2025 Over → 2026 Just Beginning

As we close out one year and look toward the next, here are the effluences and shifts that defined 2025—and the ones that will matter even more in 2026. These come from working with clients, evolving AI trends, and emerging pressures on SMBs, especially in retail, CPG supplier/brand, and the creative industries.

1. From AI Tools to Agentic Co-Workers

2025 Over: Playing with ChatGPT on the side. 

2026 Just Beginning: AI agents customers will use AI agents to shop, and you will use AI agents to run parts of your business.

McKinsey’s 2025 global AI survey shows 88% of organizations now use AI in at least one business function, but only a minority have mature, scaled deployments—most remain in the pilot stage. A LinkedIn analysis of the same data suggests only about 23% have AI systems performing ongoing operational work.

Think About

• Which workflows could be automated and optimized? Which are essential but take you away from other value-added activities? Where are the high-friction, pain points, and time wasters?

• Which tasks do you and your team hate but still need to do (agent sweet spot)?

• How would your core business processes look if optimized and automated by AI agents?

Look For

• AI agents that are being embedded in tools you already use (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Shopify, POS).

• Workflows where “doing the work” can be agent-owned, and “approving the work” stays human.

• The big shift? **From tasks and skills to thinking, from productivity to knowledge.

Plan For

• A top-down AI vision, a manifesto, and “you” modeling AI experimentation and use.

• Give someone the role of “AI Supervisor.”

• Clear guardrails: what the agent can approve vs. what requires human sign-off.

2. AI Adoption: Not a Tech Problem—A Leadership Problem

2025 Over: “Which AI tool should we buy?” 

2026 Just Beginning: Strategy, org design, incentives, and workflows assume AI is present.

National and sector surveys show rising AI use, but adoption remains shallow. The bottleneck is not tools—it’s leadership’s commitment, involvement, expectations, and clarity.

Think About

• AI succeeds or fails based on people, plan, and clarity, not features.

• Your mantra: “AI is designed around and for the business, not deployed into it.”

Look For

• Top-down, bottom-up approach to AI planning and implementation.

• Pain points, friction, and repetitive workflows.

• Managers measure time and activities, not outcomes.

Plan For

• A quarterly AI Profit & Time Audit.

• Tie every AI experiment to a strategic objective/result that achieves the higher-level OKRs.

• Use the Align → Transform → Optimize → Execute method as the standard playbook.

3. The End of the “Farm Team”: Interns & Entry-Level Roles Reshaped

2025 Over: Task-heavy junior roles as a training ground. 

2026 Just Beginning: AI takes on the task work; humans do the thought work, and new hires must arrive AI-skilled. Employee development needs shift from training programs to apprenticeships, coaches, and mentors.

Research shows AI-related automation is eliminating some early-career roles in occupations where routine knowledge work is easy to automate. Surveys find ~37% of companies have replaced specific entry-level tasks or roles with AI.

Think About

• If AI does the grunt work, where do future leaders and managers learn?

• Leadership development and what an internal apprenticeship model should look like.

Look For

• Gaps in your leadership bench. If you hire fewer entry-level workers, look for new ways to develop future leaders.

• People are lacking practical hands-on experience because AI has absorbed entry-level work. How will they learn the business?

Plan For

• 12–18-month apprenticeship paths in which humans make decisions, and AI performs tasks.

• AI tools to become learning tools (show the why behind decisions).

• Development plans include AI literacy, critical thinking, and business acumen.

4. Search Has Shifted: AEO+GEO + SEO

2025 Over: “Vying for page one with words, to be one of six blue links.” 

2026 Just Beginning: Being named in AI answers (AEO/GEO) matters as much as ranking in links. Pew research shows that when Google’s AI summaries appear, click-through rates drop from 15% to 8%—nearly 50% fewer clicks. Other analyses show average CTR declines of 30–35% and 40–60%+ drops in some query types.

Think About

• Your brand as an answer, not just a link.

• StoryBrand framework to be the signal, not the noise, increases your “citation-worthiness.”

Look For

• How AI tools describe your store, classes, and category expertise.

• Authenticity perception, errors, or missing information about you and your niche.

Plan For

• Build AEO/GEO-ready content: organic content, local pages, FAQs, how-tos, comparison guides.

• Online content that tells why, how, and what you do and stand for, in your voice**, not just keyword rankings. Don’t forget ambassadors and thought leadership.

5. Regulators Woke Up: AI Laws, Fines & Transparency

2025 Over: “Regulation is coming someday.” 

2026 Just Beginning: AI compliance is now a business requirement. The EU AI Act went live on Feb 2, 2025, with bans and literacy requirements. Rules for general-purpose models begin Aug 2, 2025, with high-risk categories phasing in through 2026–27. Meanwhile, X received a €120 million DSA fine for deceptive verification and transparency failures.

Think About

• Vendors will push compliance obligations downstream to you.

• How do you explain your AI use to customers and staff?

Look For

• New AI clauses in SaaS agreements.

• Platform-level transparency labels on content and ads.

• Customers who judge you on AI ethics, standards, and the responsible use of AI

Plan For

• One-page AI Use & Data Policy, ethics and standards

• Keep a lightweight AI system inventory.

• Build compliance checks into your standard workflow design.

