Executive Summary
Economic slowdown is real. Although the fear of a recession has declined in recent weeks (from 40% to 30% before the Christmas season, according to a distillation of forecasts), other indicators reflect a slowdown in economic activity. The year started with hopes of returning to predictable, stable growth and is ending with deceleration to no growth ahead: a slower job market, stagnant wages, and consumer spending shifting to higher-income segments, hurting affordability for most consumers. AI-boosted economic activity and GDP growth have proved short-lived, as growth has slowed.
Enterprises need a clear path forward for technology investments. To traverse this path, refer to the Looking Forward section (page 7) to see the themes that will prevail in 2026, and the Frontier Technologies section (page 10) for a concise analysis of the most relevant technologies for 2026.
