This past week brought two separate and engaging conversations with friends who both happen to be seasoned technical professionals. We’d gotten together simply to catch up over a meal and talk about life and faith, but true to form for anyone in the tech world, the topic of AI came up. What struck me most was how these two friends, working in the same field and facing similar industry trends, ended up holding such distinctly different viewpoints.

Jack, whose name I have changed, told me that his company is a strong adopter of AI in his field. He has the AI resources to perform his highly technical job in an environment fully integrated with AI. He can connect with AI right within the application he uses daily. On a recent project, he deliberately forced himself to let AI handle most of the work, and he succeeded.

His conclusions were either impressive or scary, depending on where you sit. From his perspective, AI is already dramatically changing his field. He believes that AI will significantly affect the workforce, particularly for those of us who sit behind a desk and whose work product results from our time behind a computer screen. He believes that not only his field, but also everyone who performs analysis, engineering, drafting, editing, and similar technical functions will be dramatically affected in the short term.

My other friend, let’s call him Sam, is also  incredibly talented, and he works in the same field as Jack, just in a different industry. Sam has also experimented with AI and was not impressed with the result. AI has not been able to provide him with any significant benefit, other than clarifying occasional technical nuances to speed his work. He is not a fan and does not see it having a dramatic impact in his area until it improves significantly. He is not genuinely concerned about the impact of AI on his profession and does not see it as ready yet.

While these two opinions, at first glance, are just a couple of guys’ thoughts, they mirror the dialogue we see in the world today. There is a group of people who are excited about how AI is changing the game and see it as an opportunity. And there is another group that has experimented a little, or maybe not at all, and just does not see the benefits.

This all begs the question, where is AI headed in 2026? As you might expect if you have been reading my articles, I think AI will continue to grow and mature. When I see comments or headlines about when the AI bubble will pop, or when AI will slow down, I smile, and the first thing that comes to mind is the early days of the Internet, when people said it was just a fad, or that it really was not that big of a deal. The impact of the Internet has been so significant not just in business, but in life, that I think few would deny it. We can expect to see wider business adoption in 2026.

Here are a few QUICK-WIN OPPORTUNITES TO GET Started:

Invoicing and billing automation
The technology is mature and available for AI to recognize semi-structured data, like that which appears on invoices, where every invoice has similar data but is organized differently. When paired with workflow technology, the results in this area are dramatic.

Automated scheduling
Using AI for scheduling in a service environment is a big win. Many prominent scheduling tools now offer add-on AI agents that can automate this process. In addition, vertical apps designed specifically for your business type may include them as well. I know our core scheduling software for our MSP business offers automated scheduling add-ons.

AI-generated marketing content
This is an area many of us have already used AI heavily for research and for content development. This will continue to grow and improve. There are already some pretty amazing tools for content creation out there, and most of the tools SMBs use, like Canva, Adobe, and others, have AI agents built in.

Customer communication templates
I almost hate to mention this one because automating customer communication has been done so badly so often. However, the AI customer service bot has improved dramatically, and it just might be worth another look! It is valuable if it can provide faster service and free up humans for the more complex issues that need relatable intellect on the other end of the line!

In 2026, AI will become more tightly woven into the tools you use every day. There will be more you can do in Word, Excel, and Outlook. If you are on the right ERP or line-of-business software, you will see AI functions built in, or at least available as add-ons, to speed the process of business. If your software does not have AI on its roadmap, it is time to explore other software options.

AI is shifting from functioning like a personal assistant to working in a more “agentic” way. This technology uses low-code components that enable it to trigger workflows, interact with business systems, and execute multi-step processes. This will create a significant shift so that we use AI not just to answer questions, but to get actual work done.

The outlook for AI improving how we work is great in 2026. There are smart new tools and features that are tightly integrated with the tools we use every day. In addition, workflow engines tie all of the pieces together for a complete solution. If you haven’t taken a deeper look at AI, now might just be the time.

At CTaccess, we work with AI technology to maximize how people work. We use Laserfiche to perform AI-based data extraction with SmartFields, AI-enabled data mining with SmartChat, and to build a workflow that puts all the pieces together. We also work with the Microsoft Power Platform and other AI tools to help you create a full solution. Please reach out! We would love to talk about how to make AI go to work for you.

Contact Scott at scotth@ctaccess.com or give him a call at 262-789-8210.