1. Show me the money.
Unit economics and ROI will take center stage. Enterprises will demand provable ROI, and vendors will thrive or fail based on real unit economics.
2. Exits come back in force.
Exit markets will accelerate with a few IPOs and several M&A deals, including talent and IP-driven deals.
3. Agents go to work.
AI agents graduate from experiments to production. Vertical agents will lead in adoption, where workflows are well-defined and ROI is clearest.
4. Software becomes conversational by default.
Cursor-like, conversational interfaces will become the default, where users will expect software to be conversational, cognitive, and collaborative.
5. Energy becomes the bottleneck.
Energy consumption will become a choke point for AI deployments, requiring new solutions for local and portable energy generation (e.g., small modular reactors) and cooling solutions.
6. Agentic commerce has its breakout year.
AI agents will not just recommend, they will also transact. Big platform moves will catalyze this shift and reshape how buying decisions happen.
7. Ads follow intent into AI interfaces.
Advertising will move into AI interfaces – not as banners, but as intent-aware, contextual recommendations.
8. Physical AI leaves the lab.
Robotics and physical AI hit the factory floor. The companies that figure out the “last mile” of physical AI deployment will create a massive infrastructure category.
9. Security becomes the #1 gate to AI adoption.
AI adoption slows or accelerates based on trust. Security, governance, and control become primary criteria in buying AI solutions for enterprises.
10. The rise of tiny team unicorns.
The first billion-dollar company with fewer than ten people emerges. A single-person unicorn is no longer unthinkable.
If you’re building in the agents space, we’re releasing a founder playbook on how to build, sell, and scale AI agents in the enterprise. Stay tuned, we’ll link in the comments when it’s live in a few weeks.
