Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2026. Read them in this 18th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
By Weldon Dodd, Distinguished Engineer, Iru
As organizations prepare for 2026, IT leaders are trying to simplify their environments while getting ready for the next era of identity, endpoint management, and AI-driven operations. The forces reshaping enterprise infrastructure are already here, influencing device ecosystems, cloud platforms, and the workflows teams depend on every day. The predictions below highlight the trends that are most likely to define how organizations adapt in the coming year.
Prediction 1: Cloud identity, endpoint, and security collapse into one fabric
Over the next year, I think cloud identity is going to become the default way companies connect people to their devices. You can already see the pieces lining up. Microsoft has done a lot with Windows Hello for Business, Google has Android work profiles, and Apple is pushing hard with Platform SSO and Tahoe. All of that is making it much easier to tie a corporate identity directly to your laptop or phone.
At the same time, the old one-size-fits-all endpoint model is fading out. Modern companies, especially startups, are leaning more toward Apple or at least running a much more balanced mix of Macs and PCs, and a broader mix of laptops, tablets, and phones. Employees want to choose the platform that works best for them, and IT leaders are getting comfortable with that. The workforce is hybrid and mobile now, so people expect to work from anywhere, at any time, on any device.
That is forcing a bigger shift. Endpoint management, identity, and security cannot live in separate silos anymore. The days of buying a standalone endpoint management tool are numbered. Everything is moving toward integrated platforms that handle device management, security controls, and identity in one place. Over time, even AI will follow that same pattern. In the short term you will see a bunch of point solutions and agents pop up, but give it a few years and customers will expect those agentic AI capabilities to be built right into their IT stack, not bolted on as an afterthought.
Prediction 2: Consumer gen AI sugar high wears off and real value has to show up
The generative AI hype cycle is going to cool off pretty quickly. Some of the gen AI tools are genuinely impressive and sometimes they feel almost magical. But a lot of what people are doing with them today is still a novelty. The energy will shift to more boring, durable use cases where AI is embedded deep in workflows across the tech stack instead of being pasted on top as a cheap toy. On the IT side, that means stepping back from shiny demos that add ‘chat’ without any real value. The companies that come out ahead will not be the ones chasing every new AI feature for its own sake. They will be the ones that treat AI like any other core part of their infrastructure and demand clear answers on how AI, particularly Agentic AI, plugs into identity, endpoint security, and day to day operations.
Together, these predictions show an industry moving past fragmentation and spectacle and toward integration and substance. Identity, endpoint, security, and AI are beginning to form a unified operational layer. Organizations that prepare for this shift now will be better positioned to achieve stability, clarity, and long-term value as the landscape continues to evolve.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Weldon Dodd is a Distinguished Engineer at Iru, where he focuses on the evolution of identity, endpoint management, and modern security architectures. With deep experience spanning Apple ecosystems, enterprise mobility, and cloud-native IT, Weldon helps organizations rethink how people, devices, and infrastructure securely connect in a hybrid world. He is known for his clear, forward-looking perspective on the convergence of identity, security, and AI in modern IT environments.
