Why 2026 is the year businesses need to invest in control

2026 isn't bringing calm – it's bringing acceleration. And this time, speed alone won't be enough.

If 2025 was the year businesses needed to think "differently", 2026 is the year they must take control, according to the latest report from Ideagen.

Last year, success meant investing in what was different – embracing bold ideas and breaking away from traditional approaches. This year, the landscape has changed again. AI adoption is moving at an unprecedented pace, and organizations have shifted from the initial excitement of generative AI to the more complex reality of enterprise scale implementation.

Add in persistent geopolitical uncertainty, mounting regulatory pressure and ongoing economic volatility, and it’s clear that standing still is no longer an option. Innovation remains essential, but progress now depends on something more fundamental: a deliberate, strategic investment in control.

That might sound counterintuitive in a world defined by rapid change, but here's what our research shows: control doesn't mean slow. The right frameworks don't block AI adoption – they're actually the only way to build the confidence needed to move faster, and to do it safely.

In our report, we look at five key areas that will shape the AI landscape in the year ahead – influencing day-to-day operations and carrying significant implications for partnerships, regulation and legislation.

• Mastering control in AI’s next phase: Prepare for infrastructure shifts including multi-agent systems and domain-specific models. 
• The control paradox: Discover how strong governance accelerates AI adoption instead of blocking it. 
• Control in an era of AI-powered threats: Build preemptive cybersecurity defenses that predict and prevent risks. 
• Control in a fragmented world: Navigate diverging regulations across regions, sectors and supply chains. 
• Control through capability: Develop workforce skills to harness AI while preserving essential human judgment. 

Mastering the next phase of AI

2026 will bring both challenges and opportunities for industries worldwide. The AI landscape is changing faster than most organizations realize. What looked experimental last year is now becoming enterprise infrastructure, with coordinated multi-agent systems and domain-specific models beginning to handle complex business processes. This marks a fundamental shift in how work gets done, as AI evolves from a copilot into an autonomous manager of workflows.

At the same time, governance is emerging as a genuine competitive advantage, with rising regulatory scrutiny and increasing expectations for transparency making strong oversight essential for scaling AI effectively.

Global trade is also fragmenting. Different policies and regulatory approaches now mean firms need to navigate varied compliance expectations simultaneously – adding another layer of complexity and demanding new strategies to adapt to regional differences.

Meanwhile, AI-powered threats are accelerating at an alarming rate. Attackers are exploiting autonomous capabilities, increasing the need for stronger validation, auditability and security controls to protect critical operations. Finally, a growing gap is emerging between rapidly advancing technology and the human skills required to harness AI effectively. For organizations, staying in the driver’s seat means ensuring employees understand not only how to use these powerful tools but also when to trust outputs, how to validate results and where human oversight is crucial.

Making sense of the AI explosion

The themes emerging for 2026 are interconnected: AI evolution. Governance pressure. Rising security risks. Global fragmentation. Workforce transformation.
Taken together, they highlight a fundamental shift – organizations can no longer rely on speed alone. They need control to move fast sustainably.

Making sense of the AI explosion isn't about decelerating to understand it. It's about building frameworks that let you move confidently through complexity. Companies that invest in integrated governance, robust security, regulatory intelligence and workforce capability will be positioned to scale AI with certainty and seize the opportunities ahead.

2026 isn't the year to slow down. It's the year to reinforce the foundations that let you accelerate safely. It's time to take control.