AI Innovation, New Business Models, Bubble Potential: CRN Reporters Share 2026 Lookahead

‘Most of this year has shown us the demand is just red hot right now,’ CRN’s Dylan Martin says.

This year saw solution providers big and small and with specialties spanning just about every industry and geography navigating new business opportunities from artificial intelligence infrastructure and applications–with 2026 looking like another historic chapter in the enterprise AI book.

To help solution providers enter the new year with a focus on what matters most, CRN editors Dylan Martin and Wade Tyler Millward broke down the storylines and angles they are watching closest next year.

Martin, a CRN senior editor whose coverage has focused on AI infrastructure and semiconductors, said he’s following Nvidia’s path to $500 billion in revenue from its Blackwell and Rubin graphics processing unit (GPU) platforms.

AI In The Channel 2026

He’s also watching for Nvidia rival Advanced Micro Devices’ moves to try to take share and deliver tens of billions of dollars in sales from its AI chips by 2027.

“Even though there have definitely been lots of discussions about whether or not we’re in a bubble right now, most of this year has shown us the demand is just red hot right now,” Martin said. “Are we going to see any changes to that?”

Millward, a CRN senior associate editor covering AI applications and cloud vendors, said he’s interested in the cost of AI–and not only as AI vendors evolve the way customers pay for AI applications, with 2025 seeing a variety of pay models ranging from per license to per conversation to even outcome-based pricing.

He’s also looking for where partners, partner clients and vendors are successfully automating manual tasks through AI and whether that gets to the level of needing fewer human employees for different business operations.

“I still hold on to this belief that we don’t truly know the full cost of” AI, Millward said.

Watch the video above for more on these editors’ takes on the biggest stories the channel might see from AI in 2026.