Earlier this month, ChatGPT developer OpenAI declared an” extreme emergency " internally, in a move aimed at refocusing its teams on competing with Google in the artificial intelligence race. This announcement brought to mind the opposite scene three years ago, when Google was the one ringing the alarm bells to catch up with OpenAI's progress, before it submitted in January 2023 the first wave of mass layoffs in its history, describing the decision then as “difficult, but necessary to prepare for the future”.
This shift in roles opens the question of whether OpenAI, in turn, may be heading to reduce its number of employees early next year, in light of its rapid expansion and multiple fronts of competition. From this point of view, a set of forecasts is being formed about the features of 2026 in the world of technology and artificial intelligence, distributed between politics, the economy, the labor market and the limits of privacy.
Reviews of intelligent robots everywhere
It is expected that in 2026, major technology conferences will turn into robot demonstration platforms supported by advanced language models. Companies such as Google have been working for years to train robots to perform household tasks, but the new integration of robots with models similar to ChatGPT and Gemini may reduce the need for lengthy training, and increase the accuracy of execution.
Experts argue that the “next frontier” of the development of linguistic paradigms is their direct interaction with the physical world, through the understanding of manuals, learning from videos, the assimilation of engineering drawings. However, the 2026 offers will remain in the framework of trials and reviews, as the commercialization of these technologies requires rigorous testing to avoid any potential damage.
Bubble shrinkage.. Even temporarily
The turn of 2025 saw a shock in the markets after a Chinese startup showed that building effective AI systems does not always require expensive advanced chips. Although the wave of concern in the stock markets was short-lived, 2026 may see a broader correction, as large companies seek to reassess their investments and scale back less successful projects.
The number of OpenAI employees has quintupled in two years to about 4,500, an expansion that may be justified given its entry into new areas such as chip design, but a possible restructuring could open the door to the first major layoffs in the company's history, a scenario that other companies in the sector may follow.
However, OpenAI emphasizes that it is still a " relatively small team”, and shows enthusiasm for continuing recruitment and building new products through 2026.
A wider role of smart agents at work
With the proliferation of “proxy AI” tools capable of automating tasks such as customer service, concerns are growing that companies are resorting to monitoring programs that record the digital activity of employees to train these systems. This trend is causing double anxiety among workers, not only because of the threat to jobs, but also because of the possibilities of collecting sensitive personal data.
Issues are once again coming to the fore
While some wearable devices that rely on voice recording have failed permanently, smart software that listens to meetings and calls via the computer has achieved a remarkable spread. These tools raise legal and ethical questions about digital etiquette, and the impact of artificial intelligence on third parties other than the direct user.
Experts expect these issues to come to the fore in 2026, perhaps through lawsuits or major data breaches, which will push companies to establish clearer controls on the use of these technologies.
Robotaxi expands without major incidents
Self-driving taxi services in some countries, such as China and the United States, are headed for significant expansion in 2026, with plans to increase the number of trips and cities covered, and possibly expand internationally. And even with the common fears of fatal accidents, the data show that these vehicles based on intelligent systems are rarely the main cause of accidents, compared to human errors or semi-autonomous driving systems.
With limited numbers and relatively low speeds, robotaxi is likely to maintain a record free of major disasters, driven by strong incentives to avoid dangers.
In 2026, the real challenge for AI companies will not only be to develop smarter models, but also to manage the consequences of this development on the economy, the labor market, privacy, and user trust, as this promising field enters a more mature and less impulsive phase.