2026: AI is advancing by leaps and bounds, and the internet is preparing for a new era

Madrid.- Artificial intelligence continues to advance by leaps and bounds and 2026 will be the year in which this technology goes from being a tool capable of assisting those who use it to leading autonomous systems capable of taking operational control in many processes and executing critical tasks without direct human intervention. It also begins an exercise marked by experts as the year in which the foundations of a new internet era will be laid, with the arrival of web 4.0, a more intelligent, intuitive and predictive web thanks precisely to artificial intelligence and the increasingly evolved processing of natural language, which will allow hyper-personalized interactions and promises to merge the physical environment with the virtual to create more immersive environments. These are the technological predictions on which some of the leading technology and cybersecurity companies agree, which also predict an evolution of cybercrime due precisely to the convergence of an increasingly advanced artificial intelligence with a massive automation that will give rise to attacks capable of operating with unprecedented speed, scale, sophistication and autonomy. The multinational Trend Micro, specializing in cybersecurity, speaks of a "completely autonomous" criminal model and how 2026 will mark a decisive turning point in the evolution of cybercrime, which can become a fully automated 'industry' in which artificial intelligence 'agents' will discover, exploit and monetize vulnerabilities without the need for human intervention.

Frauds and impersonations at unprecedented levels

And it is precisely on those 'artificial intelligence agents' ('agentic AI') that many companies are focusing, given their growing ability to manage budgets, optimize production lines, make logistical decisions, or execute multiple tasks without direct human intervention, and the company Check Point has warned of the risk of that unsupervised autonomy and the importance of having 'guardrails' and ensuring the complete traceability of all automated decisions. This company has set its predictions for 2026 and has anticipated that the year will be marked precisely by the autonomy of AI, by the arrival of web 4.0, by the advancement of quantum computing, and by the transformation and generalization of digital risk in practically all sectors.

You may be interested in: 2025: the year AI stopped being invisible

Those responsible have warned how conversational fraud and identity theft ('deepfakes') through voice, video or chats powered by artificial intelligence can reach unprecedented levels, and how falsified messages impersonating senior officials can open the door to payments or privileged access. Several of these companies have pointed to Web 4.0 among the technological trends for next year, based on artificial intelligence and a much deeper understanding of the user's written or spoken language, to which they can suggest restaurants based on their location and habits, monitor their health to automatically adjust treatment, or manage city traffic in real time.

The fusion of the physical environment with the digital world

This new internet era, which according to experts will merge the physical environment with the digital world, will integrate the fifth generation of mobile network technologies (5G) - which will multiply the speed of connections - the most advanced artificial intelligence systems and all devices capable of connecting and exchanging data (the 'internet of things' or 'IoT'). The American multinational Palo Alto Networks has set among its predictions for 2026 the threat to identity due to AI, and has warned that lies can become indistinguishable from reality (the identity of a senior executive impersonated giving an order to a subordinate), and has also cited the problem of trust in data in the face of the growing number of attacks aimed at 'poisoning' them. Also, the Spanish cybersecurity company Secure&IT has warned about the use of new artificial intelligence tools and that an increase in the number, complexity, and impact of cyberattacks is foreseeable, and that the most affected sectors will once again be the financial, healthcare, industry, energy, and public administrations; and the technology company Altia has emphasized that after the prominence of generative AI, it's the turn of AI 'agents' capable of executing complex tasks without human intervention.

Quantum Technologies

Among the technological trends for next year, quantum technologies are once again emerging, which have already begun to move out of the laboratories towards real applications - especially in the field of computing -, which are strongly positioning themselves in sectors such as finance, logistics, energy or pharmaceuticals and are advancing towards much more secure and resilient communications, although the massive impact on the daily lives of people - such as the proliferation of personal quantum computers - still seems distant. And the tech giant Microsoft has also predicted a year definitely marked by the evolution of artificial intelligence, which according to the American company is already leaving behind its role as a mere tool to become a 'digital partner' that promotes creativity, productivity and scientific research, while transforming sectors such as health, software development or security.