2026 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for data, AI, and how we work. From step-change improvements in foundation models to AI-native workflows reshaping careers, commerce, and education, the pace of change shows no signs of slowing. After revisiting and scoring their previous predictions, Richie, Jo, and Martijn turn their focus to what’s coming next in 2026.

Building on last year’s discussion, we explore how AI will transform hiring and career progression, why personal AI tutors could become the default learning experience, how AI agents may begin executing real economic activity, and whether we’re on the brink of another “GPT-3 moment” driven by new hardware and scaling.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

1. Blog: The Junior Hiring Crisis
2. Blog: The agentic commerce opportunity: How AI agents are ushering in a new era for consumers and merchants
3. Alex Banks on the ChatGPT era ending
4. Spec & Evals Driven Agent Development (SEDAD) Template
5. AI-Native Course: Intro to AI for Work
6. Related Episode: Reviewing Our Data Trends & Predictions of 2025 with DataCamp's CEO & COO, Jonathan Cornelissen & Martijn Theuwissen
7. Explore AI-Native Learning on DataCamp

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