Until recently, most European companies bought innovations like ready-made building blocks. A bit of cloud, a bit of automation, a bit of analytics – most often from foreign suppliers. In 2026, the construction of these blocks will begin real machines for making money and defending your businessbecause cost, regulatory and geopolitical pressures will meet at one point.
AI will no longer be a solution for tests and experiments, but will become a virtual employee in many processes that must be audited just like finance. At the same time, data from devices and systems, previously locked in manufacturers' silos, will begin to circulate more widely, and this will change the market for services and maintenance in industry, buildings and the automotive industry. The importance of cyber resilience will also increase – no longer as a project of the IT department, but the requirement to survive in the ecosystem of suppliers, partners and regulators.
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What will be the top trends for next year?
Agentic AI. Autonomous “employees” performing end-to-end work
It's time to move from a chatting AI assistant to systems that plan, make decisions and perform tasks (e.g. customer service, debt collection, compliance, purchasing, IT Ops). Gartner already indicates “multi-agent systems” as one of the trends of 2026, and it is difficult to disagree with such a forecast.
In 2026, production pilots in regulated industries begin (e.g. banks) with a view to launches at the beginning of the year, because the return on investment is clear (time, costs, scale).
The greatest impact in Europe should be visible in the following sectors: finance, telecommunications, retail, shared services, and administration. That is, wherever there are mass processes and multilingualism.
Check also: The AI agent will do everything for us. The new version of the Internet will not be created for people
Trust layer for AI
In 2026, companies will buy not only models, but the entire trust stack. These are appropriate security platforms that use artificial intelligence.
Europe is unique here because the regulatory pressure on “AI you can trust” is growing rapidly: the AI Act is working in stages (some obligations have already been introduced, and subsequent milestones are planned), and in 2025 there are also signals of possible adjustments to the schedule.
Expected market effect? Boom in tools for auditing AI models, monitoring, testing, decision trace and data protection — especially with suppliers to the public sector and large corporations.
European computational sovereignty. AI factories and robotization
In 2026, the construction of the European computing infrastructure and ecosystems around it should accelerate. AI Factories (EuroHPC) are intended to provide resources and support for building and deploying large-scale models in the EU.
At the same time, the importance of geopatriation is growing (planning data, cloud and suppliers under geopolitical risk) and investments in semiconductors in the EU (Chips Act, further approvals for public aid for factories in Europe). A much larger number of EU-first projects await us, including those related to industrial robotization.
Read also: These AI data may shock investors. Are we really at risk of a bubble?
Data Act will unlock data from devices
The Data Act came into force on September 12, 2025, but 2026 is the moment when it will begin to remodel products and business models in practice. There will be access to data from devices/IoT and new rules for sharing data and easier switching between cloud services.
It should be visible in Europe increased competition in after-sales services (e.g. automotive, industry, smart building)the flourishing of the data-driven aftermarket (the market for after-sales services and products) and pressure on manufacturers to design products with API and an easy option to transfer data.
Cyber resilience as a necessity (NIS2/DORA)
In 2026, Europe will be in the hard enforcement phase of digital resilience. NIS2 is already in national implementation mode and covers a wide catalog of sectors. DORA has been in force since January 17, 2025 and raises the bar in finance (ICT risk management, suppliers, tests).
The second component (often underestimated) is post-quantum cryptography. The EU has published a recommendation and roadmap for the transition to PQC, and NIST has already finalized the first PQC standards – it's about protecting yourself against attacks that could use the capabilities of quantum computers.
Expenditures on security automation, resilience testing, IT vendor management and cryptography modernization are expected to increase rapidly – especially in critical infrastructure, finance and administration.
Important market changes
AI will become smarter, but that will not be the most important thing. First of all, it will become more susceptible to “accountability”, yes like a person in the process – with logs, audit and responsibility.
The second change is less spectacular, but more market-creating. Data will begin to migrate between providers more easily than beforeso the ability to cooperate and quickly adapt (and react) to changes will become an advantage. Europe may paradoxically benefit from its regulatory difficulties because it will create demand for trust technologies, which can then be easily exported to other jurisdictions.
At the same time, the sovereignty of calculations will turn out to be not a political idea, but an Excel spreadsheet. How much does an interruption in access to power, supplier or energy cost? The answer to this question will be very important for an increasing number of companies.
Cybersecurity will no longer be only protection against loss and will become a sales argument in B2Bbecause partners will start cutting off the weakest links in the business. And the biggest surprise may be that the winners will not be those who have the best AI, but those who can implement it in the real European environment. And it is multilingual, highly regulated and you have to take into account high cost pressure. Leaders with broad competencies will be needed more than ever.
Author: Grzegorz Kubera, journalist of Business Insider Polska
