Christmas Eve Reflections: 3 shifts and 3 predictions for 2026. 🎄❄️
Writing this on Christmas Eve as I look at the horizon for next year. The “AI Hype” is settling, and the real architectural shifts are beginning.
The 3 Shifts:
1. RAG ➡️ Agents 🕵️♂️: Most chat solutions are stuck in 2024 architectures (Retrieval Augmented Generation). The new wave is Agentic: software that plans, thinks, and changes course. If your tech partner isn’t moving toward Agents, you are buying a legacy solution. 99% of AI solutions are RAG + tool calling #NGMI
2. Software ➡️ Compounding: For founders, the barrier to entry for building software is now zero. The only way to win in 2026 is to “Compound or Die.” You must stack value faster than the AI can commoditize it.
3. Generalist ➡️ The “10x” Specialist 🥇: Be T-shaped – and use AI as leverage. My simple framework on using AI to navigate the career in the AI era:
– Jack of many trades
– Master of one
The 3 Predictions:
1. Perplexity gets acquired. It’s inevitable 🤞
2. Shopping 🛍️ gets reinvented. We are overdue for an AI-native consumer shopping app that makes scrolling grids of products look ancient.
3. The (Golden?) Era of the PM. Product Managers are about to become the highest-leverage employees. With AI accelarating the “how,” PMs who can articulate the “what” and “why” to engineering and design will see their output scale manifold. 📈
Merry Christmas to all! Here is to building the future in 2026. 🥂