Our economist's tech and culture predictions for 2026

My job affords me the unique opportunity to analyze data most people will never see (Ramp’s business spend data) and talk to forward-thinking business leaders who often stay under the radar (Ramp customers, friends, and investors).

Here are five predictions for 2026. None of them are backed by actual data, and most of them aren’t testable, but they’re all informed by what I’ve been reading and conversations I’ve had over the last year.

1. Tech–media relationship improves through AI licensing deals

Media companies are increasingly exploring content licensing deals with AI model companies. In 2026, these deals will return value and financial growth to media companies, restoring some balance to a relationship that has been fractured for two decades, when tech and social media companies started to threaten traditional media revenue models.

2. No more chief AI officers

This is more of a hope than a prediction. What is this job supposed to do? Were people hiring chief internet officers in the ‘90s? It would be absurd to see that job title today, and we should think similarly about the role of a chief AI officer.

If the job is to guide an organization toward the most effective AI software development, the function should sit under a more traditional CTO or CPO role. If the function is responsible for procurement and adoption of AI products and services, it’s too vaguely defined. AI will increasingly become a feature of most software a business can buy. Having a single officer directing that procurement suggests that managers and downstream procurement leaders need not develop their own expertise on how to buy and use AI.

3. Big banks walk back bitcoin experiments

The clearest commercial application of bitcoin, enablement of cross-border transactions, has been solved by stablecoins (see products like Stripe’s Bridge), which are seeing broader adoption by the financial services sector and more likely to make it into actual consumer products. Even as the largest banks continue to lean into crypto, those currently experimenting with bitcoin will shift resources to offering technology built using stablecoins.

4. Light wash jeans are OUT

These should never have been in the arsenal of an adult man.

5. AI automates a significant number of customer service jobs

This one is testable, so I’ll add a metric. In 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 1.9 million Americans worked in customer service roles. I believe the number fell in 2025 and will fall further in 2026, ending up somewhere below 2020 levels of 1.8 million. This prediction would require a 6.3% decline in employment from 2024 levels.

I believe customer service roles are (1) highly exposed to automation, and (2) already being automated by vertical-specific software that is finding product-market fit. Anecdotally, I have spoken to executives at large, public companies who have set ambitious goals for the share of customer inquiries that will be addressed entirely by AI agents in 2026.

Thank you for reading and following our work this year. If you want to see me answer any questions with Ramp data in 2026, my DMs are open.