational information from the sector, and feed that info immediately into agentic AI techniques that embody digital staff and analyse, resolve, and set off motion.
“This closes the loop between the bodily and digital worlds in sectors like manufacturing, vitality, and telecommunications, the place AI will underpin every thing from scheduling and stock optimisation to predictive upkeep.
“This shift highlights AI’s entry into its industrial section: embedded, standardised, and measurable. Aggressive benefit will hinge on how successfully it’s deployed to drive efficiency and resilience, not merely having it within the toolbox.”
Richard Shaw, technical GM UK&I at Databricks
“In 2026, AI brokers are set to develop into a part of the on a regular basis rhythm of how corporations function, quietly supporting the stream of labor and bettering how groups coordinate and make selections. As this shift accelerates, companies will want a lot clearer guardrails that outline who’s answerable for an agent’s selections, how information is used and what attractiveness like when people and AI work alongside each other.
“Crucially, 2026 can even power a elementary rethink of knowledge architectures inside organisations. The longstanding separation of operational and analytical information will develop into one of many greatest blockers to scaling AI. Many organisations will start dismantling the normal OLTP/OLAP divide and transferring towards unified, fashionable information foundations. This shift will scale back duplication, enhance reliability and provides AI brokers the low-latency, high-quality information they should carry out safely and autonomously.
“With these foundations in place, brokers will develop into extra succesful and embedded in each day processes, taking up more and more advanced, multistep duties throughout industries. Success will rely not on mannequin kind, or measurement however on workforces outfitted to collaborate with AI by means of sensible, domain-specific upskilling. The businesses that prioritise unification and governance will function extra like linked networks, with people and clever brokers working in tandem.”
Louise Newbury-Smith, head of UK&I at Zoom
“2026 would be the yr that Agentic AI strikes from a novelty to a foundational expertise, embedding itself throughout all touchpoints of the enterprise. Transitioning from AI assistants, this expertise will take actions, coordinate duties and execute workflows with out human prompting. In additional superior eventualities, groups could have AI chain-of-command techniques the place brokers discuss to one another and scale back guide collaboration.
“In 2026, AI will basically change the aim of conferences with the emergence of AI avatars and brokers. As a substitute of specializing in who attends, organisations will concentrate on what will get achieved. Agentic AI will proceed for use to summarise discussions, assign duties and comply with up routinely, that means staff will acquire again vital time usually spent getting ready for, attending or recapping conferences.”
Sam Liang, CEO, Otter.ai
“Typing will really feel as outdated as fax machines in 2026. AI-generated content material already outnumbers human-written content material on the net, and over the subsequent decade, writing will fade into the background. Nonetheless, folks won’t ever cease speaking, and that’s why, as early as subsequent yr [2026], voice will develop into the brand new dominant UI for work.
“Whereas we ideate, collaborate, debate and resolve out loud, voice AI will hear, interpret, and execute in real-time. As a substitute of reaching for the keyboard, we’ll merely say what we want, and it’ll get executed, with most written content material created by AI from voice conversations. In an more and more AI world, in 2026, probably the most highly effective instrument gained’t be one other algorithm; it’ll be the human voice that’s uniquely ours.”
Fernando Lucini, international ML engineering lead at Accenture
“AI continues to evolve at extraordinary pace, with the true worth for companies being constructed over the long run. We’re nonetheless within the early innings of the largest expertise transformation we’ve seen in a long time – with agentic AI being one of the crucial thrilling frontiers, as a result of it brings a ‘task-orientated’ character to AI that may autonomously carry out duties in a enterprise.
“Subsequent yr [2026], organisations will need to transfer from pilot initiatives to scaled transformation – which implies addressing disparate information, trusting the expertise’s outputs, and superb tuning an organization’s digital foundations so folks can profit from intelligence. The true benefit will lie with organisations that pair clever techniques with their very own proprietary information. Differentiation will come from high quality, governance, and integration – and the power to show distinctive information into sustained aggressive worth.”
Etay Maor, chief safety strategist at Cato Networks
“For 2026, AI might be strategic to each day workflows, networks, and decision-making techniques. Nonetheless, as adoption picks up pace, so will the dangers. As AI grows extra autonomous, safety groups should substitute fragmented instruments with unified controls that concurrently govern AI fashions, shield delicate information, authenticate person identities, and monitor community behaviour.
“The emergence of ‘ask-and-act’ browsers (like OpenAI Atlas) will rework the net from a passive library into an energetic working system, however this company invitations new types of exploitation. As we have now seen with the current URL-masking jailbreak, risk actors can now weaponise context, tricking assistants into bypassing safety checks to execute malicious instructions.
“To soundly combine these instruments, safety leaders should urgently pivot to a defence-in-depth technique. We should cease treating AI brokers as generic instruments and begin managing them like staff: assigning distinctive identities with strict permission boundaries, classifying information on the supply, and making certain that high-risk actions at all times set off a human approval workflow earlier than an agent can act.
Nitish Mutha, co-founder and CTO of Genie AI
“For the final two years, we have now handled AI as a ‘Co-pilot’: a instrument that politely drafted clauses and summarised redlines underneath strict human supervision. By 2026, that passive period will successfully be over. We’re coming into the age of the energetic Autonomous Authorized Agent.
“These brokers will now not simply use instruments; they would be the workflow. We’ll see the primary technology of AI that handles end-to-end authorized issues unassisted: interviewing shoppers to extract details, researching business-specific context, and executing full drafts with no human keystroke.
