28 December,2025 09:15 AM IST | Mumbai | Jaison Lewis
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AI has been the buzzword of the past two years, but most of its practical uses have lived quietly in the background. In 2026, that changes. AI will become far more visible in everyday workflows, transforming how people actually work rather than just how companies talk about innovation. Game studios, anime production, publishing, and marketing are already augmenting their pipelines with AI, and this approach will spread to many more professions. The real shift won't be replacement, but reduction - less grunt work, fewer repetitive tasks, and faster iteration. As models consolidate and infrastructure scales, AI costs are likely to come down, making these tools accessible beyond just the biggest players. The vast new data centres coming online will increasingly be used to serve AI at scale, not just train ever-larger models.
This has become a running joke, but the 2025 meme might finally pay off in 2026 with Grand Theft Auto VI actually releasing. Rockstar has now committed to November 2026, and most fans will take a concrete date over another vague window. As always, the launch will spark outrage from politicians and child safety groups and, as always, millions will buy it on day one. I will probably be one of them. From what Rockstar has shown so far, GTA VI returns to Vice City and the wider state of Leonida, offering a denser, more reactive open world packed with distractions, crime, and social satire. If Rockstar avoids a disastrous launch like Cyberpunk 2077, this should be an easy critical and commercial win. We have waited long enough.
Steam ended the year outlining what 2026 gaming could look like, and it is far more ambitious than it appears. Valve is positioning itself as a full-stack alternative to Windows for PC gaming and to Meta for VR. Steam has proven that Linux can be a viable gaming platform through the Steam Deck. Now Valve has gone a step further, showing off a console, a redesigned controller, and a standalone VR headset. All of them point to the same idea. Valve does not want to compete with Xbox on Microsoft's terms. It wants to make the operating system irrelevant.\\
AI may dominate headlines, but quantum computing will be tech industry's next obsession. Several advances have surfaced, and progress in chips, error correction, and quantum techniques is expected to continue through 2026. While this won't upend encryption overnight, it is forcing a rethink of long-term security. The impact in the will be a scramble toward post-quantum cryptography as governments and enterprises prepare for a future where today's assumptions no longer hold.
In 2026, domestic robots will not be common, but be real enough to argue about. The ultra-wealthy will begin experimenting with humanoid house robots from companies like 1X Technologies, Figure AI, and Tesla. These machines will still rely on human teleoperation for many tasks, which will look inefficient and faintly ridiculous. That is the point. Every cup lifted and floor cleaned will generate training data for future autonomous systems. The real shift will be psychological. Robots will move from labs into living spaces, triggering uncomfortable conversations around labour, privacy, and outsourcing physical work to remote economies like India. Domestic robots will stop being science fiction and start being a class marker.
The gaming industry pushed back against AI in 2025, highlighted by the Indie Game Awards stripping Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 of its honours for using generative AI in development. That controversy will mark 2026 as a defining year for indie creativity. Instead of killing creativity, the backlash will do what gaming always does best. It will push smaller studios to get clever. Indie developers will use AI the same way they use engines, middleware, or asset stores, as a shortcut, not a substitute. By 2026, tools that can help sketch worlds, write placeholder dialogue, create dynamic NPCs, or prototype mechanics will be everywhere. The barrier to entry will drop hard. You will not need a hundred-person studio or a publisher's blessing. You will need a solid idea, a bit of taste, and the discipline to turn a rough prototype into something people want to play. The result will be a flood of original, eclectic indie titles that challenge bigger studios.
For the first time in a while, Adobe looks nervous. In 2026, the company will have to rethink its business model or risk unravelling its dominance. For years, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign felt untouchable. You paid the subscription, complained about it, and carried on because there was no choice. Open-source tools and AI models can handle frightening load of creative work, often for free, if you can invest in decent hardware. Now, Canva has lobbed a grenade into the room by making the Affinity tools free. For consumers and independents, Adobe's reign suddenly feels optional.
