5 Industry Experts Share Their Bold Predictions for 2026
As we enter a new year, five leading voices in cybersecurity and customer experience share their predictions for 2026. From the evolution of contact centers to emerging cyber threats and revolutionary computing technologies, these experts offer insights that every business leader and security professional needs to hear.
Featured Experts & Their 2026 Predictions:
Barbara Dondiego, CEO of AVOXI
Dondiego forecasts three major shifts in the customer experience landscape:
- Accelerated cloud migration continuing globally, with particularly rapid adoption outside the United States
- Voice channel consolidation as companies move from legacy physical infrastructure to unified software platforms
- AI-driven voice renaissance making phone calls more cost-effective and accessible, as AI reduces the traditional 80%+ human cost per call
Zach Edwards, Senior Threat Analyst at Silent Push
Edwards warns of escalating sophisticated threats:
- The rise of “Infrastructure Laundering” – a new bulletproof hosting technique exemplified by Funnull CDN, which has facilitated over $200 million in investment scam losses
- Drive-by download campaigns spreading infostealers that compromise both personal and corporate credentials, leading to ransomware attacks
- AI-powered threat actors leveraging AI website builders to age domains, create convincing phishing content, and launch multilingual attacks including deepfake audio and video
- Emphasis on “indicators of future attacks” rather than reactive indicators of compromise (IoCs)
Morey Haber, Chief Security Advisor at BeyondTrust
Haber presents three provocative predictions:
- Digital border taxes as governments implement tariffs on digital services produced outside their geographical borders
- Identity and access attacks targeting payment systems, with threat actors poisoning accounts by inserting or modifying fraudulent billers and payers
- Organic computing emergence with biological computers advancing beyond silicon GPU limitations over the next five years
David Cottingham, President of rf IDEAS
Cottingham focuses on authentication evolution:
- AI-enhanced phishing rendering traditional “check the box” training obsolete as attackers create perfectly written, convincing messages
- Credential validation imperative requiring secure credentials combined with biometric authentication (like NFC wallet unlocking) to verify both the credential and the holder
Luigi Lenguito, Founder & CEO of BforeAI
Lenguito declares 2026 as the pivotal year for defensive strategy:
- “The Year of Preemptive Security” marking the industry’s transition from detection-and-response to active defense
- Left-of-boom operations as organizations shift focus to predicting and disrupting attacks before they occur
- Support from major institutions including the World Economic Forum’s Partnership Against Cybercrime framework emphasizing disruption over response
- Recognition that traditional reactive approaches are overwhelmed by AI-democratized cybercrime tools
Key Themes Across Predictions:
The convergence of AI technology appears in nearly every prediction – both as an enabler of business efficiency and a tool for threat actors. The experts emphasize a fundamental shift from reactive security postures to proactive defense strategies, while highlighting the continued transformation of both customer experience infrastructure and cyber threat landscapes.
These predictions suggest 2026 will be a watershed year requiring organizations to rethink their approach to both customer engagement and security operations.
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