2025 was the year generative AI grew up. What began as a novelty — something to play with and occasionally marvel at — became a tool many now rely on every day. It’s seeped into our workplaces, our web browsing, our For You pages and even our children’s toys, becoming an almost unavoidable presence in our digital lives and the physical world around us.
This shift was largely driven by two things: capital and a newfound sense of institutional legitimacy. The United States government signed several contracts with major AI companies and removed regulatory barriers to accelerate their growth, signaling not just acceptance but an outright endorsement of the industry as a whole. At the same time, the products themselves became sleeker and more sophisticated. Companies refined their offerings and sharpened their business strategies to drive more engagement, all the while raking in billions of dollars to do so.
Top Tech Trends of 2026
- More of us will be riding in robotaxis.
- Chatbots will become our everything apps.
- AI will shop for us.
- Humanoid robots will do our chores.
- The smartphone’s successor may finally arrive.
As we settle into 2026, artificial intelligence is poised to move even closer into the center of how we live and work — the only question now is how far that integration will go. Here are some of the biggest trends to watch in the coming year.
1. More of Us Will Be Riding In Robotaxis
At long last, robotaxis are a viable transportation option for millions of everyday riders. These are fully autonomous vehicles. No one behind the wheel, and sometimes no steering wheel at all. And they’re navigating the busy city streets of places like Phoenix and San Francisco, ferrying passengers alongside human-driven traffic. In 2026, that footprint is set to grow, with cities both in the United States and abroad opening their roadways to AI-powered automobiles.
Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous driving subsidiary, is leading the charge on this front. The company has steadily expanded its commercial service over the years, providing rider-only robotaxis across the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Austin and Phoenix — and soon Dallas, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami, Nashville, London and Tokyo, to name a few. It has also continued to refine its hardware, adding new, purpose-built, all-electric vehicles to its fleet. All told, Waymo’s approach — pairing tightly mapped environments with increasingly capable artificial intelligence — makes it the most visible example of what large-scale driverless transport can look like.
And the competition is hot. Tesla rolled out its own robotaxi ride-hailing service in Austin and San Francisco in 2025, and plans to release a dedicated “Cybercab” built for full self-driving in the next couple years. Amazon subsidiary Zoox is another major player, offering a fully autonomous, bidirectional robotaxi with no pedals, driver’s seat, steering wheel or pedals. You can hail these cabs in Las Vegas and San Francisco, as well as Austin and Miami soon. Uber, has also entered the space through a series of partnerships and initiatives slated to launch this year.
Regulation (or a lack thereof) has been a primary roadblock to the mass-adoption of robotaxis — and for good reason. These rolling robots have hit people and animals, caught fire and completely shut off mid-trip, leaving riders stranded or even in mortal danger. While the technology has matured significantly over the years, it is still being tested by the messy realities of modern traffic, unpredictable human behaviors and limitless edge-case scenarios.
Nonetheless, cities around the world are continuing to allow robotaxis on their public roads on a fairly consistent basis. Most recently, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans to introduce legislation that will enable the deployment of driverless cars across the entire state, excluding New York City.
All of this is to say that, if you’re one of the many people who have never ridden in a self-driving car, that may soon change — and not on a test track, but on the same streets you travel every day.
2. Chatbots Will Become Our Everything Apps
Up until recently, most of our conversations with chatbots have been fairly two-dimensional: broad, but not very deep. We ask them questions and we get answers. We use them in short bursts for help with writing emails, summarizing documents or brainstorming ideas. Chatbots have been useful, but pretty easy to step away from once the task is complete.
But that dynamic is beginning to change, as AI companies integrate new capabilities that fulfill the more unique facets of everyday life, keeping users engaged for longer stretches of time. Rather than serving as tools to be used on occasion, chatbots are rapidly morphing into central hubs — places users can turn to again and again no matter what they need.
There is perhaps no clearer example of this than ChatGPT. Throughout 2025, OpenAI expanded its chatbot well beyond simple text generation, incorporating third-party tools to fulfill a wider range of tasks. This includes connections to Intuit products like TurboTax and QuickBooks to assist with personal finances, as well as Adobe tools like Photoshop that allow users to edit images and modify PDFs without ever having to leave ChatGPT. Early this year, OpenAI even launched ChatGPT Health, which connects with apps like Apple Health to provide personalized recommendations, claiming that more than 40 million people worldwide already turn to ChatGPT for health-related information each day.
The goal here is to boost engagement by making chatbots a one-stop shop for life’s many pain points. And few pain points are as persistent and universal as maintaining romantic relationships, which, yes, these companies are gunning for as well. There are dozens of sites offering AI girlfriends and boyfriends, and mainstream players like ChatGPT and Grok are experimenting with erotica and other, more salacious features. The goal is a truly all-encompasing AI experience, where every need is met.
In 2026, our relationship with chatbots will move beyond one-off interactions to something far more constant. They will shape our daily routines, help manage our personal finances, provide companionship during moments of loneliness or stress and much more. While this shift promises some exciting possibilities, it also raises difficult questions around things like privacy, safety and the long-term impact this all could have on our mental and emotional health. Even so, the spread of AI shows little sign of slowing down, and chatbots are poised to play an increasingly central role in how we carry out our day-to-day lives.
3. AI Will Shop For Us
Buying things online may be more convenient than going to a physical store, but it’s still a pretty cumbersome process. We, the customers, have to go through the effort of searching for products, comparing prices and entering all the necessary payment and delivery information. Now, AI agents — systems designed to carry out multi-step tasks on a user’s behalf — are beginning to shoulder some of the burden, evolving from passive recommendation engines into proactive, autonomous personal shoppers that can research options and complete purchases on our behalf.
