DeepL leaders’ AI predictions for 2026

Key Takeaways

• In 2026, enterprises shift from AI pilots to transformation, with agentic AI orchestrating workflows and driving real business outcomes.
• DeepL research with 5,000+ leaders shows rising AI ROI and expectations that it will outpace all other technologies for growth.
• Executives expect AI to automate entire functions, unifying tools and freeing humans for higher-value creative and strategic work.
• Agentic AI goes mainstream across domains, from nano-targeted marketing to legal workflows, to boost personalization, efficiency, and client outcomes.
• As AI matures, productivity, security, and explainability replace novelty as benchmarks, making seamless, responsible integration a competitive necessity.
• DeepL’s Language AI provides the accurate, compliant, and on-brand communication foundation enterprises need as they scale and automate global workflows.

Organizations got serious about searching for AI applications that could deliver real value in 2025. In 2026, they’re leveraging what they’ve learned to drive real transformation. 

Business leaders are discovering the power and potential of agentic AI. They see how it can transform workflows and business processes, reimagine what’s possible, and make AI a primary growth engine.

DeepL research reveals a massive shift toward specialized and agentic AI

To inform our predictions for where AI is headed in 2026, DeepL conducted in-depth research with more than 5,000 senior business leaders from across the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Japan. Here’s what we found:

• 25% of leaders say agentic AI is already driving major transformation in their businesses. 
• 44% expect it to do so in 2026. 
• Only 7% of business leaders believe AI agents won’t change their operations, underscoring the scale of the transformation.

Agentic AI orchestrates workflows and helps organizations get more from AI and other tools. As leaders see this in action, their confidence grows that they can drive transformation and secure measurable ROI. 

In all, 67% of respondents report rising ROI from their AI initiatives this year. More than half (52%) expect AI to contribute more to company growth than any other technology next year.

From the frontline of Language, voice, and agentic AI innovation and development, here are DeepL leaders’ predictions for how AI will transform businesses and unlock human potential in 2026.

AI automates business functions to unlock human potential: Jarek Kutylowski, CEO

Core insight: AI moves from a fragmented tool to a unified system that automates entire business functions, freeing humans for creative problem-solving.

“2025 was the year AI went from proof of concept to application. In 2026, I believe we’ll go even further with companies fully automating certain business functions thanks to AI.

With tools being less fragmented and agentic AI able to take over cumbersome functions, we’ll be unburdened of previously time-consuming tasks. This reduction in repetitive work will make us able to focus on what we humans truly excel at: solving complex problems with creativity and grit.

From a European perspective, technological sovereignty is about more than where data resides. It’s owning the tech know-how and the models, and creating businesses that iterate on it.

We need 2026 to be the year that AI technology is empowered to grow in the region, with better access to AI infrastructure, reform in stock option rules for employees and investment into the technology. We also need to be bolder in our self-belief regionally. We can and we will be able [to] compete in AI.”

Enterprise-scale agent adoption reaches the early majority: Stefan Mesken, Chief Scientist

Core insight: Agentic AI moves past the “innovator” stage as organizations integrate virtual coworkers to streamline operations and enhance decision-making.

“2026 will undoubtedly be the year of the agent. Public awareness of what agents can do caught up in 2025, but enterprise adoption at scale will happen in the New Year. On the technology adoption curve, we will see the significant shift from innovators to the early majority.

From conversations with our customers, we know organizations will increasingly rely on virtual co-workers to streamline operations and enhance decision-making processes. We’ll also see a shift in how they choose AI solutions.

There will be a more collaborative approach, with each team selecting the tools that are most suited to their requirements, and testing solutions for themselves. Widespread integration will lead to more efficient workflows, enabling teams to focus on strategic initiatives and complex topics rather than routine tasks. 

I anticipate a ripple effect, with early adopters demonstrating value and encouraging broader acceptance. It’s the start of an era in which agentic AI will play a crucial role in driving innovation and improving overall business outcomes.”

AI agents re-engineer marketing through hyper-personalization: Steve Rotter, CMO

Core insight: Agents enable “nano-segmentation,” allowing marketers to treat customers as individuals on a massive scale.

“This coming year will mark a historic inflection point. In 2026, AI agents will move on from merely augmenting work and start re-engineering it.

For marketers, this unlocks incredible potential. For the first time ever, we have the ability to deliver fine-tuned, personalized marketing at scale. That means greater relevance and ultimately, better marketing.