6. SMB AI Adoption Passed 50%—But Impact Lags

2025 Over: “AI is for big companies.”

2026 Just Beginning: Even though SMBs stand to gain more from AI than larger competitors, SMB adoption and use are up significantly, but most achieve minimal ROI.

Surveys show roughly half of U.S. adults use gen-AI tools, and 58% of small businesses report adopting them—up sharply from the prior year.

Think About

• AI usage ≠ AI leverage. Solve problems, eliminate pain points, reduce friction.

• The places AI can be leveraged across the entire organization.

Look For

• High-use tools save time, money, or enable work to be done that previously couldn’t be.

• Workloads, service levels, or customer value that remain unchanged after AI adoption.

Plan For

• “Show me the workflow” becomes step one.

• Two AI-powered workflows per quarter tied to KPIs: turns, GMROII, labor hours.

• Position your AI objective as closing the gap between use and results.

7. Trust, Authenticity & Synthetic Creativity

2025 Over: Deepfakes are easy to spot, are outliers, or are not common in your industry. 

2026 Just Beginning: Customers assume some, most, or all content is fake.

With deepfakes on the rise and platform enforcement real (see X’s €120M penalty), trust and transparency are differentiators for SMBs.

Think About

• Your store, staff, and workshops are credibility assets.

• Your AI policy and usage as part of brand transparency.

Look For

• “Is this really you?” questions on ads or emails.

Plan For

• A simple How We Use AI disclosure page.

• More behind-the-scenes content: real people, real spaces.

• Maintain asset provenance logs for AI-assisted content.

8. From Broadcast to Community: Niches, Not Noise

2025 Over: Shouting keywords at algorithms. 

2026 Just Beginning: Smaller, tighter communities drive loyalty and sales. Connections over click! Relationships v transactions, inventory, or doors.

Research shows consumers rely on community, inspiration, and trusted sources—not broad social feeds. People buy from people they know, trust, and share values with. They look for authenticity and are human lie detectors.

Think About

• Your smallest viable audience: personas like Career Creatives, DIY Gifters, and Born Fine Artists.

• Community as a strategic asset. A core pillar in your GTM strategy.

Look For

• Content that sparks conversations—not likes.

• Local creators who already speak to your best customers.

Plan For

• Use AI to batch/localize and automate content and posting.

• Establish recurring rituals: monthly demos, challenges, maker nights.

• Treat your email list as your true social network.

9. Office Suites and Tech Stacks Became AI Platforms and Agents

2025 Over: A messy, multi-app tech stack. 

2026 Just Beginning: Your “AI OS” is email, docs, spreadsheets, and chat.

Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 rolled out deeply embedded AI agents, meaning the tools SMBs already use are becoming AI platforms. But Generative AI chatbots are your Swiss Army knife- go-to tool for getting things done.

Think About

• You may not need yet another APP/SaaS tool.

• Adoption rises dramatically when AI is integrated into the tools and workflows people use most.

Look For

• Duplicate tools, promises of everything AI for everything, and “you need this AI to do that”. You design AI around your organization, not deploy it.

• AI features you’re already paying for but not using.

Plan For

• An AI manifesto and OKRs.

• Create an “AI Transformation” team of multi-level cross-department employees.

• Use the Optimize→ Automate → Transform → Measure to launch and manage your program.

10. Continuous Learning Replaces One-Off Training

2025 Over: “We did an AI workshop; we’re good.” 

2026 Just Beginning: AI moves too fast for annual training.

Organizations that treat AI as a weekly habit—not a yearly event—are pulling ahead.

Think About

• How do you help your team stay current without overwhelming them?

• How can you acknowledge and address fears and apprehension?

• Publicly share AI usage, failures, and successes with a culture of psychological safety.

Look For

• Teams defaulting to old habits.

• Staff are embarrassed to admit they’ve fallen behind.

Plan For

• Quarterly AI sprints (6–8 weeks, one workflow at a time).

• Micro-lessons are inside every plan or SOP.

• An AI “Guide” to deliver ongoing advisory vs. one-time consulting.

Method: 

This analysis synthesizes (1) 2024–2025 industry surveys and reports, (2) major AI adoption studies, (3) regulatory announcements from the EU, and (4) platform-level enforcement actions. Each trend was cross-checked against publicly available primary sources where possible, with secondary commentary used only when clearly attributed.

Key Sources:

• AI Adoption Surveys: Pew Research Center (AI Overviews CTR), St. Louis Fed (national AI use), Elon University (LLM use), U.S. Chamber–linked SMB Tech Adoption Survey (58% SMB AI use).

• Organizational AI Usage: McKinsey State of AI 2025, LinkedIn analysis of scaled AI adoption.

• Hiring & Early-Career Impacts: Veris Insights (AI-exposed occupations), BambooHR/Korn Ferry early-career automation report.

• Search & GEO/SEO Data: Pew CTR study; Ahrefs CTR reduction analysis; Seer Interactive & Search Engine Land aggregate CTR findings.

• Regulation: EU AI Act enforcement timeline; European Commission DSA ruling against X (€120M fine).

• Cultural & Creative Sector Insights: NAMTA 2023 Consumer Study; industry commentary on community, maker behavior, and niche segmentation.

This document may contain AI-generated content and the consultant’s opinions. Not financial/legal advice. Consult professionals for decisions. © 2025 Creativity Consulting Group Inc.