My 26 Predictions for 2026

Where to place your bets in 2026 if you want to win

Sharran Srivatsaa

Jan 01, 2026

I don’t know what 2026 will bring.

Heck, nobody does.

But I’ve been in this game long enough to spot patterns before they become totally obvious.

Here are my 26 predictions for 2026:

Gemini will be the most used AI model because it’s baked into Google and people will use whatever shows up by default.
Substack will become the YouTube of writing, where a small group of writers get most of the attention.
LinkedIn will be full of AI slop, which will make real human writing way easier to spot.
Hyper-local creators will become mini celebrities in their cities and drive real business locally.
Facebook’s organic reach will be wildly underpriced compared to every other social platform.
Meta’s AI glasses will start going mainstream because they don’t ask people to change how they live. Even my wife has one.
YouTube will be the number one place for views, brand building, and growing a business.
Amazon will keep winning retail because people say they want Etsy but click Amazon when it’s time to buy.
Zillow will fight the entire real estate industry to assert its dominance and own more of the home buying and selling process.
Email will beat paid social ads for most small and mid-size businesses.
Direct mail will grow again as a marketing channel because email inboxes are full and physical mailboxes are mostly empty.
PDFs will stop working as lead magnets and get replaced by free tools and simple apps.
Investors will stop caring about boring 15-slide pitch decks and pay more attention to live demos and real working products.
Small niche creators will build tools and apps because they have distribution, but most will never get SaaS-level valuations.
AI that brings in customers and revenue will beat AI that saves time and costs for small and medium businesses.
Platforms like Coinbase, DraftKings, FanDuel, and prediction markets will grow in 2026 even as most users lose money.
More people will put new money into index funds than into buying homes in 2026.
Bitcoin will be owned by fewer people, but those people will own a lot more of it.
Private credit will be the biggest winner among boring asset classes and will attract retail investors who have never had access before.
When SpaceX goes public, it will make people remember why they liked investing in the first place.
Tesla will keep dominating while Elon Musk becomes so rich that even people who hate him will have to admit he won.
Avengers: Doomsday and The Odyssey will carry the box office and make the business of Hollywood look healthier than it really is.
Interest rates will come down a bit, but borrowing money will still feel expensive.
Lawyers will stay busy cleaning up dumb mistakes AI puts into contracts.
People will watch phone-style content on their TVs while using their phones as a second screen.
Comedy creators will dominate watch time because they give people a quick break from being online and overwhelmed all day.