Why 2026 is the Execution Year for AI
By Peggy Tierney Galvin, co-founder, chief strategy officer
Don’t worry, it’s not because of AGI in 2027. (Yet!) It’s because 2026 is when the enterprise AI rubber will hit the road: time to deploy and start measuring all those gains you were promised (or if you’re the vendor, you promised). Settle back and wait for all those profits to start rolling in!
But if you’ve already deployed an enterprise AI solution in your stack – or been in dialogue with the customer success team regarding the enterprise AI solution your company sells – you might be a little skeptical. And for good reason.
AI investment is truly the rising tide lifting all boats in the enterprise tech space. But while macro trends of the AI boom are pushing investment – and budgets – in AI tech across the economy, the downstream economic impact of AI for individual companies will be felt unevenly. Some of this will be due to external factors – not being able to buy enough high-powered AI chips, for example – but others are due to more commonplace, even existential, business challenges.
Existential! I almost titled this blog “Win Your AI Strategy in 2026 With This One Weird Trick” but then I’d have to fling myself into the sea. But that existential business challenge? Knowing what success looks like. Like many truisms, it seems too obvious to even mention. But over the years of working with B2B tech clients of all shapes, sizes, industry areas and experience levels, it’s still striking how uneven this factor is.
Sometimes it’s in a huge company, where success has devolved into fighting among silos for attention, influence and budget. Other times it’s at a startup, where the founder has tried juggling the competing needs of investors, customers and partners so long that he or she has lost the path forward, and their confidence along with it.And for mid-sized companies, this may look like fear of the new and resistance to change, even as market warning bells are clanging too loudly to ignore.
That means that the companies that will win at AI in 2026 – both the end-users and the vendors themselves – are those who are laser focused on their business needs and committed to rolling up their shirtsleeves to apply AI surgically to the workflows and business processes where it can have the most impact. Because AI is a tool, not a magic wand or a panacea, and knowing what you want to accomplish from a business perspective, as specifically as possible, is what empowers business leaders to confidently steer their organizations through markets with substantial unpredictability.
Want to know more about how we can help you communicate these wins clearly, boldly and impactfully to your targeted audiences in 2026? Reach out – we’re happy to put together a game plan just for you. No weird tricks included.
