Gordon Johnson, senior CFD manager, Subzero Engineering
The data centre will no longer be referred to as a passive host for digital infrastructure, but will continue to be an intelligent, adaptive system in its own right, Gordon Johnson explained.
“The accelerating demands of AI and high-density computing are forcing operators to move beyond incremental efficiency gains toward completely integrated environments, where cooling, containment and energy management operate as one coordinated whole,” he explained. “We’ll see the boundaries between air and liquid cooling shift, replaced by hybrid architectures that respond dynamically to workload intensity.”
He added: “AI will also begin managing its own environment. Predictive control systems will model thermal behaviour and adjust airflow or liquid flow before hotspots form. This shift from reactive to proactive cooling will redefine what “efficiency” means, moving from static optimisation to continuous adaptation.
“At the same time, growing energy volatility will make power flexibility essential. Data centres will increasingly behave as responsive energy assets, smoothing demand and supporting grid stability.
“In short, 2026 will mark the emergence of the self-optimising data centre – an ecosystem designed to not only house technology, but to also think alongside it.”
Steven Carlini, chief advocate, data center and AI, Schneider Electric
During a time of geopolitical uncertainty and rapid technological change, Steven Carlini explained how resilience and adaptability will remain critical for data centres in 2026.
“Businesses will not only rely on AI, but see it transform their companies and industries themselves. AI agents operating with little or no supervision will become core to business processes,” he said. “These agents will rely on various models working together and require significant processing power and data centre capacity or an AI factory.”
When it comes to AI Factories, Carlini said the industry is moving beyond AI training models to inferencing, where businesses will see returns on investment from AI.
“AI factory trains a model, fine tunes it and then performs inference, generating valuable intelligence that can be sold or used to gain a competitive advantage,” he added. “While typically requiring less power per server than training, inferencing workloads are increasingly varied and pervasive. To keep up with AI, operators must continue to look to the next and most advanced GPUs.”
He also suggested how retrofitting will become a more viable strategy for smaller companies to create AI-ready facilities.
“Infrastructure providers have developed solutions to upgrade existing facilities, including larger IT racks, higher power PDUs and liquid cooling “bolt on” rear door heat exchangers specifically designed for accelerated compute AI server racks and clusters,” Carlini noted. “These components help ensure that AI is feasible for a broad spectrum of companies, not just the biggest ones in the world.”
Anders Fryxell, chief sales officer, atNorth
Anders Fryxell, however, suggested that demand for AI-ready data centres continue to outstrip supply and data centre vacancy rates are continuing to fall. As AI adoption is increasingly promoted as essential, the data centre industry is under pressure to provide suitable capacity at speed and scale.
“A ‘one size fits all’ approach no longer suffices. Workloads are increasingly segmented based on their individual requirements, from processing speed to privacy laws – and it is all in incredibly high demand,” Fryxell said. “Some parts of the world are restricted by ageing or insufficient power and connectivity infrastructure that is fueling a bottleneck in data centre development.”
With Nordic countries for example able to scale quickly, alongside its abundance of renewable energy, companies like atNorth are continuing to find new ways to speed up the delivery cycle.
“We have also collaborated with trusted partner contractors and suppliers to enable swift construction projects, sometimes within 12 months of breaking ground,” Carlini said.
“At a time when digitalisation is intrinsically linked to business continuity, time to market is a fundamental factor. Those operators that can provide AI ready, sustainable digital infrastructure at speed will be able to capitalize on the industry’s exponential expansion.”
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