AI's got a lot to prove in 2026

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TL;DR: AI is rapidly colliding with reality on three fronts: Misinformation is scaling fast, consumers are deciding which AI products are not worth the hype, and AI is integrating into everyday products (whether people ask for it in their teddy bears or not). What happens next will show how AI earns its place in daily life—and the companies that will sink or swim. Here's what we're watching.

What we’re predicting:

1. The AI misinformation problem is only going to get messier. If the viral, now-debunked AI food delivery story—which fooled nearly everyone on the internet, including DoorDash’s CEO—is any indication, 2026 has already begun on the wrong foot. This year, AI misinformation won’t just spread faster—it will increasingly feed on itself, citing other AI-generated claims as evidence. We also enter into evidence: the viral, AI-generated videos that flooded the internet after Nicolás Maduro’s removal. The impact of all this? The burden of skepticism will shift even more heavily onto individuals.
2. Consumers will give AI a reality check. After years of hyped demos and “this changes everything” launches, 2026 will really show where AI is useful (or not). Some features could prove indispensable: smarter search that delivers verifiable answers instead of SEO sludge, reliable real-time translation, or agentic personal assistants that actually streamline our lives. Others will be ignored or switched off entirely—like chatbots that fail to solve problems and simply funnel users back to human support. The winners will be the companies whose models provide practical value, identify their lanes, and prove AI can earn its place in real workflows and homes, whether that’s coding, research, creativity, or companionship. Tech Brew’s model to watch: Claude Opus 4.5, already earning high praise from coders. Our company to watch: Google (duh).
3. The AI product slop kicks into high gear. This year, the focus will shift toward physical devices that actively interpret and respond to you, not just passively compute in the background. Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses are an early signal: US demand has been so strong that the company doesn’t have enough to roll out globally yet. Elsewhere, the noise is familiar—health wearables that analyze your sleep, stress, and posture. Kitchen appliances that suggest recipes and reorder supplies (see: this Samsung-Gemini partnership). Robots that don’t just vacuum (RIP Roomba) but also cook, do the dishes, and fold your laundry. “Companion” devices that blur the line between assistant, pet, and emotional support object (see: Lenovo’s new wearable AI companion, Project Maxwell). And looming over it all is OpenAI’s secretive consumer device (a collab with former Apple design head Jony Ive) that Sam Altman promises will be “more peaceful” than the iPhone. Not that that's a high bar…

Why it matters: In 2026, companies will be judged less on technical breakthroughs and more on whether they can turn AI into reliable tools that fit messy human workflows and households and actually pay off in the real world. The agents and systems that can’t make that shift won’t just stagnate—they’ll fail, hard. —WK