Forrester S Predictions 2026

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Nov 17, 2025, 1:49 AM

After a turbulent 2025 marked by overly enthusiastic AI ambitions, deepening CX fatigue, and ongoing economic volatility, 2026 will bring a year of reckoning. AI missteps will demand a pragmatic reset as wary buyers seek proof over promises. Progress hinges on effective use cases for generative AI and agentic systems as well as renewed offline experiences. In 2026, successful firms will forgo the hype and focus on tangible outcomes, trust, and customer value. Forrester clients: Take advantage of your exclusive access to our full suite of Predictions 2026 resources. The volatility that technology and security leaders grappled with in 2025 will only intensify in 2026.

As budgets get tighter, the margin for error shrinks. Technology and security leaders must step past tech experimentation and deliver measurable, secure business outcomes. The race to trusted business value is on. What’s driving AI investment shifts? What direction will quantum security and neoclouds take? Forrester’s 2026 Predictions guide explores the questions that tech and security leaders must answer.

In 2026, technology and security leaders will be under pressure to deliver real, defensible value. Join us for a webinar to learn how trust, value, and evidence-based decisions will define your success. Brian Hopkins, VP, Emerging Tech Portfolio Every bubble inevitably bursts, and in 2026, AI will inevitably lose its sheen, trading its tiara for a hard hat. Enterprise ROI concerns will exceed the tensile strength of vendor hyperbole. In the face of this market correction, enterprises will prioritize function over flair. CFOs will get pulled into more AI deals.

Companies will distribute their bets across agentic ecosystems and shift talent around as AI agents take over grunt work. Savvy enterprises will invest in AI governance and AI fluency training to mitigate risk and slowly chart their AI voyage. In 2026, as the art of the possible succumbs to the science of the practical, we predict: Forrester clients can read our full Predictions 2026: Artificial Intelligence report to get more detail about each... Set up a Forrester guidance session to discuss these predictions with me and other key contributors of this report to plan out your 2026 AI strategy that will set your organization up for success. If you aren’t yet a client, download our complimentary Predictions guides and access additional complimentary resources, including webinars, on the Predictions 2026 hub. Stay tuned for updates from the Forrester blogs.

2026 will be a year of correction — not collapse — for artificial intelligence. After a decade of soaring expectations, Forrester predicts a decisive shift toward value discipline, governance maturity, and renewed trust in human expertise. Budgets will tighten, talent shortages will intensify, and regulatory pressure will climb. Yet amid this friction lies the real story: AI is finally being forced to prove its worth. In this article, we examine Forrester’s key predictions for 2026 and pair them with expert analysis from our leadership team. Their commentary goes beyond the headlines, offering concrete recommendations for CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, and business executives navigating one of the most pivotal transformations in enterprise technology.

25% of AI spend by enterprises will be delayed into 2027 Despite bold investment, AI returns remain elusive — only a fraction of firms can link AI to profit growth. As CFOs tighten oversight, projects with unclear ROI will stall, shifting one-quarter of planned budgets into 2027. This slowdown will expose the gap between marketing hype and business impact, forcing organizations to prioritize measurable value and renegotiate inflated vendor costs. CFOs are stepping in because the value story no longer matches the invoices. AI programs that can’t link outcomes to the profit and loss statement will stall — and executives who don’t instrument value creation will lose budget before they lose faith. This shift isn’t anti-AI; it’s anti-wishful thinking.

Every bubble inevitably bursts, and in 2026, AI will inevitably lose its sheen, trading its tiara for a hard hat. Enterprise ROI concerns will exceed the tensile strength of vendor hyperbole. In the face of this market correction, enterprises will prioritize function over flair. CFOs will get pulled into more AI deals. Companies will distribute their bets across agentic ecosystems and shift talent around as AI agents take over grunt work. 2026 will be a year of correction — not collapse — for artificial intelligence.

After a decade of soaring expectations, Forrester predicts a decisive shift toward value discipline, governance maturity, and renewed trust in human expertise. Budgets will tighten, talent shortages will intensify, and regulatory pressure will climb. Yet amid this friction lies the real story: AI is finally being forced to prove its worth. In this article, we examine Forrester’s key predictions for 2026 and pair them with expert analysis from our leadership team. Their commentary goes beyond the headlines, offering concrete recommendations for CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, and business executives navigating one of the most pivotal transformations in enterprise technology. 25% of AI spend by enterprises will be delayed into 2027

Despite bold investment, AI returns remain elusive — only a fraction of firms can link AI to profit growth. As CFOs tighten oversight, projects with unclear ROI will stall, shifting one-quarter of planned budgets into 2027. This slowdown will expose the gap between marketing hype and business impact, forcing organizations to prioritize measurable value and renegotiate inflated vendor costs. CFOs are stepping in because the value story no longer matches the invoices. AI programs that can’t link outcomes to the profit and loss statement will stall — and executives who don’t instrument value creation will lose budget before they lose faith. This shift isn’t anti-AI; it’s anti-wishful thinking.

