Technology predictions for 2026: AI is advancing by leaps and bounds and the internet is preparing for a new era

These are the technological predictions in which some of the main technology companies and companies specialized in cybersecurity agree, which also predict an evolution of cybercrime due precisely to the convergence of increasingly advanced artificial intelligence with massive automation that will give way to attacks capable of operating with speed, on a scale and with unprecedented sophistication and autonomy.

The multinational Trend Micro, specialized in cybersecurity, talks about a “completely autonomous” criminal model and how 2026 will mark a decisive turning point in the evolution of cybercrime, which can become a fully automated ‘industry’ and in which artificial intelligence ‘agents’ will discover, exploit and monetize vulnerabilities without the need for human intervention.

Fraud and impersonation at levels never seen before

And it is precisely on these artificial intelligence ‘agents’ (‘AI agentic’) that many companies are focusing, given their growing capacity to manage budgets, optimize production lines, make logistical decisions or execute multiple tasks without direct human intervention, and the company Check Point has warned of the risk of this unsupervised autonomy and the importance of having “guardrails” and ensuring complete traceability of all automated decisions.

This company has set its predictions for 2026 and has anticipated that the year will be marked precisely by this autonomy of AI, by the arrival of web 4.0, by the advance of quantum computing and by the transformation and generalization of digital risk in practically all sectors.

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Those responsible have warned of how conversational fraud and identity theft (‘deepfakes’) through voice, video or chats driven by artificial intelligence can reach levels never seen before, and how falsified messages that impersonate the identities of a higher position can open the door to payments or privileged access.

Several of these companies have pointed out among the technological trends for next year [2026] to web 4.0, based on artificial intelligence and a much deeper understanding of the user’s written or spoken language, to which they will be able to suggest restaurants based on their location and habits, monitor their health to automatically adjust treatment, or manage the traffic of a city in real time.

The fusion of the physical environment with the digital world

This new era of the internet, which according to experts will merge the physical environment with the digital world, will integrate the fifth generation of mobile network technologies (5G) – which will multiply the speed of connections -, the most advanced artificial intelligence systems and all devices capable of connecting and exchanging data (the ‘internet of things’ or ‘IoT’, for its acronym in English).

The American multinational Palo Alto Networks has included among its predictions for 2026 the threat of identity due to AI, and has warned that lies can become indistinguishable from reality (the identity of an impersonated manager giving an order to a subordinate), and has also cited the problem of trust in data in the face of the growing number of attacks aimed at ‘poisoning’ them.

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The Spanish cybersecurity company Secure&IT has also warned of the use of new artificial intelligence tools and that an increase in the number, complexity and impact of cyberattacks is foreseeable and that the most affected sectors will once again be the financial, health, industry, energy and public administrations; and the technology company Altia has stressed that after the prominence of generative AI comes the turn of AI ‘agents’ capable of executing complex tasks without human intervention.

Among the technological trends for next year [2026] Quantum technologies are once again appearing, which have already begun to leave the laboratories towards real applications – especially in the field of computing -, which are positioning themselves strongly in sectors such as finance, logistics, energy or pharmaceuticals and which are moving towards much more secure and resistant communications, although the massive impact on people’s daily lives – such as the proliferation of personal quantum computers – still seems distant.

And the technology giant Microsoft has also predicted a year definitively marked by the evolution of artificial intelligence, which according to the American company is already leaving behind its role as a mere tool to become a ‘digital partner’ that promotes creativity, productivity and scientific research, while transforming sectors such as health, software development or security.