| 2026 | Speedrun | World models take the spotlight in storytellingAI world models generate immersive 3D environments from text. Technologies like Marble and Genie… | Jonathan Lai | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | Wealth management for allTokenized assets enable personalized active portfolio management across classes with instant reb… | Maggie Hsu, Head of Go-to-Market for a16z crypto | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | We'll use AI for substantive research tasksAI models now execute abstract research instructions like doctoral students, occasionally return… | Scott Duke Kominers, Research Partner at a16z crypto | — |
| 2026 | Apps | Voice agents take up spaceAI voice agents managing real business interactions have moved from science fiction to reality, … | Olivia Moore | — |
| 2026 | Growth | Vertical AI evolves from information retrieval and reasoning to multiplayerVertical software in healthcare, legal, and finance is maturing beyond information extraction. A… | Alex Immerman | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | Unleashing the full potential of blockchains… when legal architecture finally matches technical architectureLegal uncertainty forced founders into company-oriented frameworks, creating distortions: avoide… | Miles Jennings, General Counsel and Head of Decentralization for a16z crypto | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | Trading as a way station, not the last stop, for crypto businessesMost successful crypto companies have pivoted to trading, but this cannibalizes mindshare and cr… | Arianna Simpson, General Partner at a16z crypto | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | Thinking about tokenization of real world assets, and stablecoins, in a more crypto-native wayRather than skeuomorphic tokenization, crypto-native approaches like perpetual futures offer dee… | Guy Wuollet, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz | — |
| 2026 | Infrastructure | The year we step inside videoVideo models now maintain temporal coherence, remember content, and respond to user input. As Yo… | Yoko Li | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | The rise of staked mediaMedia credibility can shift from claimed neutrality to verifiable stakes. Tokenized assets, lock… | Robert Hackett, Operating Partner and Head of Content/Editorial for a16z crypto | — |
| 2026 | American Dynamism | The renaissance of the American factoryManufacturing is being reborn with AI and software at its core, as companies adopt a factory min… | Erin Price-Wright | — |
| 2026 | American Dynamism | The next wave of observability will be physical, not digitalOver the past decade, software observability transformed digital systems; now physical observabi… | Zabie Elmgren | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | The invisible tax on the open webAI agents extract data from ad-supported sites while bypassing revenue streams funding content c… | Elizabeth Harkavy, Partner on a16z crypto investment team | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | The internet becomes the bankAs agents operate autonomously, value must move as freely as information. Smart contracts enable… | Christian Crowley, Business Development Partner for a16z crypto | — |
| 2026 | Speedrun | The first AI-native universityEducational institutions designed around intelligent systems can optimize courses, advising, and… | Emily Bennett | — |
| 2026 | Growth | The end of the screen time KPI in AI applicationsOutcome-based pricing is replacing screen-time metrics in AI applications. Examples include Deep… | Santiago Rodriguez | — |
| 2026 | American Dynamism | The electro-industrial stack will move the worldThe next industrial revolution lies in the convergence of electrification, materials, and AI, br… | Ryan McEntush | — |
| 2026 | Infrastructure | The AI-native data stack continues to evolveThe modern data stack is consolidating toward unified platforms. Future evolution includes vecto… | Jason Cui | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | The (near) future of messaging isn't just quantum-resistant. It's decentralizedCurrent messengers rely on centralized servers vulnerable to government shutdown or corporate co… | Shane Mac, Co-founder and CEO of XMTP Labs | — |
| 2026 | Growth | Systems of record lose groundAI collapses the distance between intent and execution, transforming passive databases into auto… | Sarah Wang | — |
| 2026 | Infrastructure | Startups tame the chaos of multimodal dataEnterprises struggle with unstructured data such as PDFs, videos, emails, and logs. The opportun… | Jennifer Li | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | Stablecoins unlock the bank ledger upgrade cycle — and new payment scenariosLegacy banking systems running 1960s-1980s software on mainframes with COBOL create technical de… | Sam Broner, Investing Partner for a16z crypto team | — |
