Strategic foresight isn’t about predicting a single outcome from past data, but about preparing for multiple plausible futures by understanding the present differently. With that in mind, here are five early-stage trends I’m watching in 2026: not just to navigate the now, but to understand the world of 2036 and its implications for our clients.
1. The Anti-Algorithm Age: Human Messiness Over Artificial Intelligence (AI) Perfection:
Consumers are pushing back against opaque algorithms, demanding human empowerment over automated efficiency. This isn’t a rejection of tech, but of its impersonal nature, creating a hunger for genuine, imperfect connection. Brands are already responding with human-curated features, a trend underscored by the 63% of U.S. consumers who now want to “stand out from the crowd,” up from 36% in 2023.
A version of 2036: The most coveted luxury is not a product or asset, but “a sense of calm” as a refuge from the constant digital exposure and AI-driven stimuli that provide idealized experiences at the cost of authentic connection. A significant consumer segment engages in “digital fasting” and seeks out “analog sanctuaries,” creating a premium market for brands that facilitate genuine, un-augmented human experiences and protect users from algorithmic manipulation
2. Application-Specific Semiconductors and Hardware Sovereignty:
The AI boom’s critical bottleneck is the physical limit of general-purpose chips. In response, 2026 is seeing a pivot to specialized chips (application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and neutral processing units (NPUs)) designed for AI’s immense power and cost constraints. This is coupled with a geopolitical shift toward “hardware sovereignty,” as nations take direct equity stakes in domestic fabricators, signalling the potential end of a fully globalized semiconductor market.
A version of 2036: Quantum computers can break current encryption standards in a matter of seconds. Corporate security now exists in a two-tiered world: organizations that invested early in sovereign, quantum-resistant hardware stacks operate securely, while those reliant on legacy systems face a “Post-Quantum Cybersecurity Crisis,” with decades of sensitive data rendered obsolete and exposed.
3. Programmable ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance): From Promises to Verifiable Impact:
After the voluntary carbon market’s failure of trust (with most vast majority of certified offsets failing to deliver real emissions reductions), we’re now looking toward “Credit Carbon Tokenization.” By converting environmental assets into transparent blockchain tokens, this move from vague promises to verifiable impact is restoring integrity. Supported by real-time satellite imagery, it creates a tamper-proof audit trail that democratizes the market.
A version of 2036: “Programmable ESG” has created a hyper-efficient global market for environmental assets, but it has also enabled a new form of high-risk, high-stakes finance. Rogue states or corporations, facing catastrophic climate impacts, use tokenized assets to unilaterally fund Solar Radiation Modification projects, creating immense geopolitical tension around the risk of a devastating rebound in global temperatures if the geoengineering is halted.
4. The 60-Year Career: Redefining Work and Longevity:
Advances in longevity science to extend healthy lifespans are colliding with a disillusioned talent force that trades loyalty for purpose and autonomy. The result is a redefinition of work, with some retailers actively recruiting employees past typical retirement ages viewing their experience as a resource, not a liability, and younger generations embracing “micro-retirements” mid-career.
A version of 2036: The concept of a single retirement is obsolete, replaced by portfolio careers that span 60+ years and include multiple micro-retirements. This longevity is supported by personalized bio-autonomous treatments, but it also creates a stark augmented vs. un-augmented social divide, where access to cognitive-enhancing neurotechnology becomes the key determinant of late-career productivity and earning potential.
5. The Mycelium Network: From Sustainable Materials to Living Intelligence:
For decades, our model for AI has been the human brain. Now, the mycelium network (the communication system of fungi) might be the next is source of sustainable materials and a new blueprint for computing. While its tangible impact today is in creating biodegradable packaging and leather, a more profound shift is underway in labs. Researchers are now treating mycelium as a living information-processing system, creating “living electronics” and using fungal colonies to perform basic computation, signalling a move to co-opt other forms of natural intelligence.
A version of 2036: The world’s most powerful data centres are no longer power-hungry campuses but compact, energy-efficient “bio-vaults” that run on DNA storage, a medium so dense it could hold the world’s entire digital history in a few pounds. This paradigm shift, where data storage and processing exist in the same biological medium, has slashed the environmental footprint of data and enabled computational breakthroughs in fields like molecular manufacturing and climate modelling that were previously impossible with silicon-based architecture.
Individually, each of these signals offers a compelling glimpse into a potential future. Together, they paint a more profound picture: a world grappling with the tensions between technological acceleration and the search for human meaning, between global systems and sovereign control and between abstract promises and verifiable truth. The strategic imperative for leaders in 2026 is not to have a perfect map to 2036, but to use these signals as a compass
The versions of 2036 presented here examples, not predictions. They are simply provocations to show just one plausible outcome for each trend as it reaches maturity over the next decade, and many others exist. By challenging our own assumptions and stress-testing our strategies against these plausible futures, we can move beyond simply reacting to change and begin to actively shape the horizon ahead with resilience and autonomy. It’s through this process that an organization transforms foresight from a passive exercise into a strategic tool for actively shaping the future we want, rather than simply reacting to the one we get.
So, I challenge you to ask yourself: for each of these signals, what is the best-case scenario for your business and your community? What’s the worst case? And most importantly, what role will you and your team play in making your preferred future a reality?
