AI's 2026 Race: Hundreds of Idle Digital Agents Throw Silent Party

KEY POINTS

•In 2025, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google led fierce AI model competition, setting the stage for 2026's ongoing race.
•Slack's Ryan Gavin predicted 2026 will see hundreds of AI agents per employee, but most will be unused.
•Experts warned 2026 will be the year businesses demand real AI returns, with some possibly facing bankruptcy risks.

In the great 2026 AI Olympics, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and friends sprint ahead in a race that feels less like technological progress and more like who-can-spend-the-most-before-a-CEO-quotes-'show-me-the-money.' Box CEO Aaron Levie warns we’ll be stuck in a perpetual relay of AI upgrades, while Slack’s Ryan Gavin predicts a 'lonely agent' epidemic—hundreds of agents spinning wheels per employee, achieving about as much as that gym membership you forgot you had. Harvey’s CEO Winston Weinberg drops wisdom: 'Good AI won't need long prompts,' basically pitching AI that understands us better than our exes. Meanwhile, Asana’s Dan Rogers dares companies to set goals so wild they sound insane without AI... or just 2026’s version of Monday motivation. All this, while venture capitalist Venky Ganesan warns some firms betting big on AI might just bankrupt themselves faster than you can say 'ROI.' So buckle up: AI is less a magic genie, more a cocktail of hopeful hype, endless agent rollouts, and existential dread—proving once again that the future isn’t what it used to be, especially when it’s mostly invisible.