The biggest tech trends to expect in 2026

There's part of me that would like nothing more than to sit here and bask in the warm glow of multiple spot-on predictions for 2025. I saw the humanoid robot army coming, folding phones rise, more AI-ready local CPUs, more agents, smart glasses turning a big corner, and AI hardware collapsing; but gloating won't get you anywhere. It's time for me to turn my attention to the fast-approaching new year. What will 2026 bring to the technology table?

I have some ideas, and I considered for a moment making this a one-word article: 'AI.' It's more nuanced than that, of course. Developments across this vast and ever-expanding field, represented by that increasingly ubiquitous initialism, will be myriad.

When I consider 2026, my mind is stuffed full of possibilities and, not being an actual prophet, I have only my reasonably well-informed guesswork to ...