The trends we're watching in 2026

(Image credit: Future)

2025 has almost come to a close and the new year is right around the corner.

At this time of year, it’s usual to reflect on the year and consider some of the biggest, most impactful things that have happened. But here at ITPro, we like to take a different approach: what didn’t happen?

The tech industry can’t help but make bold promises and some just don’t pan out. What are some of the biggest targets, trends, and predictions that just haven’t come to fruition in 2025?

In this episode, Jane and Rory are once again joined by Ross Kelly, news and analysis editor at ITPro, to discuss the biggest misses of the year.

Highlights

"We've covered this quite extensively around the long term costs of botched AI adoption programs. That's no different to a botched digital transformation program in, say, 2018. So it's the same issues that you've always had with digital transformation that you're now seeing in AI transformations as well. The big focus there is uptake among staff and on board with these programs."

"Marc Benioff was was outspoken earlier in the year by saying, 'today's CEOs are the last that will have a fully human workforce', which is another way of saying, we're cutting numbers."

"[There] seems to be a real sharp focus from North Korean state-backed groups essentially getting a member of the group to infiltrate an organization and then they essentially have the keys to the castle themselves, they're in. That's obviously going to prompt more robust hiring and background check processes from businesses. But that's another area that state sponsored groups are going to wreak havoc over the next year."

"The rate at which we get new supercomputers is accelerating, we get them more and more frequently. And this isn't my imagination. I thought it might be, but I have checked with experts and this is a real thing that is definitely happening. We, just a month or two ago, had the US Department of Energy announce what can only be described in journalistic-ese as a slew of new supercomputers that will be coming."

Footnotes

TOPICS

Rory Bathgate is Features and Multimedia Editor at ITPro, overseeing all in-depth content and case studies. He can also be found co-hosting the ITPro Podcast with Jane McCallion, swapping a keyboard for a microphone to discuss the latest learnings with thought leaders from across the tech sector.

In his free time, Rory enjoys photography, video editing, and good science fiction. After graduating from the University of Kent with a BA in English and American Literature, Rory undertook an MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies at King’s College London. He joined ITPro in 2022 as a graduate, following four years in student journalism. You can contact Rory at rory.bathgate@futurenet.com or on LinkedIn.

Highlights

Footnotes

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