Five Trends in AI and Data Science for 2026
MIT Sloan Management Review••business
Key Points:
- The AI industry is expected to experience a bubble deflation soon, similar to the dot-com crash, which could lead to a gradual economic slowdown but also provide companies time to better integrate existing AI technologies.
- Leading enterprises are building "AI factories"—dedicated infrastructures combining platforms, data, and algorithms—to accelerate AI model development and deployment, moving beyond isolated efforts by individual data scientists.
- In 2026, generative AI (GenAI) is predicted to shift from individual productivity tools to strategic enterprise resources focused on high-value applications like supply chain management and R&D, as companies seek measurable impact.
- Agentic AI remains overhyped and not yet reliable for critical business processes due to errors and security risks, but it is expected to
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