Economic and geopolitical volatility kept business and tech leaders on edge in 2025, and 2026 won’t offer much relief. Yet the atmosphere will be a little more subdued next year as AI exuberance cools and companies reckon with early missteps and inflated promises. There will be a yearning for clarity — and a race to differentiate on trust and genuine value. Forrester’s 2026 predictions provide research-based insight and advice for building a clear path forward. Our reports, which span 29 roles, regions, and industries, include specific calls to help leaders anticipate what’s ahead and succeed despite uncertainty. (Clients can access the full reports here; if you’re not a client, explore function-specific guides, blog posts, and upcoming webinars on our public Predictions 2026 hub.)

Navigating the coming year will take some mindset shifts: from lofty ambition to pragmatism, from experimentation to accountability, from surface-level engagement to meaningful connection. Savvy leaders across marketing, CX, and tech will recalibrate their strategies as buyers demand proof, consumers seek authenticity, and AI deployments face constant scrutiny. To win the race to trust and value, they will push for operational discipline and smarter governance of AI — and, in parallel, resurface the importance of human insight. Innovation will continue, offering opportunities for those who apply the right lessons from 2025. Agentic systems will begin to take hold, AI-native neoclouds will gain traction and funding, and generative AI will make specialized advice more accessible. To capitalize on these shifts, resist the pull of vendor hype and focus on where technology can truly move the needle.

Apply it with purpose, align it to outcomes, and prioritize capabilities that deliver real value for your organization and, more importantly, for your customers. In a year defined by continued volatility, clarity will be your greatest asset. Our predictions can help you gain that clarity. According to a newly released report from Forrester Research, CISOs will likely be forced to step out of a few of their comfort zones in 2026. This analysis, the 2026 Predictions Report for Cybersecurity, reflects the convergence of three forces rapidly reshaping the CISO's role: geopolitical instability, the proliferation of agentic AI, and accelerating regulatory mandates. And, as Forrester predicts, 2026 will bring CISOs and security professionals potential AI breaches, tight infrastructure regulation, a new European Union vulnerability database, quantum security growth, and merger and acquisition shifts.

"2025 was a tumultuous year for cybersecurity professionals. A change in political leadership in the US introduced instability within federal cybersecurity agencies and had a worldwide ripple effect; the focus on AI technology shifted from generative AI (genAI) to agent and agentic... "In 2026, continued political instability coupled with technological advancements being used by cybercriminals will force security, risk, and privacy leaders to not just adapt their defensive technologies to respond but also to prepare their... Agentic AI Will Cause High-Profile Public Breaches: The most immediate threat CISOs face is the maturation of agentic AI workflows without adequate security controls. Forrester predicts that agentic AI deployments will lead to public breaches and result in employee scapegoating by 2026. The critical insight: these breaches stem from cascading failures, not individual mistakes.

Last week in our What We’re Tracking section, we looked at the rise of intentional experience in an era of digital fatigue, drawing on EY data that shows almost half of younger consumers want... We asked whether brands are designing for presence, ritual and the “step out the door” moment, or simply adding more to the noise. Our newsletter subscribers receive these pieces first before they go live on site, and you can now read that edition here. This week, Forrester’s 2026 predictions arrive and largely formalise what has been visible on the ground for some time. The shift is real and it can be counted. Consumers are saturated, channels are congested.

What is taking shape is a different kind of maturity. Artificial intelligence is moving from novelty to basic infrastructure. Most B2C brands will soon depend on it for personalisation, forecasting, next best action and creative production. Consumers, though, are unlikely to reward a brand simply for “using AI.” What they respond to is something quieter. Fewer steps. Cleaner flows.

A sense of steady support that behaves like a calm guide rather than a sharp redirect. The technology will run through almost every layer of the business, but the brands that distinguish themselves will be the ones that make its presence barely felt. Experience quality is becoming the deciding factor. As budgets tighten and customer expectations rise again, the distance between good and average will stretch. The bar for delight is drifting toward emotional payoff, not just functional efficiency. This brings us back to the terrain we explored last week: ritual, pause, presence.

Consumers want a sense of “less” even as channels keep getting louder. In that environment, the experience stops being the packaging. It becomes the product. For Americans who felt 2025 was a ceaseless storm of norm-challenging change, there may be balm in the celebrations of the republic’s 250th birthday on July 4. But more soberly, 2026 will also be marked by Supreme Court decisions that could upend the very foundation of our democracy. Will work insecurity grow as AI matures from loud infancy into a tricky “technolescence”?

Forrester S Predictions 2026

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