Three revolutionary changes in the world of artificial intelligence on the horizon 2026: from input field to digital worker

Artificial intelligence is on the brink of a fundamental transformation. Instead of remaining a passive tool waiting for user commands, AI is evolving toward autonomous assistants capable of independently performing complex tasks. The international venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) during their recent “Big Ideas for 2026” conference presented three groundbreaking assumptions that could definitively change the way we operate and work.

The End of the Input Field Era: From Prompts to Proactive Action

The first significant change concerns how we interact with AI systems. Marc Andrusko, a partner in the AI applications investment team at a16z, makes a bold statement: the input prompt as the main communication tool with AI applications will become a thing of the past. The new generation of intelligent systems will no longer force users to write commands—instead, they will observe our actions, actively offer solutions, and wait for final approval.

What is driving this change? A huge leap in business potential. So far, the software market has hovered around $300–400 billion in annual global expenditures. Meanwhile, the labor force expenditure market in the United States alone is $13 trillion. This means a potential addressable market (TAM) growth of about 30 times.

Ideal AI should operate like the best employee in a company—one that not only identifies problems but also diagnoses their causes, proposes and implements solutions, and only at the end asks: “Approve the solution I found.” An example is an AI-native CRM that automatically searches through emails from recent years, identifies forgotten leads, and suggests re-engagement campaigns. While the decision-maker is always a human, the machine handles 99% of the preparatory work.

A New Design Paradigm: Creating for Machines, Not for Humans

The second change involves a fundamental overhaul of how we design software and content. Stephanie Zhang, a growth investment partner at a16z, points to a groundbreaking shift: the target audience is no longer humans but AI agents.

This has far-reaching implications. What attracts human attention—such as the “5W1H” principle in journalism or an intuitive user interface—may not interest agents at all. While humans read the first few paragraphs of an article, AI will analyze the entire text. The new standard for optimization is not appearance but machine readability.

Various organizations are already experimenting with what can be called “SEO for agents”—how to make products appear in AI responses. In a world where content creation costs approach zero, there is a risk of mass-generating hyper-personalized, medium-quality content aimed at agents—much like keywords in the search engine era.

This transformation affects every aspect—from how engineering teams monitor systems (instead of browsing dashboards, AI SRE reports insights on Slack), to how salespeople gather information (an agent pulls data from CRM and summarizes it instead of forcing a human to manually review).

Voice Agents Enter the Market: From Science Fiction to Reality

The third change is a rapid increase in practical applications of voice agents. Olivia Moore, a partner in the AI applications team at a16z, observes the transition of voice AI from a theoretical concept to systems being widely deployed by real companies.

Healthcare is the biggest example. Voice agents are already handling calls to insurers, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, and even sensitive conversations with patients—from scheduling appointments to post-operative advice or preliminary psychiatric consultations. The main driver is high staff turnover and recruitment difficulties.

The financial sector faces even greater opportunities. Contrary to expectations, voice AI performs better than humans here because it always precisely follows compliance regulations, whereas employees sometimes bypass them. Additionally, every action of the agent is fully tracked and documented.

Recruitment is the third front. Voice AI conducts preliminary interviews at any time, and candidates proceed to the next stage conducted by humans.

With improvements in foundational models over the past year, accuracy has increased and latency has decreased. Some companies intentionally slow down agents or add background noise to sound more natural.

Falling Dominoes: Changes in Call Centers and the BPO Industry

The price action transformation has direct consequences for traditional customer service centers and business process outsourcing (BPO). As the industry rightly says: “AI won’t take your job, but the person using AI will.”

Some call centers will undergo a gentle transformation, while others face rapid decline. Corporate clients prefer to buy comprehensive solutions, so they will continue working with BPO providers—only those offering lower prices or higher throughput thanks to AI. In regions where humans are cheaper than the best voice AI, the advantage still favors humans—but as model costs decrease, the situation will change dramatically.

The Future of Voice AI: From B2B to Administration and Healthcare

While B2B solutions dominate, a16z sees great potential in other areas. Voice companions in nursing homes and senior care facilities are already functioning as companions and health monitors. Even more intriguing are possibilities in handling emergency calls (911) and DMV offices—frustrating systems for consumers and employees alike—that could be radically simplified.

Who Is the Decision-Maker in This Transformation?

In each of these scenarios, the decision-maker—human—remains a key link in the chain. However, their role is fundamentally changing. Instead of doing the work, the decision-maker supervises, approves, and guides. Digital assistants do the work, while humans make the final strategic decisions.

The voice AI industry is developing as a whole, not as a single market. At every level of the tech stack—from foundational models to application platforms—winners and losers will emerge. If you’re interested in this industry, it’s worth watching companies like 11 Labs, which allow experimenting with creating your own voices and agents.

The transformation forecasted by a16z for 2026 is not a distant revolution. These are already ongoing changes that are accelerating.