Special Report: AI Trends for 2026 and Beyond

In Part III of our series, we turn our attention to AI.

It was only three years ago that ChatGPT captured our imagination with its ability to generate text, images, and even video on demand.

Over the past year, I’ve led conversations with more than 500 Vistage members about how they’re using AI. Some have woven these tools into daily routines, while others are just tinkering. That’s not surprising — most of the business world is still figuring out how to put AI to use.

As of today, only about 3% of ChatGPT users pay for the premium version, even though that is what unlocks its most powerful features. In 2024, venture capital investors poured $124 billion into AI overall, but only $1 billion into “agentic AI” — the type of technology that can plan and execute complex, multistep tasks independently. The imbalance shows where attention is focused: quick wins in LLMs versus the deeper potential of power tools such as autonomous agents.

Herein lies the opportunity to leapfrog the competition with real investment in AI.

However, the talent to deploy agentic AI is scarce and expensive. Job postings for agentic AI roles grew 986% between 2023 and 2024, a sign that demand far outstrips supply. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that wait too long risk being left behind. This creates an opportunity for those willing to act now.

Member Adoption of AI

Moore’s Law assumed that computing power would double every 18-24 months. With AI, the pace is even more exponential. The “inference cost” (the cost of running models at scale) is falling nearly 10x per year. If there were ever a moment for first-mover advantage, it is now.

More in this series

Part I: Social and Workforce Trends for 2026 and Beyond

Part II: Technology Trends for 2026 and Beyond 

Flipping the Script

To harness the transformative power of AI, leaders must adopt a new mindset. Some people go to work each day to complete tasks, and others go to work to teach AI to do their tasks for them.

Expected Change in AI Investment

 Source: Salesforce

Take the example of a small retailer. An entry-level solution might be installing a chatbot to answer basic customer questions and reduce call volume. Helpful, but hardly groundbreaking.

Now, imagine a more transformative approach. An agent could process a return, issue a credit, notify the factory of a defect, and automatically generate a report on product quality trends — all without human intervention. This is the promise of agentic AI: systems that independently plan and execute multistep tasks. They act as force multipliers — not just cutting costs, but flipping business models upside down.

Reported Impact of AI Investment 

Source: Salesforce

Why AI is Different

At first glance, AI might look like just another in a long line of technologies — algorithms, automation, and so on. But the difference is fundamental. In the past, automation reflected the developer’s ability to predict what a user might do and code a response. Inevitably, developers failed to anticipate the long tail of exceptions, leaving customers frustrated and employees scrambling to fix what the system couldn’t handle.

LLMs change that dynamic. They can reason through problems they’ve never seen before, filling in gaps with logic instead of hard-coded rules. Unlike traditional software, they can take human-like steps — searching a database, filling out a form, or drafting an email — without the need for complex integrations. Most importantly, they don’t need code to improve. LLMs can be coached with natural language prompts, making them far more accessible to non-technical teams.

For SMBs, that’s the breakthrough. AI is no longer locked behind IT departments or million-dollar budgets. With the right mindset and a willingness to experiment, smaller firms can now deploy tools that once required armies of coders — reshaping how they serve customers, manage operations, and grow.

Top Use Cases for AI Agents

Source: QUTECH 

AI Tools You Can Use Today

With thousands of tools emerging, AI can feel overwhelming. But here’s the good news. Whatever your business challenge, “there’s an AI for that.” LLMs and related AI platforms are rapidly specializing. Tools like NotebookLM and Perplexity (particularly strong for drafting complex documents) are emerging as serious challengers to ChatGPT. Yet ChatGPT remains the market leader, with each new release introducing game-changing capabilities — from Sora, its groundbreaking video generation engine, to Agent Mode, which seamlessly embeds autonomous agents directly into the user interface.

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Above are just a few examples — new tools emerge constantly. When evaluating AI tools, ensure they have good reviews, robust security (especially if you’ll input proprietary data), and integration options with your existing software. Start with free trials or freemium versions to get quick wins, and double down on the tools that prove their ROI.

From RAGs to Riches

It’s estimated that knowledge workers spend 25% of their time looking for information.

For SMBs, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technology will be a game-changer. Imagine a construction CEO asking: “What was the referral source and profitability of our last five industrial projects?” Answering that today would require someone to dig into the financial system, cross-check the CRM, pull reports from Power BI, and reconcile details in the project management software. With a RAG-enabled assistant, all that information could be surfaced in seconds as a clear, consolidated answer complete with citations from the underlying systems.

Instead of relying only on what a large language model was trained on, RAG allows the system to pull in real-time, company-specific data — financial records, project files, CRM entries, or even dashboards — before generating a response. The result: answers that are both intelligent and grounded in your own organization’s data.

We’re seeing early versions of RAG embedded into mainstream tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot and other enterprise AI assistants. However, an AI system is only as good as the data it has access to. That means businesses should begin now by organizing, digitizing, and cleaning up internal knowledge. Garbage in still means garbage out.

Global Competition for AI

AI isn’t just a business trend; it’s a geopolitical and economic race. For perspective, the United States currently leads in AI investment and innovation by a considerable margin. In 2023, the U.S. attracted about $66 billion in private AI investment, compared to around $9.5 billion for the entire EU and UK combined.

Over 73% of advanced AI models (like large language models) are being developed in the U.S., versus about 15% in China. American tech giants (and a vibrant startup scene in San Francisco) have given the U.S. a strong hand, but the gap is narrowing. China has declared its aim to become the global AI leader by 2030 and is investing heavily to get there. Back in 2017, Chinese investors briefly surpassed the U.S. in AI startup funding, and today China produces cutting-edge research and homegrown AI models at a rapid clip. The Chinese government’s strategic plans involve integrating AI across “90% of industries” by 2030.

Meanwhile, European countries are emphasizing regulation and ethical frameworks in an effort known as sovereign AI. The EU’s forthcoming AI Act will impose strict rules on AI systems, aiming to ensure safety and transparency.

The “AI arms race” is driving major cloud providers (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce) to roll out more solutions tailored to smaller businesses. Think AI-powered CRMs, intelligent supply chain tools and more.

AI and Mobility

Few industries are being as visibly transformed by AI as transportation and mobility. Self-driving cars, once a moonshot, are now a practical reality in several cities. Elon Musk is betting the farm on autonomy. A recent trial I had of Tesla’s fully autonomous technology was extremely impressive. Tesla’s release of FSD v14 (Full Self-Driving Supervised) features robotaxi-grade autonomy optimized for the latest hardware.

Alphabet’s Waymo robo-taxis have logged over 100 million fully autonomous miles on public roads (doubling their total in just six months). By mid-2025, Waymo provided over 10 million driverless rides to paying passengers without a human driver, an achievement that underscores how rapidly the technology is maturing. Waymo and Tesla (and others like Zoox and Mobileye) are in a fierce race to deploy Level 4 autonomous vehicles that can drive with no human intervention in certain conditions.

AI and Health

AI is reshaping healthcare from diagnostics to daily operations. In medical imaging, AI now outperforms experts in key areas: one tool was twice as accurate as radiologists in stroke CT scans, while another detected 64% of epilepsy lesions doctors missed. The FDA has approved over 340 AI tools for conditions from strokes to cancer. Adoption is accelerating: two-thirds of physicians used AI in 2024, up from 38% the year before. For SMBs, AI boosts accuracy, reduces admin burdens, and delivers a strong ROI — about $3.20 for every $1 spent, often paying back within 14-18 months.

If you are not savvy in AI, it’s time to jump on the bandwagon. Make sure your leadership team embeds AI and transformation into your strategic plan. Your future competitiveness may depend on it.

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