What's Next for AI? A Small Business Owner's Guide to 2026

Krisztina Morris
3 days ago
7 min read

2025 has been a huge year for AI - so many changes, so many updates, and some developments that surprised even the experts.

The quality of AI video now (have you seen VO3 and Google Gemini's latest model?), the incredible improvements in text-to-image, and of course, all the speculation around AGI are innovations we did not plan for at the beginning of 2025.

So what's coming next? Our very own Dr. Karen Sutherland, Director of Dharana Digital and author of Artificial Intelligence for Strategic Communication, has combed through the research, expert commentary, and predictions to bring it all together with small business owners in mind.

Because here's the thing, as a small business owner, you're already wearing a dozen hats. You don't have time to chase every shiny new tool or figure out what's hype versus what's actually useful.

Understanding where AI is heading can help you be more prepared, more strategic, and frankly, less stressed about what is up next.

Here are Dr. Karen's six predictions for 2026.

Predition 1

Budgets Will Shift from Hype to Value

Right now, a lot of business owners are very tool-focused. They're jumping at the latest shiny AI tool rather than being tactical about it. Many of us have been wasting money on subscriptions because we're not thinking strategically enough.

Dr. Karen believes that mindset is going to shift. You won't want to spend money on tools unless you can see a clear return on investment and understand how they'll actually work for your specific needs.

There's also been a gap in actually learning how to use these tools properly. You know you should be using AI more, but when do you have time to figure it all out?

Dr. Karen thinks 2026 is the year that changes - more accessible training, more practical resources, and a real focus on what actually works.

AI Agents Will Save You Hours

According to Dr. Karen, 2025 was the year of the agent, but she doesn't think we've seen anything yet. AI agents - tools that can go off and do tasks autonomously - are going to become even more powerful.

For example, she's used agents to do competitor analysis, giving them a list of businesses and having them analyse websites and return insights in 10 minutes.

Imagine what that could do for your business - research that would have taken you half a day, done while you focus on serving your customers.

Prediction 2

Proof Beats Promises

There have been two camps with AI adoption: those who've been cautious (which is fair enough), and those who've thrown themselves in without checking whether it's actually working.

That's going to change. AI isn't a novelty anymore - it's becoming everyday and necessary. Smart business owners will link AI use directly to measurable results. No more AI for the sake of AI.

Set It Up Once, Use It Forever

When experts talk about inference workloads, they mean setting up AI to do specific, repeatable tasks. Think about the content you create over and over - social media posts, email newsletters, client proposals, product descriptions. You can train AI on your voice and your brand, then let it draft these for you consistently.

Train it on your content, your tone, your business - and then it can generate work that actually sounds like you. Of course, you still need to check and edit, and add those real personal touches, but it's so much more efficient than starting from scratch every time.

Track What's Actually Working

Dr. Karen wrote a whole chapter on evaluation in her AI book because it seems to be missing across the board. If you're using AI to write your social media posts, are you checking whether engagement has changed? If AI is drafting your emails, are open rates and responses still strong?

Most importantly, don't forget about your customers. Dr. Karen shares the example of a business that replaced their phone number with just a chatbot, but their customers were seniors who hated chatbots. It's not about jumping at AI - it's about knowing your customers and what works for them.

Practical steps for your business

Track your key metrics before and after using AI for specific tasks
Set aside time each month to learn something new about AI (even 30 minutes helps)
Experiment with AI agents for research, scheduling, or repetitive tasks
Keep doing what only you can do - the personal touch, the relationships, the expertise your customers come to you for.

Prediction 3

Shopping Will Change Completely

Here's something Dr. Karen finds exciting… Imagine telling your AI agent, "Here's my budget. Go find the best supplier for X." It scours the internet, compares prices and reviews, considers delivery times, and brings back options.

ChatGPT is about to integrate PayPal, so purchasing within AI tools is coming. Already, 24% of AI users are relying on AI assistance to find products and services.

Here's what this means for your business: your website isn't just going to be visited by humans anymore - it'll be visited by AI agents searching on behalf of their humans.

