My Three AI Market Surprises for 2026 – Part 3

My third AI prediction for 2026: Apple will surprise everyone.

Not with the best model. Not with the most benchmarks. But with the question that ultimately matters: Where do normal people actually use AI?

The Tech Bubble vs. Reality

The tech bubble debates Claude vs. GPT vs. Gemini. Meanwhile, Apple is sitting on a billion devices, a privacy story that actually works, and an ecosystem that nobody else has.

On-device AI will be good enough for 80% of everyday use cases in 2026. No cloud latency. No privacy concerns. Just there.

Siri Grows Up

And then something interesting happens: Siri will suddenly no longer be the joke it's been for years.

My guess: Most people won't experience AI through a chat interface. Instead, it will be embedded, invisible, on the device they're already holding in their hand.

Apple doesn't need to have the best model. Apple just needs to be good enough – and everywhere.

My Three Bets for 2026

That's it – my three bets for the AI market in 2026:

1. Open source agents go mainstream
2. Micro-SaaS explodes
3. Apple surprises everyone

At least one of them will be completely wrong.

In a year, we'll do the reveal. Then we'll see where I was right and where I embarrassed myself.