2026 will be the year that organisations across the technology industry will need to take stock, according to Cisco EMEA CTO Chintan Patel.
From infrastructure overhaul to talent nurturing, quantum internet and trust issues, Patel looks at what happened this year to understand what 2026 might look like in the world of technology.
Trend 1: An infrastructure inflection point
Patel argued that there is a conflict behind the AI revolution that he describes as the collision of legacy “technical debt” with emerging “AI infrastructure debt.” As technology companies race to deploy AI, he said many businesses are opting for quick fixes and scattered data on top of aging infrastructure.
“The result is a growing liability: smart systems running on foundations that were never built for today’s speed, scale or security demands,” he explained. “The result? Organisations risk stunting innovation and growth.”
Despite this, he argued that this could also become an opportunity, stating that 2026 could be defined by those who modernise their fundamental network infrastructure.
“We may see those the furthest behind, with the most to upgrade, leapfrog their competition,” Patel said. “Prioritising a ‘secure-by-design’ overhaul today, will do more than pay off the debts of yesterday. It will build the resilient, AI-ready backbone to power a safer, faster, transformative future.”
Trend 2: AI moves to the edge
With 22.4 billion IoT devices generating more than 90 zettabytes a year, Patel said 2026 will see organisations finally tap into the vast well of telemetry, machine, IoT and IIoT data.
“AI can analyse and combine these streams in ways humans can’t, by training domain-specific models that could reshape industries as dramatically as generative AI did,” he said. “To enable these models, 2026 will bring a shift toward AI at the Edge – preserving privacy, critical in industrial environments.”
Already, manufacturing, energy and logistics team use IIoT data to reduce downtime and improve efficiency. Patel argued that this adoption will only accelerate in 2026 and mark the second phase of AI’s evolution.
“This shift is powered by advances in specialized AI chips, TinyML, for ultra-efficient on-device inference, while federated learning trains models across distributed edge devices without centralising sensitive data,” he added. “Embedding security into the infrastructure will be essential to protect these workloads as they scale.”
Trend 3: Digital sovereignty in practice
Digital sovereignty has been heavily spoken about throughout 2025 and Patel argued that this won’t slow innovation next year.
“It’ll redefine where and how it happens – shifting from theory to execution in 2026, as tighter data-localisation laws take hold,” he said. “The push for sovereignty will extend to AI, accelerating investment in domestic capacity, sovereign compute and AI factories building models trained on sensitive regional data.”
He also suggested that demand for sovereign cloud solutions will also rise, alongside greater reliance on regional providers and renewed interest in on-premises or air-gapped data centres.
“A full overhaul of global infrastructure is unlikely, but selective migrations and diversified cloud strategies will become the norm, creating demand for local talent and skills,” he explained.
Trend 4: Identity as the new perimeter
As the cyber threat landscape continues to evolve, Cisco views deepfakes, transparency gaps, bias and accountability issues as having made trust a prerequisite for AI adoption.
Crucially, Patel said critical systems need protections that scale with distributed workloads and a blended human-digital workforce.
“One path forward is embedding security and observability directly into the network, creating a safety layer that continuously monitors AI models and agents,” Patel noted. “With 82% of EMEA organisations planning to deploy AI agents (Cisco AI Readiness Index 2025), identity management will become a defining trend. And with AI agents shifting roles instantly, traditional identity systems won’t cut it, raising the need for purpose-built identity frameworks to authenticate and trust an AI agent.”
He added: “While identity is integral, trust goes even further. As the line between humans and AI agents blurs, organisations must govern the human–agent pair: who’s in charge, what they can access, how is their behaviour monitored and what happens when things go wrong?”
Trend 5: The human systems upgrade
When it comes to AI, Cisco suggested the workforce isn’t ready to realise AI to its full potential. To fuel innovation, Patel argued that organisations must reskill, retool and redesign the pathways that support systems and their teams rely on.
“2026 will demand more than basic AI literacy. Companies will need a full-stack curriculum spanning the whole career ladder – covering networking and cybersecurity fundamentals, to data science, vibe coding and advanced AI capabilities,” he said.
“The leaders of the next decade will evolve beyond the ‘tech vs. non-tech’ binary, creating hybrid experts who orchestrate intelligence rather than simply generate inputs. Democratising technical depth ensures that augmented employees become architects of the AI era.”
Trend 6: Quantum in the real world
Finally, Patel noted that quantum computing is shifting from “can we really do this?” to “what can it unlock?”. He said the race to quantum-safe infrastructure will intensify, with organisations investing in tools like post-quantum cryptography and regional quantum innovation hubs.
“In 2026, Cisco engineers will continue working on a network built on the unique behaviour of quantum particles, to connect quantum computers and share information securely,” Patel said.
In 2025, Cisco introduced an entanglement-source chip that generates millions of entangled photon pairs per second. This subsequently enabled quantum communication over existing fibre without specialised infrastructure.
Patel added: “A distributed, scalable quantum network could unlock a vast new computational space and support entire classes of emerging technologies.
“By the late 2030s, this work may culminate in a quantum internet connecting quantum computers, sensors, and other devices – opening possibilities such as ultra-secure communication and precise monitoring of climate, weather and seismic activity.”
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