There is a fascinating cognitive divergence in business. While macroeconomic indicators and geopolitical tensions suggest caution, there is surprising optimism in CEOs’ offices. According to the latest IBM Institute for Business Value report, as many as 84 per cent of executives believe in the success of their own organisations in 2026, despite only one in three being positive about the outlook for the global economy. This disparity suggests a fundamental shift in strategic thinking: uncertainty has ceased to be treated as a threat and has become a catalyst for innovation.
The key to understanding this change is the radical acceleration of decision-making processes. Business leaders are no longer relying on long-term stability, investing in real-time capability. In this context, the growing role of autonomous AI agents is no longer just a technological novelty, but a business necessity, allowing for instant scenario modelling and resource allocation. Interestingly, the narrative of employee resistance to automation is proving to be a myth. Employees increasingly see AI as a tool that frees them from monotony and allows them to work more strategically, provided companies provide them with the right competence support.
However, the technological race has its limits, which are set by trust and sovereignty. Customers are willing to forgive artificial intelligence for imperfection due to its development phase, but they will not accept a lack of transparency. Hiding the involvement of algorithms in customer service is becoming a risky game that could result in a mass exodus of consumers. In parallel, in the face of increasing regulatory barriers, companies need to ensure that their models are ‘localised’. AI sovereignty – understood as full control over data and infrastructure regardless of global turbulence – is becoming the new benchmark for operational resilience.
The 2026 horizon is also the point at which quantum advantage can move beyond the realm of theory. Here, however, IBM makes it clear: the era of standalone innovators is coming to an end. Quantum technologies require scale and resources that single organisations cannot sustain in isolation. The future belongs to those who can build broad ecosystems of partnerships. The lessons for business are clear – the winners in the coming years will be those organisations that, rather than building walls of defence against volatility, learn to use it as a driver for continuous transformation.
