AI in 2026: Open-source shifts, regulatory battles, smarter chatbots

As 2026 has started, the artificial intelligence (AI) industry is defined by geopolitical tech shifts, intense regulatory fights, and the rise of AI-powered commerce.

The major trend of the year, as noted by MIT Technology Review, will be the integration of Chinese open-source large language models (LLMs) into Silicon Valley products.

After DeepSeek’s breakthrough with its “R1” reasoning model, Chinese models like Alibaba’s Qwen series have seen massive global adoption due to their customisability and cost-effectiveness.

This narrows the performance gap with Western counterparts and forces giants like OpenAI to engage more with open-source models.

Simultaneously, the U.S. regulatory landscape is heading for a showdown. Following an executive order from President Trump focusing on curtailing state AI laws, a fierce tug-of-war will unfold between the federal government, states such as California, and well-funded industry lobbyists.

Experts also note that the battle over safety regulations and the pace of innovation will intensify, with little expectation of a cohesive federal law.

At the consumer end, chatbots are set to revolutionise shopping. With features such as Google’s Gemini calling stores or OpenAI’s ChatGPT compiling buyer’s guides and processing orders, agentic commerce is predicted to drive trillions in annual sales by 2030. More retail-AI partnerships are expected to fold in 2026.

Finally, AI-driven research is also poised to yield significant discoveries. Building on tools like Google DeepMind’s AlphaEvolve, which combines LLMs with evolutionary algorithms to solve optimisation problems, research is accelerating into using AI for scientific breakthroughs, from new materials to efficient computing.