Utilities face blackouts, edge AI surges, AGI hype dies—tech leaders reveal 2026’s real tech shifts and the human skills that endure.
As 2026 dawns, technology’s relentless churn demands clarity amid the noise. Electric grids strain under AI’s hunger, agentic systems quietly redefine work, and data sovereignty redraws global lines. Yet hype clouds the path: buzzwords like “AGI” promise miracles while delivering little.
We posed three pointed questions to our tech leaders: Matt Humer, an AI change management expert; Peter Pugh-Jones, EMEA Field CDO at Confluent; Arturo Buzzalino, Chief Innovation Officer at Epicor; and Stefan Leichenauer, VP of Engineering at SandboxAQ. Their answers cut through the fog, spotlighting trends that matter, jargon to ignore, and imperatives for the next generation.
The Defining Trends: Power Crunches and Sovereign Data
These visions converge on a singular tension: AI’s explosive growth is finally colliding with physical limits. Utilities are buckling, processing is decentralizing, and governance is becoming more stringent.
The Energy Bottleneck
Matt Humer warns of a looming gridlock. “Regulated electric utilities need to buckle up,” Humer says. He predicts a “two-tiered future” for the power sector. As data center demands surge and political shifts deprioritize renewables, utilities will scramble for natural gas and coal extensions, triggering eminent domain lawsuits.
“Outside competitors like Tesla will peel off the most profitable contracts,” Humer notes, “leaving public utilities as a safety net for those who can’t afford private power.” Jevons’s Paradox compounds this energy bottleneck: Stefan Leichenauer points out that as compute becomes cheaper and more efficient, we simply find ways to use more of it, keeping the pressure on the grid permanent.
The Shift to the Edge
While the cloud has dominated the last decade, Arturo Buzzalino sees the momentum shifting to the “Edge”—the factory floors and warehouses where work actually happens.
“Real value emerges where decisions are made,” Buzzalino says. He points to a future where half of all warehouses deploy AI vision systems by 2027. This isn’t just about speed; it’s about survival in environments where millisecond latency matters more than massive centralized processing.
Sovereign Ecosystems
Peter Pugh-Jones identifies a move toward “AI-native smart infrastructure.” In this landscape, data sovereignty becomes a competitive moat. As regulations evolve, the winners will be those who treat real-time data as a foundational utility rather than a static asset.
Buzzwords to Bury: Hype That Harms
To find the signal, you must first eliminate the noise. Our experts identified the terms that have become more distracting than directional.
- AGI (Artificial General Intelligence): Stefan Leichenauer dismisses the pursuit of AGI as “smoke.” “No one agrees on what it means, and it isn’t actionable,” he argues. “What we need is specific intelligence that solves grand challenges—science, products, and real-world impact.”
- Digital Workforces: Arturo Buzzalino cautions against the narrative of an invisible army of digital colleagues. “The phrase oversells the experience. AI will quietly handle repetitive tasks teams don’t have time for—it’s a tool for efficiency, not a wholesale human replacement.”
- Plug-and-Play AI: Peter Pugh-Jones warns that this suggests instant value with zero effort. “Most failed pilots trace back to foundational data problems, not technology. AI cannot outperform the ecosystem it sits on.”
The Lesson for Tomorrow’s Builders: Humans in the Loop
If the future is automated, what does that mean for the professional? The consensus is clear: technical mastery is secondary to systems thinking.
“Technology changes every year, but the ability to see how data, infrastructure, processes, and people fit together is what creates real impact,” says Pugh-Jones.
Buzzalino encourages young professionals to view AI as a “partner, not a threat or a crutch,” likening the transition to the way the internet became an instinctive part of problem-solving.
Ultimately, the most valuable role in 2026 will be the “Human in the Loop.” As Leichenauer puts it, the most successful individuals will be those who move from “prompt engineering” to “orchestrating agentic workflows.” In a world of automated output, critical thinking and context management remain the only non-commoditized assets.
