AI, ML, and Data Engineering InfoQ Trends Report 2026
InfoQ, Friday, October 30th, 2026
InfoQ podcast panel discusses 2026 trends in AI, ML and data engineering, including small language models, agents, evaluations and physical AI.
InfoQ's AI, ML and data engineering editors and an outside guest discuss the topics to watch over the next 12 months, as a companion to the written trends report.
They note a shift from very large models to small language models and the rise of reasoning models.
AI agents are a major 2026 trend, moving from personal use to teams and then whole organizations.
Other points include System One models with deterministic, faster and cheaper inference, continued growth in AI inference, increased attention to evaluations that check agents do the right thing, and physical AI connecting software intelligence to machines.