A year ago, building clever chat interfaces was strategic work. Now, it's just table stakes. Most SaaS products now offer some sort of chat interface—so how can you gain a competitive advantage in 2026?

In this episode of In The Loop, I'm sharing my top ninepredictions for 2026, starting with why differentiation has moved away from the interface layer. 

I'llsI'll walk through where effort is redirecting, why traditional workflows break under real-world complexity, and why testing AI at scale is about to become critical. Let’s dive into the nine AI trends I don't think you can afford to ignore.

✋ Register to my upcoming webinar

AI In 2026: What You Need To Ship This Year

⏭️ Episode Highlights

(00:00) – Why AI expectations still outstrip reality

(01:25) – User interface revolution: Differentiation, unique intelligence, visual conversations (Trends 1–3)

(08:10) – How AI agents are built Agent reasoning vs workflows, conversational building, agent testing at scale (Trends 4–6)

(14:15) – How work will change: Doers become agent managers, forward-deployed domain experts (Trends 7–9)

(17:50) – What this means for your 2026 strategy

🔗 Links & Resources

Episode transcript with more resources on the Mindset AI blog

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Jack Houghton

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