6 AI Trends That Will Define 2026🔮

Welcome to another edition of Horizon AI,

The last two years were dominated by model comparisons and leaderboard debates, but that phase is fading fast. In today’s issue, we break down the AI trends shaping 2026, where the focus shifts from which model is smartest to how AI is applied in real workflows, products, and everyday work.

Let’s jump right in!

Read Time: 4.5’ min

Here's what's new today in the Horizon AI

• Chart of the week: The audience overlap between ChatGPT and Gemini throughout 2025

• ElevenLabs Releases AI-Generated Album

• AI Findings/Resources

• AI tools to check out

• Video of the week

TOGETHER WITH DEEL

AI in HR? It’s happening now.

Deel's free 2026 trends report cuts through all the hype and lays out what HR teams can really expect in 2026. You’ll learn about the shifts happening now, the skill gaps you can't ignore, and resilience strategies that aren't just buzzwords. Plus you’ll get a practical toolkit that helps you implement it all without another costly and time-consuming transformation project.

Get the free report today.

Chart of the week

The audience overlap between ChatGPT and Gemini throughout 2025

• Throughout 2025, more ChatGPT users also visited Gemini, with the overlap steadily increasing over time.

• The biggest jump happens after late August, following the release of Nano Banana.

Source

AI News

ELEVENLABS

ElevenLabs Releases AI-Generated Album

ElevenLabs has launched The Eleven Album, a collection of AI-assisted songs designed to show how musicians can use generative AI without giving up ownership or revenue.

Details:

• The album is positioned as a showcase for Eleven Music and the Iconic Voices Marketplace, both of which ElevenLabs says are cleared for commercial use.

• According to the company, each participating artist created a fully original track, blended their own style with AI tools, and retains full authorship and 100% of streaming revenue.

• The project features 13 artists across music and spoken word, including Liza Minnelli, Art Garfunkel, Willonius (“BBL Drizzy”), Iamsu!, Emily Falvey, and Michael Feinstein.

• The album is available on Spotify and on the ElevenLabs website, where the company frames it as a way to “experience the future of sound.”

The release comes as major labels like Universal, Warner, and Sony begin striking deals with AI music platforms, signaling a shift from confrontation to controlled adoption. ElevenLabs is betting that clear rights, compensation, and artist ownership can make AI music more acceptable at a time when most listeners can’t reliably tell AI-generated tracks from human-made ones.

Source

AI Findings/Resources

🚫 11 things you should never do with ChatGPT

🕵️‍♂️ AI is reshaping police detective work, starting with cold cases

📝 Davos 2026: Leaders on why scaling AI still feels hard - and what to do about it

👉 How to get your customers to trust AI

👀 AI’s next battleground is your body

AI Tools to check out

⚡ Render: Build, deploy, and scale your apps with unparalleled ease

💬 Superwhisper: An extremely accurate, AI powered, voice to text app for macOS.

🎶Mureka: It provides you with the tools to bring your musical visions to life.

📹 Viggle AI: Create viral meme videos with AI motion capture.

✍ Granola: An AI-powered notepad that makes taking & using meeting notes a breeze.

Video of the week

The AI Trends That Will Shape 2026

While 2024 and 2025 were defined by the "Model Wars" (who has the smartest AI?), 2026 marks a shift toward utility. Jeff Su argues that AI models are becoming commodities (like electricity) and the real value is moving to how we actually apply them.

His analysis is built on reports from McKinsey, OpenAI, Stanford, and Epoch AI, along with insights from AI researchers like Andrej Karpathy.

📉 Trend 1: The Death of Technical Scores

The gap between top-tier models (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude) and free, open-source models is shrinking to almost zero. In 2026, it won't matter which AI is "smartest" because they will all be "smart enough."

• The Shift: Competition is moving from raw power to integration.

• Takeaway: Stop obsessing over which model is better; choose the one that better fits your current workflow (e.g., Gemini if you use Google Workspace)

⚙️ Trend 2: Workflows Over "Agents"

Everyone is talking about "AI Agents" that do everything for you, but the data shows businesses are actually winning with AI Workflows.

• The Reality: Fully autonomous agents are still a "decade away," but redesigning workflows is unlocking trillions in value right now.

• Takeaway: Turn your best prompts into repeatable, multi-step systems rather than waiting for a magic "agent" to do your job for you.

🔓 Trend 3: The End of the Technical Divide

In the past, if a marketer wanted a data dashboard, they had to wait for a coder. That barrier is gone. According to OpenAI’s latest data, 75% of users are now performing tasks they previously lacked the technical training for, specifically in coding and data science. Coding-related tasks by non-technical employees grew 36% in just six months.

• The Equalizer: AI disproportionately helps people with lower technical skills close the gap with experts.

• Takeaway: If your value to a company is purely technical, you are in trouble. If you understand the business problem, you become unstoppable, because the technical barrier that once stood between your expertise and execution is gone

📂 Trend 4: Context is the New Prompting

In 2026, how you phrase a prompt matters less because AI is getting better at understanding vague intent. What matters now is Context.

• The Fact Gap: AI knows the whole internet, but it doesn’t know your specific company goals or last week's emails.

• Takeaway: Organization is now a competitive advantage. If your files are messy and scattered, the AI can't help you. Consolidate your data into one ecosystem so the AI actually knows what you're talking about.

📺 Trend 5: The "Ad-Supported" Chatbot

Ads are coming to ChatGPT and other bots in 2026. While annoying, Jeff argues this is the only way to prevent a "wealth gap" where only the rich can afford the best intelligence.

• The Format: Expect display banners rather than the AI "selling" you products mid-sentence, which would destroy user trust.

🤖 Trend 6: From Chatbots to Robots

We are moving from chatbots to "Physical Agents." A Waymo taxi or an Amazon warehouse robot is no longer just a machine; it’s a "software endpoint".

• The "Tesla" Effect: Unlike a normal car that loses value, these machines get smarter over time via updates.

• Takeaway: While white-collar work is being disrupted now, blue-collar disruption is accelerating as AI software moves into physical hardware.

That’s a wrap!

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Gina 👩🏻‍💻