Imagine a phone that unfolds into a small tablet on your commute and a workstation at your desk — then learns your workflow and edits video for you while you grab coffee. That’s the shorthand for a theme running through product launches and industry roadmaps for 2026: devices that change shape, and software — driven by local AI — that changes how we use them.
2026 isn’t just another specs race. It feels like the year hardware, networks and intelligent software line up and begin to act as a single system. Consultancies and vendors alike are calling it a pivot from experiments to execution: Capgemini’s TechnoVision, summarized in recent commentary, even dubs 2026 “the year of truth for AI” — when pilots must produce measurable economic impact, not just demos.
New shapes, new practicalities
Foldables are the most visible sign of that shift. After several years of incremental improvements, manufacturers are pushing flexible screens into bolder formats: three‑panel foldables that offer compact, intermediate and full tablet modes promise real multitasking gains, not just a novelty factor. Samsung’s recent prototypes are an obvious bellwether — the industry’s attention to multifold designs makes clear this is more than hype (see our look at the Samsung Tri‑Fold showcase) Samsung’s Tri‑Fold prototype insight.
Apple’s rumored iPhone Fold would be a watershed if it arrives. Historically, Apple waits for category maturity before committing hardware and ecosystem weight; an Apple foldable would signal that flexible displays and hinge reliability finally meet its standards. Meanwhile, Chinese brands are answering with raw power plays — the handset arms race now blends thermals, battery capacity and AI offload to sustain real‑world performance across heavy tasks like gaming or mobile editing.
Tablets are shifting, too. OLED screens are migrating into larger tablets aimed at productivity, and chips are getting closer to laptop levels of performance. That means a tablet could increasingly replace a laptop for many users — especially when the OS and apps lean on local intelligence to bridge gaps in workflow.
Intelligence moves from feature to foundation
A more consequential change is where intelligence lives. In 2026 we’re seeing AI move from cloud‑centric features into a hybrid model that emphasizes on‑device processing and orchestration across cloud tiers. That reduces latency, protects privacy in some use cases, and keeps crucial automation working when connectivity is spotty. Product previews and vendor roadmaps suggest photo and video editing, translation, contextual assistants and device management will increasingly run locally or in a controlled hybrid cloud.
This isn’t just technical choreography. It changes how teams build software. Development is shifting from hand‑writing every line to defining intents and guarding outcomes, with AI handling much of the plumbing. Companies that can reorganize skills — from coders to overseers, auditors and prompt engineers — will capture the most value. Capgemini frames this as an organizational and cultural challenge as much as a technological one.
Cloud 3.0, control and competitiveness
Running powerful AI at scale also changes cloud strategy. “Cloud 3.0” is emerging as shorthand for hybrid, sovereign and multi‑cloud architectures built to host sensitive models and high‑throughput inference. Countries and large enterprises are investing heavily in data centers and specialized infrastructure because sovereignty and performance now intersect with competitive advantage. The result: more complex but more controllable stacks for businesses that need to run critical AI workloads.
Smarter devices, smarter homes, smarter operations
From wearables that continuously monitor health signals to more autonomous home robots and contextual assistants, the ecosystem is getting smarter in small, persistent ways. These devices will increasingly act as agents — not just sensors — automating tasks, nudging decisions and learning over time. On the enterprise side, intelligent operations are already reconfiguring workflows: AI agents execute, learn and propose changes while humans govern and make high‑risk calls.
That agentic shift is also visible in consumer software: Google’s recent AI features for search and browsing point toward more proactive, action‑oriented assistants that can book, schedule and transact with less user friction (see the changes in Google’s AI mode) Google AI Mode and agentic booking.
XR, wearables and the new hardware battleground
Extended reality and compact AR/VR headsets are moving from hobbyist gadgets to productivity tools and social platforms. Expect richer XR experiences from vendors investing in displays, sensors and local inference engines. Devices such as the Meta Quest are at the center of that evolution, blending entertainment with productivity and spatial computing — the kind of multiuse hardware the market is testing now (if you’re curious about headset options, check Meta Quest) Meta Quest.
At the same time, consumer devices are converging: a phone is less a communications tool than a pocket computer, camera, assistant and console. That convergence is what makes 2026 unusual — multiple categories are bending toward the same endpoint at once.
What this means for users and businesses
For consumers: expect new form factors and smarter, faster features that feel less like add‑ons and more like built‑in helpers. On‑device AI will make everyday tasks—photo editing, summarizing content, translating speech—faster and more private, but the experience will vary by device and vendor.
For businesses and governments: the race is about more than gadgets. Controlling data, securing supply chains, investing in cloud and chip infrastructure, and reskilling workforces are strategic imperatives. As some commentators note, 2026 will reward those who embed intelligence into core operations rather than treating it as a bolt‑on.
For developers and product leaders: the craft is changing. If code once ruled, intent and governance now matter more. Teams that master tooling, model stewardship and human‑machine workflows will lead the next wave of products.
A noisy year with a single theme
There will be missteps — a foldable with a flaky hinge, an AI feature that overpromises — but the larger movement is clear: 2026 looks less like incremental updates and more like structural change. When Apple, Samsung, chipset makers and cloud providers all shift emphasis toward hybrid intelligence and new device geometries, the market responds. Expect competition to be fierce, standards debates to accelerate, and a lot of product demos to turn into real products that people rely on daily.
One last note: the partnerships behind voice assistants and core models are reshaping platform dynamics. Apple moving to use custom models in Siri, and Google plugging Gemini into productivity workflows, are the sort of industry moves that alter where power resides — in hardware, models, or the clouds that host them (see how Apple is pairing Siri with Gemini) Apple and Gemini for Siri.
If you’re deciding where to place bets—consumer product, enterprise tooling, or infrastructure—look for businesses that treat AI as a thread woven through hardware, software and operations, not as a flashy headline. That’s the practical change happening in 2026: intelligence stitched into the fabric of how things work.