Outlook 2026: Christina von Messling

2026 is about the masses. Getting technology in as many companies as possible is more important than eyeing the latest accomplishment of Silicon Valley labs. But adoption will have consequences:

Labor 2.0

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AI and robotics will profoundly affect almost every profession, including significant job losses. Education and training approaches need to be adjusted to meet both business imperatives for innovation and worker needs for economic security: relevant skillsets need to be taught, timing needs to be accelerated and flexible, and degrees need to fit into existing certification logics, ideally accepted across borders to enable fluid distribution of talent. Germany's dual education system or Singapore's SkillsFuture credits offer models but need radical acceleration and international coordination.

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Preventing systemic collapse

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“We are all connected” might sound great, but as AI becomes ubiquitous, any failures, malicious and accidental, become destabilizing not only for singular actors, but for entire regions or even countries. Prevention and liability must be clearly defined, otherwise the attack surface and recovery time exponentially increase, further exacerbating damage. Without clarity, neither businesses nor governments will invest adequately in resilience, and incident response becomes chaotic.

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Protecting Reality

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GenAI puts the tools to create reality in anyone’s hands. What if any piece of video and audio is contestable? Economic activity, the legal system, public discourse, education could be severely impeded. We need to build verification systems that are secure, continuously update, and are trusted across society so we continue to function.