| 2026 | Apps | Prompt-free and proactive applications arriveThe prompt box dies in 2026 as mainstream AI apps eliminate visible prompting, and instead obser… | Marc Andrusko | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | Privacy will be the most important moat in cryptoPrivacy creates chain lock-in through network effects, and while competing on performance alone … | Ali Yahya, General Partner at a16z crypto | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | Prediction markets go bigger, broader, and smarterPrediction markets will expand beyond major elections to granular outcomes, intersecting with cr… | Andrew Hall, Research Advisor to the a16z crypto team | — |
| 2026 | Apps | New model primitives unlock previously impossible companies2026 brings companies that could not exist before recent breakthroughs in reasoning, multimodali… | Kimberly Tan | — |
| 2026 | Bio + Health | Healthy MAUsA new healthcare segment is emerging: engaged consumers who proactively monitor their health des… | Julie Yoo | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | From know your customer (KYC) to 'know your agent' (KYA)The agent economy bottleneck has shifted from intelligence to identity. Non-human identities now… | Sean Neville, Cofounder of Circle, CEO of Catena Labs | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | From 'code is law' to 'spec is law'DeFi hacks reveal that current security practices remain heuristic. Moving from bug patterns to … | Daejun Park, Senior Blockchain Security Engineer at a16z crypto | — |
| 2026 | Apps | Forward-deployed motions take AI to the 99%Most AI startup benefits have so far accrued to Silicon Valley-connected companies, but in 2026 … | Joe Schmidt | — |
| 2026 | American Dynamism | Data crusade in our critical industriesCritical industries generate massive amounts of unstructured data, from truck rolls and meter re… | Will Bitsky | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | Crypto offers a new primitive for use beyond blockchainsSNARKs had impractical overhead (1,000,000X) but zkVM provers will hit ~10,000X overhead with sm… | Justin Thaler, Research Partner at a16z and Associate Professor at Georgetown University | — |
| 2026 | Infrastructure | Creative tools go multimodalGenerative media tools now enable video continuation, character creation, and scene reshoot capa… | Justine Moore | — |
| 2026 | Growth | Creating for agents, not humansAs people increasingly interface through agents, design priorities shift from visual hierarchy t… | Stephenie Zhang | — |
| 2026 | Apps | Consumer AI shifts from "help me" to "see me"In 2026 consumer AI transitions from productivity assistance to connectivity and self-understand… | Bryan Kim | — |
| 2026 | Apps | ChatGPT becomes the AI app storeConsumer product cycles require new technology, new behavior, and new distribution. With the Ope… | Anish Acharya | — |
| 2026 | American Dynamism | Building the AI-native industrial baseAmerica's economic foundation is shifting toward an industrial base that is AI-native and softwa… | David Ulevitch | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | Better, more clever onramps/offramps for stablecoinsStablecoins processed $46 trillion in volume last year—exceeding PayPal 20x and approaching ACH … | Jeremy Zhang, Full Stack Web Developer on a16z's Crypto team | — |
| 2026 | American Dynamism | Autonomous labs accelerate scientific discoveryAs AI and robotics capabilities advance across modalities, teams will pursue autonomous scientif… | Oliver Hsu | — |
| 2026 | Apps | AI will finally upgrade banking and insurance infrastructureWhile banks have layered AI atop legacy systems, true transformation requires rebuilding the und… | Angela Strange | — |
| 2026 | Apps | AI startups selling to other AI startups reach scaleIn an unprecedented moment of company creation, startups can win distribution over incumbents by… | James da Costa | — |
| 2026 | Infrastructure | AI revives cybersecurity hiringSecurity teams face a hiring crisis because staff are bogged down in repetitive log reviews. AI … | Joel de la Garza | — |
| 2026 | Apps | AI reinforces business modelsThe best AI startups amplify customer economics rather than merely automating tasks. Firms like … | David Haber | — |
| 2026 | Apps | AI creates a new orchestration layer—and new roles—in the Fortune 500Enterprises will shift from isolated AI tools to multi-agent systems that coordinate like digita… | Seema Amble | — |
| 2026 | Infrastructure | Agent-native infrastructure becomes table stakesEnterprise backends designed for human-speed traffic cannot handle agent-speed, recursive worklo… | Malika Aubakirova | — |