Agentic shopping isn’t quite mainstream yet, but it’s picking up steam with each passing month. And when it’s here, it stands to fundamentally transform the nature of e-commerce. Instead of manually typing keywords into the search bar of every retail site, all you’ll have to do is describe what you want — “running shoes with good ankle support for under $100”, for example, or “eco-friendly cleaning products” — and the chatbot will not only find options, but compare them, evaluate prices and even complete the purchase for you.
Industry leaders are racing to build this future. OpenAI launched its Instant Checkout feature in ChatGPT, allowing users to shop from select merchants directly in the chat interface. Perplexity offers something similar called Buy With Pro. Google also rolled out a new tool that can sift search through tens of billions of product listings, track their prices and even call nearby stores to check if a specific item is in stock. And then there’s Amazon’s Rufus assistant and its Buy for Me feature, both of which are designed to streamline product discovery and checkout with minimal user input.
The ripple effects are already showing up across the entire e-commerce space. Early data suggests that these tools are dramatically increasing web traffic and conversions for online retailers, and analysts believe automated shopping could drive as much as $1 trillion in U.S. sales by 2030. In the meantime, as AI increasingly takes control of our digital carts, it’s clear that shopping in 2026 and beyond will look very different from the experience we’ve known in the past.
4. Robots Will Do Our Chores
Robot maids — capable, general-purpose machines that can efficiently tidy a home, wash dishes or fold laundry — have long eluded the robotics industry. Households are often messy and unpredictable, and past attempts have always struggled with things like mobility, spatial awareness and overall adaptability, making them neither practical nor commercially viable. Plenty of pioneering companies have taken a stab at it, but for one reason or another nothing has really stuck.
But 2026 just might be the year that changes, primarily thanks to a recent rise in so-called “world models,” or AI models designed to understand how the physical world works. Trained on multimodal, real-time data, world models have a grasp on concepts like gravity, balance and cause-and-effect, enabling the machines they power to consider various possibilities and adjust their decision-making on the fly better than standard language models.
This is especially useful for robots operating in homes. After all, unloading a dishwasher or navigating a cluttered room requires a lot of multi-step reasoning, coordination and constant adjustment to changing conditions — and world models could help bridge that gap by giving them a much richer understanding of their surroundings.
Several companies are working to bring robo-maids to the masses. Chief among them is Tesla and its humanoid robot, Optimus, which is intended to “do anything you want,” CEO Elon Musk said. “It can be a teacher, babysit your kids; it can walk your dog, mow your lawn, get groceries; just be your friend, serve drinks. Whatever you can think of, it will do.” Startups like 1X and Figure are taking a more specialized approach with their bots NEO and Figure 03, respectively, which are designed to handle household chores specifically. 1x has even released its own world model, joining a growing roster of companies innovating in this space.
For now, robot maids are still quite expensive and fairly limited in what they can do. But with all this increasingly capable hardware and AI, that likely won’t be the case for much longer. Soon, it may not be all that surprising to see humanoid robots in more homes, readily tackling all the tedious chores we’d rather avoid. Whether they’re making the bed or taking out the trash, a mechanized housekeeper that can truly do it all may finally be edging out of the realm of science fiction.
5. The Smartphone’s Successor May Finally Arrive
The smartphone has been the keystone of how we consume content, work and interact with each other for nearly two decades. But a new class of AI-first devices is cropping up that could finally supplant the little glass slabs in our pockets. Rather than relying on the standard touchscreens and app grids, these gadgets are being designed from the ground up to harness the strengths of artificial intelligence — taking in the world around them, anticipating user needs and responding in more natural ways.
Several tech companies are working to build this next wave of personal computers, betting that whatever reigns supreme will be the one that best integrates AI at its core. For instance, OpenAI is collaborating with former Apple designer Jony Ive to create a pocket-sized, screenless device that will run on voice commands rather than taps and swipes. Meta is doubling down on augmented reality glasses that blend the real and digital worlds with eye and gesture tracking. Google is also developing Android XR glasses that can be used to message friends, provide turn-by-turn directions and offer subtitles to real-time conversations in real-time. Meanwhile, Amazon acquired Bee, which makes palm-sized, wearables that records and transcribes conversations, generating context-aware summaries, reminders and action items.
All of this energy reflects a broader industry belief that smartphones — for all their utility — are not optimized for the way AI works. Today’s devices essentially force intelligence into rigid interfaces built primarily for touch, limiting more intuitive interactions like voice, hand gestures and ambient awareness. Of course, dethroning the smartphone won’t be easy. New form factors face several practical hurdles, such as battery life and connectivity challenges, pricing, a tenuous regulatory landscape and deeply entrenched user habits rooted in complex app ecosystems and years of loyalty.
Still, the recent momentum behind AI-native devices suggests we may be closer than ever to a true successor in 2026. Whether it’s smart glasses, an always-on pendant or an even more radical design yet to come, the next generation of devices could make reaching for something like an iPhone or Samsung feel as antiquated as a landline.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can AI really automate everyday tasks?
Not entirely, but it is getting increasingly good at automating parts of it. AI is getting better at handling more routine and time-consuming tasks — like driving, shopping online and completing basic household chores — but humans remain in control of higher-level decisions.
Are robotaxis safe?
Robotaxis have gotten safer and safer over the years, but they’re not flawless. Most operate only in tightly limited geographic areas and conditions. While serious incidents still occur, their growing popularity indicates regulators and companies believe the technology is sophisticated enough for public use.
What does the rise of chatbots mean for privacy and data security?
As chatbots take on more personal tasks, they collect more sensitive data. This raises concerns about how information is stored, shared and used. While AI companies have various safeguards, no system is foolproof. Users must be aware of what they’re consenting to when using these tools, and opt out if they have concerns.