Make Sure AI Can Find You

This is like SEO, but for AI tools - Artificial Intelligence Optimisation (AIO). It's about making sure you show up when people search in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other AI assistants.

From Dr. Karen's research, a few things can help

Keep your content fresh: AI tools tend to find recent content more easily. Even just updating dates on existing blog posts can help.
Be consistent everywhere: Have the same information about your business across your website, Google Business Profile, directories, and social media.
Include your location: Even if you service people across Australia, include your local area. Dr. Karen had someone find her by searching for a "social media expert in Coolum" in ChatGPT. That local specificity matters for your business too.

Get Your Facts Right

AI can hallucinate, and so can content created with AI. Before anything goes out, fact-check it. Edit it. Be the human in the loop. Your reputation depends on it.

Want to hear Dr. Karen walk through all of these predictions in more detail?

Watch the full webinar recording below where she explores each of these trends and shares practical examples you can apply to your business.

Now that you've had a chance to watch the full discussion, here are a few more predictions that are particularly exciting for small business owners.

Prediction 4

You Can Build Your Own Tools Now

If you don't know what vibe coding is, it's essentially the ability for non-tech people to create apps using AI. You describe what you want, and the AI builds it for you.

Dr. Karen has played with this in Canva and other tools. She created an online quiz just by describing what she wanted it to look like. The code gets written right before your eyes.

Think about what this means for your business. Need a simple booking calculator? A quiz to help customers choose the right service?

A checklist tool for your website? Previously, you'd pay a developer thousands of dollars. Now? You could create it yourself in an afternoon.

A word of caution though… Apps often need data, so be careful about where that data goes and whether it's sensitive.

But honestly, the possibilities are endless. Don't try to think of something that'll make you a million dollars - think of something that'll save you 20 minutes a day or make your customers' experience a little better.

Prediction 5

Skills and Ethics Become Your Competitive Edge

The businesses that will win with AI aren't the ones using the most tools - they're the ones using AI most strategically and ethically.

Prompt writing is still an important skill. Yes, it's getting easier to tell AI what you want, but the more context and detail you provide, the better your results are going to be.

It's like briefing a new team member - vague instructions get vague results.

And here's something exciting, we're moving toward true human-AI teams. Some businesses have their team members each managing multiple AI agents that handle specific parts of their work.

The human oversees and guides, while AI handles the repetitive stuff.

Prediction 6

Risk and Regulation Are Increasing

The Australian Government just announced an AI Safety Institute, which Dr. Karen sees as really important.

It's going to collaborate with business owners, scientists, and various stakeholders to help keep everyone safe from misinformation, deepfakes, and harmful AI-generated content.

But for your business specifically, you need to be careful. Dr. Karen is still hearing stories of people putting sensitive customer information into free AI tools without thinking about where that data goes.

If you're using AI in your business, you need some basic guidelines in place - even if it's just for yourself.

Legal issues around AI are also going to increase. It's worth understanding what you can and can't do, especially around copyright and customer data.

Practical steps to protect your business

Create simple guidelines for how you'll use AI (what tools, what data you will and won't put in)
Always review AI-generated content before publishing
Keep your human expertise front and centre - that's what customers trust
Test new tools on a small scale before rolling them out across your business
Stay curious but cautious - learn about new developments without feeling pressured to adopt everything.

Looking Ahead to 2026

Overall, Dr. Karen believes we're going to become much more sophisticated in our use of AI next year. We'll be more focused on results, linking AI directly to business outcomes rather than just playing with tools. We'll understand and use AI agents more effectively.

We'll build our skills regularly. And hopefully, we'll be much more focused on using AI responsibly while keeping the human touch that makes our businesses special.

Now it's your turn… What's your biggest AI challenge heading into 2026? What task in your business would you love AI to handle for you?

If you want to get ahead of the curve, Dr. Karen would love to help:

Enrol in AI Integration for Communication Leaders - her six-week course starting January 19th where she helps you create a practical AI strategy for your business
Join her Facebook community - it's free, supportive, and full of practical AI insights for business owners
Book a chat with Dr. Karen - to talk about how AI can work for your specific situation.