The specifics:
James Landay, co-director of HAI, says there will be "no AGI this year," anticipating more businesses to acknowledge that AI hasn't produced benefits outside of call centers and coding.
Economist Erik Brynjolfsson predicts an increase in "AI dashboards" that assess productivity and displacement at the task level and are updated weekly rather than years later.
As medical model training costs decline and dataset accessibility increases, researcher Curtis Langlotz predicts a "ChatGPT moment" for the healthcare industry.
According to law professor Julian Nyarko, companies would shift their focus from "Can it write?" to "How well, on what, and at what risk?" with an increase in the complexity of legal work.
Economist Erik Brynjolfsson predicts an increase in "AI dashboards" that assess productivity and displacement at the task level and are updated weekly rather than years later.
As medical model training costs decline and dataset accessibility increases, researcher Curtis Langlotz predicts a "ChatGPT moment" for the healthcare industry.
According to law professor Julian Nyarko, companies would shift their focus from "Can it write?" to "How well, on what, and at what risk?" with an increase in the complexity of legal work.
The experts see 2026 as a time to consider if the enormous investments and excitement around AI in 2025 were worthwhile. Although Stanford's faculty isn't anticipating an AI bubble burst like many others, their forecasts do indicate that the business may have run out of patience with overly optimistic demos and pilots.