Trend Uncertainty will be your greatest asset - if you embrace it
Summary
IBM's first trend for 2026 argues that reacting to change is no longer sufficient and that organisations must anticipate disruption and turn it into gain. The risk side is concrete: 81% of executives report that geopolitical and economic pressures put their 2025 technology spending at risk, and nearly half expect this to worsen in 2026. Yet 74% expect turbulence to create fresh openings for the business in 2026. IBM credits agentic AI with making this possible, since agents can watch many market signals at once, model scenarios in real time and help reallocate resources. The recommended response is to redesign teams, data architecture and portfolios for agility and, once performance is proven, let agents act when set opportunity thresholds are reached.
Classification
Evidence 1
- 5 trends for 2026: Capture fleeting opportunities with confidence IBM Institute for Business Value (IBM IBV) page=9;section=Trend 1: Uncertainty will be your greatest asset - if you embrace it 2025-12 accessed 2026-07-25
Observed signals 9
- Signal74% expect volatility to create new business opportunities
- Signal81% report geopolitical and economic threats to 2025 technology investment
- Signal83% of chief data officers say agent benefits outweigh risks
- Signal90% say they lose their edge without real-time operation
- SignalAI agents acting independently at 25% of organisations, 70% expected by end-2026
- SignalAgentic AI believers twice as likely to see volatility as opportunity
- SignalExecutives split evenly on whether opportunity windows are shortening
- SignalOnly about 40% of agentic AI initiatives judged successful on objective metrics
- SignalOver four in five credit agentic AI with faster decisions and resource reallocation
Part of issues 0
No objects.
Relation types: supports
Public id: fm-3e101f176a20