6 AI Mega Trends: the trends redefining the economy, work and technology in 2026
Economy, geopolitics, employment, technology, society, engineering & IT: ALTEN decodes the six major trends reshaping artificial intelligence and guiding its own AI strategy.
1. Economic impact: GDP growth and a productivity boost
A driver of global growth
Generative AI and agentic AI are emerging as a powerful driver of economic growth, with significant potential to accelerate global GDP through task automation and business process optimisation.
Redefining business models
Beyond productivity gains, AI is transforming how companies create value: new business models, new services, new value chains. ALTEN supports its clients through this redefinition by embedding AI across all its projects, delivering tailored solutions that combine innovation and performance to drive their growth.
From pilot to large-scale rollout
2024 and 2025 were the years of the proof of concept. 2026 marks a turning point: companies are moving from AI pilots to large-scale deployment, bringing with it the challenges of governance, measurable ROI and the industrialisation of use cases.
2. Geopolitical shift: AI as the new currency of power
AI is power
Artificial intelligence has become a strategic asset for states and major technology companies alike, on a par with energy or critical raw materials.
Sovereignty and strategic autonomy
Digital sovereignty is now a central issue: dependence on foreign clouds and models, control over sensitive data, and national or regional technological autonomy (European sovereignty in particular).
Tighter regulatory constraints
As these stakes rise, regulatory frameworks are multiplying and tightening (the EU AI Act, sector-specific regulations, technology export controls). ALTEN draws on its deep knowledge of regulated environments to help clients reconcile AI innovation with compliance.
3. Labour market evolution: towards a new organisation of skills
Towards an AI “job apocalypse”?
Rather than giving in to fears of mass job losses, ALTEN takes a more measured view: AI is transforming engineering and IT roles more than it is eliminating them, freeing engineers from repetitive tasks so they can focus on higher-value work.
A focus on skills and reskilling
ALTEN relies on a global community of AI-augmented engineers, supported through continuous upskilling. The Group promotes a thoughtful and effective adoption of artificial intelligence, aligned with its values, turning the transformation of skills into a deliberate choice rather than something to be endured.
The rise of a new key profile: the Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)
The new hero of the tech job market, the Forward Deployed Engineer embodies the evolution of engineering roles: a hybrid profile, both technical and field-oriented, capable of deploying AI solutions as close as possible to clients’ use cases – a figure that resonates directly with ALTEN’s DNA, historically positioned at the heart of its clients’ engineering projects.
4. Technology and cost acceleration
AI outperforms human experts on several benchmarks
Across many specialist benchmarks (code, reasoning, data analysis), AI models are now matching – and in some cases surpassing – human expert performance, reshaping how tasks are divided between people and machines. This is a reality ALTEN builds directly into its offerings.
Compute and token costs are skyrocketing
This surge in capability comes hand in hand with a steady rise in compute costs and token consumption – an economic sustainability challenge that ALTEN helps its clients manage through tailored deployment and proven, measurable AI solutions.
Autonomous, agentic, SLM and Physical AI
The technology landscape is diversifying, with:
- Physical AI, connecting artificial intelligence with robotics and the physical world.
- Agentic AI, capable of autonomously executing complex tasks;
- SLMs (Small Language Models), lighter and more cost-efficient, suited to specific use cases;
5. Societal and environmental impacts: between ethical dilemmas and digital divides
Persistent ethical dilemmas
Algorithmic bias, data privacy, and the transparency of automated decisions: ethical questions around AI remain at the heart of societal and regulatory concerns.
Climate: a double-edged sword
AI can be a formidable tool for energy optimisation and tackling climate change – while itself being a heavy consumer of energy and resources (data centres, cooling, chip manufacturing). This paradox calls for a rethink towards leaner, more sustainable AI.
Digital divide 2.0
Unequal access to AI technologies between organisations is creating a new digital divide. By supporting clients in assessing their AI maturity and defining their strategy, ALTEN helps to narrow this gap rather than widen it.
6. Impacts on engineering and IT services: at the heart of ALTEN’s strategy
80% of ALTEN’s offerings are now AI-infused
At ALTEN, artificial intelligence is no longer an optional add-on: it runs through the vast majority of the Group’s offerings, from project management to product engineering and IT services.
AI-driven growth
Certain entities within the Group demonstrate growth driven directly by AI, through offerings that natively integrate predictive capabilities, automation and advanced analytics in support of project performance.
Disruption in action
ALTEN entities show how AI is disrupting and reinventing entire areas of long-established professions, rethinking methodologies, tools and deliverables.
Core business challenges
Despite these opportunities, embedding AI into the core business of engineering remains demanding: the reliability of deliverables, change management, and team training all come into play. ALTEN addresses this through end-to-end support: AI maturity assessment, strategy definition, training, process adjustment and cultural alignment, for a smooth and lasting adoption of AI.
These 6 AI Mega Trends define the framework within which ALTEN is building its AI strategy: supporting its clients, across every sector, in turning these economic, geopolitical, social and technological disruptions into concrete opportunities for growth, performance and responsible innovation.
