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Artificial intelligence (AI) is entering a new phase in 2026 – one that could reshape business operations, global competitiveness and the evolving workforce, according to Goldman Sachs Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti.
In an interview with FOX Business, Argenti laid out his top predictions for the coming year, saying 2025 marks a major turning point in the evolution of AI.
“We used to look at models as a question-and-answer conversation,” Argenti said. “Now a year later, we are looking at models as businesses or agents who can do jobs for you.”
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Marco Argenti, chief information officer at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Here are his top predictions for the coming year:
The context of AI will grow exponentially
Argenti predicts one of the biggest trends in 2026 will be AI models that can handle more context — relevant background information that a system can remember and reason about.
“I think there’s going to be more research and more refinement … in terms of allowing models to be able to think and consume more context,” he said.
Models will soon be able to consult entire document libraries, long-running conversations and “everything you’ve read, everything you’ve written,” according to Argenti.
AI models will become new applications
AI models will soon function like a computer’s operating system and will be able to browse the Internet, access files and perform multi-step tasks, Argenti predicts.
“We’re going to start to see a shift in this traditional computing model, where the models are the new operating system,” he said. “So they’re going to have a lot of power to really be able to give applications access to intelligence and access to tools.”
Users will simply give the AI a goal, similar to entering a location in a navigation app, and the AI will take steps to fulfill it, according to Argenti.
“It’s basically like Waze or Maps where, instead of saying, ‘Turn right,’ ‘turn left,’ you’ll say, ‘I want to go to Boston,'” Argenti said. “And the agent will find out what the best roads are at that time.”
AI models will soon function like a computer’s operating system and will be able to browse the Internet, access files and perform multi-step tasks, Argenti predicts. (Stock)
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Adaptability will be a top skill for the workplace
Argenti predicts that successful employees are the ones most willing to adapt.
Companies will increasingly prioritize employees who are “capable of being curious about rethinking their technology,” according to Argenti.
“If you’re an expert but you want to stick to your old habits, you’re not going to be as successful as someone who’s maybe a little less expert but is actually willing to question their day-to-day habits,” he said. “It’s a new world. It’s like going from no computers to computers … you have to actually learn to do things differently.”
Important industrial relations will emerge
Argenti foresees major strategic partnerships developing across the AI sector.
“AI will have a game of scale, and there will be a network effect of much larger partnerships that will be created,” Argenti said.
These “strategic alliances” will reshape the industry and create “winner-takes-most” dynamics.
The AI race will intensify between the US and China
Argenti predicts that 2026 will intensify the global AI race. (Aly Song/Reuters)
Argenti predicts that 2026 will intensify the global AI race, with a major focus on the competition between the US and China.
“It will be a tale of two nations in the state of affairs between the US and China,” he said. “I think they both have a chance to emerge as really strong leaders on the AI model frontier with broadly similar capabilities.”
While the US still leads in key benchmarks, he said “the gap is narrowing.”
Companies will experience “token sticker shock”
Internal AI thinking can generate far more tokens – or process units of data AI models – than users ever see. As models become more powerful and as companies continue to expand their use of AI, businesses may begin to experience “token sticker shock,” Argenti said.
“In these examples, you can see that they are thinking a lot … and during those minutes, the number of tokens is amazing,” said Argenti. “As these AI pilots run by everyone move into full production, businesses will face the reality of potential sticker shock.”
This will push companies to focus on high value use cases and efficient models, according to Argenti.
“By 2026, most businesses will place token development at the center of their AI strategy,” Argenti said.
Argenti also predicts the growth of “agent as a service,” where companies can hire AI agents to perform work. (Stock)
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“Agent as a service” will start
Argenti also predicts the growth of “agent as a service,” where companies can hire AI agents to perform work.
He predicts that companies may start using AI agents — specializing in coding, finance, customer service, design and more — to augment their workforce.
“You can have all kinds of specializations that will create a kind of ‘agent as a service’ or ‘AAS,’ instead of ‘software as a service,’ where the mental model goes from ‘I’m renting a piece of software’ to more like, ‘I’m renting a job as an agent,'” Argenti said.
The ability to “be more and more” will be a major roadblock for AI
Instead of money, the real limit to AI growth will be power, according to Argenti.
“I think it will be the determining factor for growth,” he said, pointing to the high demand and long timelines for building and developing energy infrastructure.
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“The use and production of tokens will increase the demand for power and energy, and I think that will be worse in 2026,” he said.
