REPORT
Snowflake AI +Data Predictions 2026
The rise of agentic AI will create a new kind of enterprise and a new kind of worker.
Hear from more than a dozen experts and execs on:
- When and how AI agents will take off
What stops your business from going agentic
How cybercrime will spawn enemy agents
How work will change and how workers will keep up
AI agents will drive the next wave of innovation
In the enterprise, agentic AI will start as “micro-agents” that expand into more effective tools. Key industry developments will include:
A dominant AI protocol will emerge to connect an agentic internet
Refining open source foundation models will break commercial giants’ hold
Feedback loops will be key to agents’ improvement
“Once there are feedback loops in every product that you use, more complicated use cases become possible."
Sridhar Ramaswamy
Dark AI: Uncensored modelswill upgrade cybercriminals
A new wave of "dark AI" tools, built on uncensored open source models, specialize in generating phishing scams, malicious code and social engineering attacks, making sophisticated cybercrime more accessible than ever before. This underground industry is leveraging AI to build a dangerous new economy.
“Financially motivated threat groups now have the resources of nation-states."
Brad Jones
The AI-enhanced workforce will arrive
Generative and agentic AI are not just tools that accelerate work. They’re a paradigm shift that changes skill sets and jobs. “Specialized skills won't vanish,” says Chief Data Analytics Officer Anahita Tafvizi, “but the value shifts to those who can orchestrate across tools, data and AI."
AI may make devs 33% more productive in the next year
Workers in technical roles will have to become more strategic
“Works well with AI” becomes the new soft skill
“Rather than being good at writing code, the engineer has to be good at describing very clearly what they want built. This is a new paradigm, and already, it’s massively transformative."
Baris Gultekin
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