| 2026 | Speedrun | "The year of me"Products are shifting from mass production toward deep personalization. AI tutors adapt to indiv… | Joshua Lu | — |
| 2026 | Crypto | 'Secrets-as-a-service'Most data pipelines lack privacy controls, blocking institutional participation in tokenized ass… | Adeniyi Abiodun, Chief Product Officer and Co-founder of Mysten Labs | — |
| 2025 | American Dynamism | XR Devices Get Developer-ReadyExtended reality (XR) platforms like Apple Vision Pro and Meta Orion enable developers to build … | Oliver Hsu | — |
| 2025 | Enterprise + Fintech | When Regulation Becomes CodeRegulatory compliance consumes enormous resources across banking, insurance, and healthcare. Len… | Angela Strange | — |
| 2025 | Crypto | We'll See Greater Adoption of the 'DUNA,' a New Industry Standard for Blockchain Networks in the U.S.In 2024 Wyoming passed a law recognizing the DUNA (decentralized unincorporated nonprofit associ… | Miles Jennings | — |
| 2025 | Crypto | Various Sectors May Start Tokenizing "Unconventional" AssetsAs infrastructure matures and costs fall, tokenizing assets will spread across sectors, allowing… | Aaron Schnider | — |
| 2025 | Consumer Tech | The Year of the "AI Brain"LLMs can process digital exhaust—texts, emails, tweets, browsing history—to create "digital brai… | Justine Moore | — |
| 2025 | American Dynamism | The Resurgence of NuclearAI's energy demands are driving a revival of nuclear power. Data centers need clean, consistent … | David Ulevitch | fact_check |
| 2025 | American Dynamism | The Next Phase of Robot Data CollectionBeyond collecting foundation-scale robot data, the focus is shifting to benchmarks, preference d… | Jacob Phillips | — |
| 2025 | American Dynamism | The Jobs of the Future: Crossing the Hardware-Software ChasmTechnical roles that bridge hardware and software are expanding as autonomy advances across defe… | Erin Price-Wright | — |
| 2025 | American Dynamism | The Future of Defense Is DecentralizedMilitary decisions are shifting to edge operations, where autonomous drones and AI systems opera… | Ryan McEntush | — |
| 2025 | Growth | The Decline of "Google It"Google's search dominance faces unprecedented pressure from chatbots and specialized answer engi… | Alex Immerman | fact_check |
| 2025 | Crypto | The Crypto Industry Finally Gets Its Own App Stores, and DiscoveryWhen centralized platforms like Apple's App Store or Google Play block crypto apps, they limit t… | Maggie Hsu | — |
| 2025 | Consumer Tech | The "AI Drummer" and the Promise of Real-Time AIReal-time AI reduces inference latency, enabling seamless co-creation with machines. Application… | Anish Acharya | — |
| 2025 | Bio + Health | Super Staffing for HealthcareHealthcare faces severe clinical and administrative staffing shortages. Specialist AI models ser… | Julie Yoo | — |
| 2025 | Infrastructure | Small, But Mighty: On-Device AISmaller on-device models will dominate by usage volume, driven by privacy, economic, and practic… | Jennifer Li | fact_check |
| 2025 | Enterprise + Fintech | Romanticizing Inorganic GrowthAI-powered service startups will transform low-margin industries by automating voice, email, and… | Joe Schmidt | — |
| 2025 | Enterprise + Fintech | Ripping Out Legacy Systems of RecordEnterprises will abandon incumbent platforms like Salesforce and Workday in favor of custom AI s… | Marc Andrusko | — |
| 2025 | American Dynamism | New Strides in Free-Space Optical CommunicationsFree-space optical links offer higher bitrates than radio frequency. Advanced modulation schemes… | Peter Bowman-Davis | — |
| 2025 | Crypto | Liquid Democracy Online Goes PhysicalAs dissatisfaction with current governance and voting systems grows, there is an opportunity to … | Andrew Hall | — |
| 2025 | Consumer Tech | Knowledge Work Gets PersonalizedAI still struggles to produce outputs that sound authentically like an individual. Similar to Lo… | Olivia Moore | — |
| 2025 | Infrastructure | Hypercenters: The Regional Race for AI InfrastructureAI Hypercenters are regions with 3-6 gigawatts of installed capacity to develop, train, and host… | Anjney Midha | fact_check |
| 2025 | American Dynamism | Harnessing Earth Observation DataSatellite imagery doubled from 500 to over 1,000 satellites in five years, yet commercial revenu… | Millen Anand | — |
| 2025 | Crypto | Going From Prediction Markets to Better Information Aggregation for EverythingPrediction markets reached the mainstream in 2024, but it is not prediction markets per se that … | Scott Duke Kominers | — |
| 2025 | Infrastructure | Generative AI EverywhereAI deployment extends beyond cloud servers to all devices and applications. Locally-run language… | Guido Appenzeller | — |
