Copy article

For the Telegraph: the new tech platforms business leaders will be using in 2026

Journalist: Rebecca Burn-Callander, Freelance

ended 03. December 2025

Hello all early adopters on Newspage!

What are the breakthrough tech platforms that you believe will become ubiquitous in 2026. How is this tech changing the way you do business/making you more profitable/ helping you to compete? Please give detail on impact, and include your business name, location, number of employees and turnover. 

My main focus is on AI-driven solutions and business intelligence SAAS but I can include a couple of technologies otuside this bracket too. 

For the Business Guide supplement, published in the Telegraph. 

3 responses from the Newspage community

Copy all

Copy

Editor
Samuel Mather-Holgate
Managing Director & IFA at Mather and Murray Financial
For sure, the breakthrough tech platforms of 2026 will all be Ai focused as we become more used to using this ultra-productive technology. Multi industry providers like Saleforce and Hubspot will become essential for any medium sized business as they link all lines of the business with cutting edge AI that revolutionises efficiencies. Your original AI models, like co-pilot and ChatGPT will be integrated into most software packages, and more and more businesses will built their own GPTs to do what they need for their business. Rather than AI killing off business, this will create a new pool of software developers specialising in this industry.
Copy

Rohit Parmar-Mistry
Founder at Pattrn Data
The landscape of 2026 will be a tale of two worlds. In the enterprise world, 'innovation' has become a euphemism for cost-cutting. I see large organisations migrating en masse from Tableau to Microsoft Power BI, not because it delivers better outcomes or smarter insights, but purely to shave numbers off a balance sheet. It is a race to the bottom where the goal is reducing overhead, not value. The real breakthrough is happening in the SME sector, where leaders are adopting leaner, AI-driven platforms. We use n8n to weave AI directly into our workflows, automating the mundane tasks that professional services firms bleed money on, like drafting client responses or processing leads. We use Metabase and Baserow to visualise and act on data. By 2026, the divide will be clear. Large corporates will be stuck with 'good enough' BI and AI tools chosen by a commitee, while agile businesses will be using sharp, self-hosted AI stacks to outperform them on speed, service, and profit.
Copy

Colette Mason
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
Enterprise platforms promise "one solution for everything" but never quite deliver. When the system can't handle actual workflows, workarounds spawn like mushrooms, shadow spreadsheets, manual data transfers, that one person who "just knows how to make it work." Your best people spend hours wrestling systems instead of solving problems. They don't feel stupid because they lack operational skills. It's because their tools do. Smart businesses are building automation, using as little AI as possible, based on how humans actually think and work. They've seen swathes of high-profile AI project failures. The tech needs to blend into workflows. No "system says no" moments fighting with staff, just invisible intelligence handling the grunt work while humans stay in flow. Individual platforms are irrelevant. They're just components. What matters is whether your people trust their tools or spend half their day working around them. 2026's winners will have teams who feel sharper, not burdened.