I chatted with the head of IT recently, who told me for the first time in his two-decade-long career,

he believed that IT support was fundamentally going to change.

If all of us want this software to be doing work for us, ideally it's doing work with at least, if not, more competency than a human could.

We're no longer designing for humans but for agents.

The new optimization isn't visual hierarchy, but machine legibility.

And that will change the way we create and the tools that we use to do it.

Every year, we step back and ask a simple question.

What will builders focus on next?

Our 2026 big ideas bring together the themes our investing teams believe will shape the coming

year in tech.

This episode is built around three big ideas that, together, explain where AI products are

actually heading next.

The shift is not just that models are getting smarter.

It's that software is changing shape.

AI is moving from a tool you consult to a system that can understand intent and take action.

You're going to hear three different perspectives on that transition.

What it means for the interface, what it means for how we design software and information,

and what it means for how work gets executed inside organizations.

The first big idea is that the prompt box is not the final interface for AI.

Mark Andrusco argues that the winning products will feel less like chat and more like proactive teammates.

They'll notice what you're doing, anticipate what you need, and propose actions you can approve.

Here's Mark. I'm Mark Andrewsco, a partner

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