Integrated chatbots and built-in machine intelligence are no longer standout features in consumer tech. If companies want to win in the AI era, they’ve got to hone the user experience.

Now, with 2026 on the horizon, people are wondering what’s next. Fast Company spoke to several analysts and industry experts to get their projections on what we can expect as AI’s influence continues to spread in 2026.

Meanwhile, OpenAI has committed to spending more than $1 trillion on AI infrastructure, an eye-popping number for a closely held company that isn’t profitable. But perhaps even more troubling is the circular nature of many of its arrangements, in which investments and spending go back and forth between OpenAI and a few publicly traded tech giants.

Healthcare is going all-in on artificial intelligence, from reading patient scans to fighting insurance denials.

AI in 2026 faces limits to scaling, new innovation beyond large models, rising enterprise adoption and mounting pressure on Congress to regulate.

Amazon is pushing Alexa+ beyond the smart speaker, bringing its upgraded AI assistant to the web, a redesigned mobile app, and new hardware initiatives. The moves, timed to CES, reflect the company’s effort to close the gap with consumer AI rivals such as ChatGPT and Gemini.

For more than a year, Alaska’s court system has been designing a pioneering generative AI chatbot termed the Alaska Virtual Assistant (AVA) to help residents navigate the tangled web of forms and procedures involved in probate, the judicial process of transferring property away from a deceased person.

Amazon is bringing Alexa+ to the web with a new Alexa.com site, expanding its AI assistant beyond devices and positioning it as a family-focused, agent-style chatbot.

Ugreen has announced a slew of new products at CES 2026, including intelligent AI NAS storage, a proactive home security and an advanced 300W charging station,