3 AI developments shaping the future of work
In 2025, AI implementations were all about value realisation, according to the ServiceNow Enterprise AI Maturity Index 2025. In fact, more than half (55%) of global organisations rolled out at least 100 AI use cases.
The business leaders I speak to in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) understand the potential of AI better than ever. Based on the conversations I’ve had, I believe 2026 will be the year AI becomes deeply embedded in the ways people work and deliver value. It will underpin every process and decision—reshaping industries as well as customer and employee experiences.
Here are three AI developments that I predict will alter how people work in 2026.
1. The rise of multimodal interfaces
IDC predicts that, “by 2028, 80% of foundation models used for production-grade use cases will include multimodal AI capabilities to deliver improved use case support, accuracy, depth of insights, and inter-mode context.”1
Today’s workers are looking for tools that are multimodal by design. Voice, image, video, and other inputs will coexist in a unified workspace where every digital interaction is seamless—rather than forcing users to switch between disconnected apps, large language models (LLMs), and siloed data sources.
For instance, creative teams can have a discussion while AI listens in to build project briefs, capture notes, and create accompanying visuals in real time. Human agents will move seamlessly between voice- and text-based customer service channels while an AI agent retrieves relevant customer data and plans steps to resolve an issue.
The appetite for multimodal AI capabilities is growing. According to Jabra and the London School of Economics, 14% of knowledge workers prefer interacting with AI through voice over typing.2 The research suggests voice could become a primary way to interface with generative AI across many work scenarios within just three years.
2. A need to balance governance and speed
Regulations such as the EU AI Act have created a mandate for organisations to responsibly govern and build trust in AI systems. Leaders are facing a new challenge: driving the pace of innovation while maintaining good AI governance.
A balance between governance and speed is quickly becoming the defining measure of AI maturity. According to the ServiceNow Enterprise AI Maturity Index, 63% of global Pacesetters—organisations integrating AI into their operations most effectively—have made significant progress towards establishing data governance and security policies for AI, compared to less than half (42%) of non-Pacesetters.
The research also revealed that governance is one of the largest contributors to financial gains from AI maturity.
Leaders recognise that responsible AI doesn’t have to act as a brake to growth. Rather, when compliance is embedded as an everyday practice, it can be an accelerator for trusted innovation.
3. AI in every corner of the business
Leaders are looking for ways to embed advanced forms of AI in more business areas and multiply what people can achieve on their own. I believe 2026 will mark the mainstream rise of agentic AI—systems that analyse information, make decisions, and execute end-to-end tasks autonomously.
The ServiceNow Enterprise AI Maturity Index reveals that more than a third (36%) of global Pacesetters are already using agentic AI, compared to 19% of non-Pacesetters. Overall, 43% of the organisations surveyed are considering adopting agentic AI within the next year.
As this AI development takes hold, so does a new layer of risk. Chief information officers (CIOs) will face pressure to anticipate and respond to growing compliance, privacy, and security vulnerabilities as more employees incorporate AI into their workflows.
A key challenge will shift from managing shadow IT to managing “shadow AI”—AI systems implemented or developed outside of established governance structures.
Successful leaders will adopt flexible, adaptive platform architectures that enable the organisation to incorporate new AI tools at scale. These platforms use a single codebase and unified data to manage systems, including agentic AI, across the enterprise—so IT teams can oversee, validate, and coordinate all AI activity, supported by a foundation of complete and accurate data.
Fortunately, many of the leaders I speak with are equipped for success. Our AI maturity research reveals 66% of Pacesetters employ a platform approach with built-in AI capabilities across the enterprise, compared to 46% of others.
Reimagining work for the AI era
From summarising meetings to drafting insights to orchestrating across systems, AI is reshaping work as it blends seamlessly into daily tasks. In 2026, people and AI will increasingly share the same workspace, in a new era of “blended work.”
By having AI embedded in each step of work, we’ll see a reduction in “swivel chairing” between apps and AI, leading to more connected and actionable AI outcomes and, in turn, greater productivity.
Biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, for example, is integrating AI across its business to support an ambition to launch 20 new medicines by 2030. Leaders are connecting every layer of work to AI, from lab operations to employee onboarding.
AstraZeneca is saving more than 30,000 hours each year by enabling research and decision-making tasks to be completed in seconds. This is freeing employee capacity, shortening discovery cycles, and accelerating time to market for critical therapies.
Future generations will enter a workforce where AI is a natural part of work. People will collaborate in partnership with AI, fluently managing their own agentic workflows and knowing when to trust or challenge AI outputs.
Find out how ServiceNow helps organisations put AI to work for people.
1 IDC FutureScape: Worldwide AI and Automation 2025 Predictions — Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) Implications, doc #AP51601224, November 2024
2 Jabra and the London School of Economics, Beyond the keyboard: How voice AI will redefine work in 2025 and beyond, November 2025