| 2025 | Games | Game Tech Powers Tomorrow's BusinessesGaming technology extends beyond entertainment to solve business challenges. Applications includ… | Troy Kirwin | — |
| 2025 | Enterprise + Fintech | Every White-Collar Worker Will Have an AI CopilotAI copilots will eventually exist for every white-collar role, automating the most painful parts… | James da Costa | — |
| 2025 | Crypto | Enterprises Will Increasingly Accept Stablecoins for PaymentsStablecoins found product-market fit as the cheapest way to send a dollar and as an open platfor… | Sam Broner | fact_check |
| 2025 | Crypto | Enter "Decentralized Autonomous Chatbots"Building on AIs owning wallets, a chatbot can run inside a TEE (trusted execution environment) t… | Dan Boneh, Daniel Reynaud, Daejun Park, Daren Matsuoka | — |
| 2025 | Bio + Health | Drug Targets Are AvocadosIdentifying validated drug targets involves unpredictable timing—"too early...too early...now—to… | Jorge Conde | — |
| 2025 | Enterprise + Fintech | Differentiation vs. Lasting DefensibilityWhile AI creates immediate differentiation, winning startups must build lasting moats to survive… | David Haber | — |
| 2025 | Bio + Health | Democratizing Health Through TechAI-powered blood biomarker analysis, wearables, and full-body screening are shifting healthcare … | Vijay Pande | — |
| 2025 | Crypto | Crypto Owners Become Crypto UsersAfter developing as a political movement in 2024 and continuing as a financial one via Bitcoin a… | Daren Matsuoka | — |
| 2025 | Crypto | Crypto Companies Will Begin With the End (-User Experience), Instead of Letting the Infrastructure Determine the UXToday many crypto companies don't truly choose their infrastructure; the infrastructure effectiv… | Mason Hall | — |
| 2025 | Crypto | Countries Explore Putting Government Bonds OnchainPutting government bonds onchain would create a government-backed, interest-bearing digital asse… | Brian Quintenz | — |
| 2025 | Crypto | Builders Will Reuse, Not Just Reinvent, InfrastructureOver the past year teams kept reinventing the wheel across the blockchain stack, building bespok… | Joachim Neu | — |
| 2025 | Bio + Health | Big is Back: Tackling Common Diseases (Again)GLP-1 drugs are creating a $100B+ market by 2030, and breakthrough CAR-T therapies for autoimmun… | Vineeta Agarwala | fact_check |
| 2025 | Growth | Beyond GPT Wrappers2025 brings the AI-native application layer, where winning founders operate as applied AI engine… | Sarah Wang | — |
| 2025 | Infrastructure | Beyond "Reason": AI Makes Strides in Math, Physics, and CodingWhile LLMs don't truly reason, they show improved performance on technical tasks through better … | Matt Bornstein | — |
| 2025 | Crypto | As More People Use AI, We'll Need Unique Proof of PersonhoodIn a world of AI-generated impersonations, scams, and deepfakes, we need "proof of personhood" t… | Eddy Lazzarin | — |
| 2025 | Consumer Tech | Analyzing Qualitative Data with AILLMs, web agents, and multimodal models enable the analysis of unstructured data—words, narrativ… | Zach Cohen | — |
| 2025 | Crypto | An AI Needs a Wallet of One's Own to Act AgenticallyAs AIs shift from background characters to true agents, they need the ability to participate in … | Carra Wu | — |
| 2025 | Enterprise + Fintech | AI-Native UI and UXThe maturation of foundation models enables new interaction paradigms beyond chat interfaces. In… | Kimberly Tan | — |
| 2025 | Consumer Tech | AI Video Gets SpecializedAI-generated video will segment by use case in 2025, achieving greater storyline depth, characte… | Bryan Kim | — |
| 2025 | Games | AI Companions With Their Own Inner WorldsCurrent AI companions passively react to user interactions. Next-generation companions will have… | Andrew Chen | — |
| 2025 | Enterprise + Fintech | AI Advances From Data Collection to Data-in-ActionBeyond extracting data from emails and calls, AI systems will suggest action sequences based on … | Seema Amble | — |
| 2025 | Games | A Second Wave of "Faceless" Video CreatorsFaceless creators hide their identity while leveraging AI tools for voice, language, and audio p… | Lester Chen | — |
| 2025 | Games | A Next-Gen Pixar Will EmergeAn iconic media company will emerge using interactive video, an AI-native storytelling format th… | Jonathan Lai | — |
| 2025 | Growth | A Golden Era of SalesRather than eliminating salespeople, generative AI enables a golden era of sales by automating a… | Joe Morrissey | — |
| 2025 | American Dynamism | "The Catch" Signals the Next Frontier in SpaceStarship's booster catch achievement enables full, rapid reusability for lift vehicles capable o… | Lejla Johnsen | — |
| 2025 | Crypto | "Hiding the Wires" Helps Usher in Web3's Killer AppBlockchains' technical superpowers make them special but have also hindered mainstream adoption,… | Chris Lyons | — |