In 2025, a record $61 billion flowed into the market for data centers that power artificial intelligence. Waymo expanded its driverless taxi service to five cities. AI fueled scientific breakthroughs in areas from weather forecasting to health care.
AI experts predict even greater impacts this year. The number of data centers is expected to grow, fueling more applications that will increasingly play roles in most people’s daily lives. That could lead to higher electricity prices, and spur conversations about whether the technology is changing society for the better.
“I think 2026 will be defining, in the sense AI is no longer just something exciting, but we have to grapple with how it’s affecting our daily life and energy demands,” says Anjana Susarla, a researcher at Michigan State University.
Here’s a look at what experts say are major ways AI could change people’s daily lives this year.
Agentic AI set to expand
An AI agent is a machine learning model that can pursue a goal and complete tasks in place of a person. It can make decisions on its own, and adapt based on the goal it’s been given. For example, you could use an AI tool to monitor prices and book a flight on your behalf according to parameters you assigned it.
These tools started to come into play in 2025 as companies began to unveil “agentic browsers,” which allow AI to interact with websites on behalf of someone. In July, retail chain Walmart rolled out four AI agents, one of which helps customers find items in the company’s app. On the music platform Spotify, users can opt to use AI to create personalized playlists.
“We are not talking about OpenAI building some cutting-edge AI tool,” says Ms. Susarla. “We’re talking about retailers that all of us are familiar with.”
As these models become more advanced – and less prone to making mistakes – experts predict they could become an essential part of more and more businesses, changing companies’ workflows and consumers’ experiences. In a 2025 survey by McKinsey & Co., 62% of respondents said their organizations were already at least experimenting with AI agents.
Martin Hilbert, a professor at the University of California, Davis, who researches questions of AI and ethics, predicts workplaces in particular could experience restructuring as they adopt agentic AI. For one thing, AI agents could free up workers’ time by taking over everyday tasks such as checking emails.
AI can “automate many of these really repetitive, boring tasks that fill the daily schedule of many workers,” he says.
Dr. Hilbert also mentions that a proliferation of AI use in the workplace could mean that those who master this technology get a serious leg up among their co-workers – or even push them out.
“Some people who use AI effectively can replace other tasks from other people that don’t,” he says. “We can expect a reorganization happening among professionals.”
Data centers keep growing
Data centers that produce the computing power to run AI can use as much electricity as a small city. They’re multiplying rapidly – the number in the U.S. roughly doubled between 2021 and 2024. The International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental organization that works to secure sustainable energy, estimates about 4% of the electricity consumed nationally in 2024 was used by data centers.
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