The idea of personalizing marketing messages is nothing new, but there have always been limitations.

Identifying unique customer segments is hard, delivering personalized messages takes time and, at the end of the day, it’s pretty easy to hit the send button and launch 50,000 emails at an audience and hope something sticks, even though even a successful campaign involves 85% of people ignoring it.

AI agents clearly have the potential to overcome all of these barriers. They can do the hard work to define and identify more granular segments, develop better messaging for these 'nano-segments' and deliver messages for them across the right channels.

To take advantage, we’ll need to follow the lead of that great marketing guru Yoda and, 'unlearn what we have learned' in terms of high-scale marketing tactics.

It’s a chance to get back to the heart of great marketing: treating customers as people, reaching them where they are at and talking with them the same way you would an old friend.”

Seamless AI integration defines the new legal industry standard: Frankie Williams, CLO

Core insight: Legal AI becomes core infrastructure, shifting the industry toward outcome-based pricing and strategic human oversight.

“A recent DeepL study of U.S. legal professionals found that 77% of legal organizations have increased their AI spend in the past year. I believe that in 2026, this rapid adoption will accelerate further, and we’ll see a shift in focus.

It’s no longer a question of whether a firm or legal team uses AI, but of how seamlessly and securely it integrates it into core workflows. 

AI-powered features will become embedded within discovery platforms, contract management systems, and legal research tools. AI will become increasingly trusted for routine tasks, taking on contract drafting and review, allowing human effort to focus on oversight and strategic judgment.

This will continue to reshape how legal work is priced. Firms will need to move away from traditional hourly billing rates, and towards task and outcome-based pricing models. 

The legal profession will demand tools that provide audit trails, demonstrate transparent reasoning (explainability), and maintain strict data protection, privacy and security standards. However, the successful legal professional of 2026 will be defined by their ability to harness AI to deliver demonstrably better, faster, and more cost-effective outcomes.

Using AI will no longer be optional for law firms if they want to keep up with client demand."

AI matures from prototype to critical industry infrastructure: Gonçalo Gaiolas, CPO

Core insight: Companies move from experimentation to operationalization, rebuilding entire workflows around embedded, product-ready AI.

"Over the past year, we’ve seen enormous excitement around what AI could do. The next 12 months will be about what it does. 2026 will be the year AI moves from failed proofs of concept and prototypes to actually powering products that reimagine entire industries, and make it into the real workflows of teams.

Companies are no longer experimenting on the sidelines. They’re operationalizing.

Our research with global business leaders proves this point. More than half expect AI to contribute more to company growth than any other technology in 2026. This is a clear sign that AI is maturing into infrastructure, not just an idea of innovation.

As AI agents and language technologies become embedded in everyday products, we’ll see entire workflows rebuilt around them. Those workflows will be simpler, faster, and more human. The result? A shift from one-off use cases to real, sustained transformation across industries."

Agentic AI is the superpower for business scale: Sebastian Enderlein, CTO

Core insight: Productivity and outcomes replace novelty as the new benchmarks for long-term AI success and monetization.

"After a cycle of pilots and proofs of concept, businesses are now ready to scale and they’re betting big on agentic AI to do it. As a result, 2026 will be the year AI stops experimenting and starts executing, at a scale we haven’t yet seen.

Nearly half (44%) of global business leaders expect major transformation from agentic AI in 2026, and they’re right to do so. These systems are starting to reliably handle repetitive, knowledge-based tasks at scale, freeing many up to focus on higher-impact, creative problem-solving

For consumers, the 'wow effect' of AI will continue to grow (especially in video and image generation) as tools become more fluent, expressive, and embedded in daily life. Beyond the spectacle though, the real transformation will happen inside organizations.

At the same time, the business side of AI will mature. Vendors will stabilize, monetization models will evolve from usage-based to outcome-driven, and productivity, not novelty, will become the new benchmark."

Read our detailed press release for more insights from DeepL’s global business leader AI survey.

Turn 2026 predictions into your business reality

The next wave of AI focuses on proof, not promise. If you’re ready to explore the potential of AI to transform workflows and empower knowledge workers, start with Language AI.

DeepL’s Language AI suite—Translator, Write, Voice, API, and Integrations—moves beyond basic translation to integrate seamlessly into complex, automated enterprise workflows.

Contact Sales to see how our specialized AI tools turn multilingual communication into a lever for efficient, scalable growth.