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Cities Move to Center Stage as AI Enters 2026 Deployment Era

Analysts say the next wave rewards jurisdictions that design founder-first, AI-native environments.

Overview

  • A Khaleej Times analysis outlines five 2026 trends centered on place-based ecosystems, highlighting AI agents as collaborators, broad digital identity for companies and assets, industrial-scale creator infrastructure, and robotics shifting from pilots to production.
  • DEV Community forecasts a tipping-point backlash against AI in 2026, with consumers placing a premium on work clearly made by humans as synthetic content saturates platforms.
  • The DEV piece predicts a blue-collar resurgence as data centers, energy projects, and robotics upkeep boost demand for skilled trades that use AI as an assist rather than a replacement.
  • Google is projected by DEV Community to gain an edge through end-to-end control of chips, models, and distribution, though this is presented as a forward-looking assessment rather than a settled outcome.
  • Technical expectations for 2026 include advances in continual learning, wider use of world models for reasoning, enterprise agents focused on end-to-end tasks, and the possibility of a breakout year for real-world robotics.