“Most critically, the negotiation friction will vanish. We’ll see the emergence of ‘Agent-to-Agent’ negotiation – extremely personalised to their particular enterprise’s threat playbooks – negotiate normal agreements in minutes reasonably than days, flagging solely true ‘deal-breakers’ for human overview. This shift will basically alter the regulation agency mannequin, as company authorized groups use these brokers to bypass exterior counsel fully for routine work, conserving the institutional data and the financial savings in-house.”
Sven Peters, DevOps and AI knowledgeable at Atlassian
“Ahead-thinking organisations will realise that rolling out AI instruments and monitoring utilization is pointless until these instruments drive actual, measurable influence. Integrating AI into on a regular basis workflows is crucial for turning potential into efficiency. The brand new gold normal might be tangible outcomes – sooner innovation, higher selections, and breakthrough outcomes.
“Open, collaborative organisations the place folks share information, targets, and influence metrics will keep away from silos. As AI takes over routine duties, probably the most beneficial expertise will shift from doing to directing: framing the best issues, setting sensible constraints, curating context, and training techniques to ship what issues. Sturdy tradition turns into the multiplier.
“The neatest leaders will redesign groups round a strong pairing: AI-intuitive rising expertise who iterate rapidly, and seasoned operators who know the best way to set route, handle threat, and train each people and brokers. Collectively, they’ll measure influence, not inputs.”
Mandy Andress, CISO at Elastic
“Some known as 2025 the yr of the brokers however 2026 is after we’ll see whether or not these investments truly ship. As organisations transfer brokers from pilots into manufacturing, adoption will speed up. In tandem, so will the safety penalties.
Completed nicely, agentic techniques can strengthen defence. They will scale back noise, pace up triage, and assist groups spot points earlier by understanding how customers, techniques, and code usually behave. Behavioural analytics is what makes this attainable. Brokers that recognise refined deviations (not simply apparent indicators), give safety groups an actual benefit.
“However broader deployment additionally expands the danger floor. In the event you introduce brokers that don’t perceive baseline behaviours or fail to place the best guardrails in place, you possibly can automate poor selections, miss early indicators of compromise, or create inconsistent enforcement. Adversaries will search for precisely these weaknesses.
“The organisations that profit most would be the ones that deal with brokers like every other essential management: testing how they behave, validating what they floor, and making certain they work alongside, not round, current safeguards. People who rush deployments with out that self-discipline will heighten instability and enhance the chance of avoidable incidents.”
David James, chief studying officer at 360Learning
“The largest AI pattern of 2026 would be the rise of the Chief studying officer (CLO). Firms are starting to see that the true differentiator is just not the expertise itself however whether or not their folks can use it to drive efficiency. This can be a large accountability for the CLO. AI is disrupting expertise at file pace. By 2025, nearly half of staff’ core expertise will shift, and we’re already seeing expertise develop into outdated in as little as two and a half years. That makes steady, embedded studying a enterprise crucial.
“The CLO is the one govt who bridges technique, functionality and efficiency on the pace AI calls for, connecting altering work with altering expectations and constructing the techniques to assist folks by means of it. That is the place AI expertise mapping is a bonus. This works dynamically by alerting people and their line managers of modifications to proficiency. Then improvement could be laser-focused on bridging rising proficiency gaps. With a CLO within the C-suite, this turns into a efficiency engine. With out one, AI funding is at better threat.”
Jody Gajic, director of Pearson Labs
“In the beginning of the yr, I mentioned that this wasn’t the yr of brokers, and certified it as being the last decade of brokers. 2025 was a whirlwind of bulletins and unbelievable improvement, however adoption for actual worth will take just a few extra years but. 2026 will proceed on the similar blistering tempo and would be the yr Agentic AI shifts from a temperamental instrument to a productive companion. In sure use instances, notably coding, clever brokers are transferring from autocompleting repetitive work, to performing autonomously for longer intervals, however nonetheless very a lot with human within the loop.
“We are able to anticipate this to develop for better collaboration with staff in several areas of the enterprise, fixing issues, streamlining workflows, and connecting information throughout enterprise capabilities permitting staff to concentrate on greater worth duties and upskill onto the subsequent degree. Nonetheless, the true differentiator gained’t merely be early adoption. It is going to be organisations that be taught to handle brokers as a part of the workforce, embedding them responsibly with the best requirements, oversight and a dedication to upskilling folks to direct, supervise and enhance these techniques over time.”
Simon Pettit, AVP UK&I at UiPath
“Agentic AI dominated 2025, advancing from idea to deployment. In 2026, organisations might be underneath rising strain to show their agentic initiatives can ship measurable outcomes and return on funding
“Whereas 73% imagine their agentic initiatives will ship subsequent yr, solely these companies focusing on high-pain, high-gain areas, and redesigning workflows to totally embed AI brokers, will realise that promise. Success will imply redefining ROI metrics and specializing in differentiation, not groundwork, through the use of prebuilt, domain-specific options and reusable workflows to speed up worth.
“We’ll additionally see broader adoption of multi-agent techniques to allow smarter process coordination and unlock significant operational scale; 75% of organisations plan to deploy multi-agent frameworks inside the subsequent 18 months.
“2026 would be the yr agentic AI proves its price, and solely these prepared to strategy deployment strategically, and with clear goals in thoughts, will keep forward.”
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