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Leaving our 2025 Wrapped right here 😌 We can't wait to see what 2026 has in store! Learn more about the team behind the numbers: https://lnkd.in/dmF5WatA #QualtricsLife

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Join our free webinar on the 4 trends defining 2026! 💡 From AI adoption to orchestration, these are the 4 trends elevating research teams to strategic partners. Register now ➡️ https://lnkd.in/g_m4G5jY

Ready for 2026? Here's what our leaders see coming... 👇 👀 📈 We gathered expert predictions from Qualtrics leaders across CX, EX, AI, and security to give you a roadmap for next year and help you move beyond incremental improvements.

As I reflect on this past year and look ahead to #2026, one thing stands out in particular: the gap between technological capability and cultural maturity will define which organizations will see durable success and strong employee performance. While AI tools evolve at exponential speed, organizational culture changes much more gradually. Leaders investing heavily in AI without equally investing in the cultural behaviors and #Leadership practices needed to leverage it will see their technology investments stall, their employees disengage, and their competitors pull ahead. A new dynamic adds an additional risk for organizations as some employers and employees take a more transactional view of work. Employees, who have historically reciprocated the #Loyalty demonstrated by their employers, may evaluate their employers with the same calculation they apply to the short, fleeting transactions they make as consumers. Organizations that treat their workforce as dispensable risk losing their most fundamental and valuable asset: #HighPerforming employees who drive innovation, mentor others, and carry a wealth of institutional knowledge. The winners in 2026 will be organizations that recognize this moment for what it is: not a choice between technology or #Culture, but a mandate to advance both in lockstep. They'll target their messages to what leaders actually care about, rebuild genuine connection between employees and the organization, and create cultures where people feel valued enough to stay, contribute, and grow. The ones left behind will be those who either fall behind on technology innovation or race ahead without bringing their people along. What are you looking out for in #EmployeeExperience next year? 

End-of-year energy: activated. 🚀 Grateful for the teams who created meaningful impact this year — for our people and the customers we’re proud to serve. 🩵 #QualtricsLife

As 2025 winds down, I've been thinking about what's ahead in the new year. Here's my take: Surveys will fundamentally transform from passive data collection tools into active customer service systems. The survey fatigue crisis isn't about volume. It's about value. Customers are sharing less direct feedback because surveys feel impersonal, extractive, and disconnected from any tangible benefit. They're asked to give time and honest opinions, then sent into a void with no follow-up, no resolution, and no sense that their feedback mattered. AI will solve this by turning surveys into genuine conversations and closing the loop in real time. Conversational, adaptive surveys powered by purpose-built generative AI will detect vague or frustrated responses and ask empathetic and personalized follow-up questions to get to the root of customer concerns, transforming what felt like interrogation into dialogue. More importantly, AI agents embedded directly in the survey experience will take appropriate action on the spot: escalating urgent issues, offering solutions, connecting customers to the right resources, expressing genuine appreciation for positive feedback and compliments, or simply acknowledging their concerns with empathy and a clear path forward. Customers will finally see the benefit of sharing feedback because they'll experience immediate value from doing so. Organizations that embrace this shift will reverse the declining direct feedback trend. When customers know their input leads to real-time resolution and genuine recognition rather than disappearing into a database, they'll engage more willingly and honestly. The compound effect is powerful: better feedback drives better understanding, which enables faster resolution, which builds trust and loyalty, which encourages more feedback. By the end of 2026, the organizations winning on customer experience won't be the ones sending fewer surveys. They'll be the ones that turned surveys into the first line of customer service, powered by AI that understands context, responds with empathy, and closes the loop while customers are still engaged. Qualtrics has more than 1,000 customers actively using these exact capabilities today.

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As we look toward 2026, one theme has become clear: the role of cybersecurity is undergoing a fundamental reversal, shifting from a hidden "cost center" that protects the business to a visible "revenue driver" that powers it. In this new AI economy, customers won't simply ask if a company uses AI, they will demand proof that it is being used responsibly. Trust is no longer merely a reputation booster, but the prerequisite for market entry. Organizations that fail to demonstrate robust security practices will jeopardize their fundamental right to compete, while those that can prove their governance will find themselves with a significant market advantage. To win in this environment, companies must move beyond vague assurances to offer "security you can see." This means embracing radical transparency and leveraging high-bar certifications, such as FedRAMP High and ISO 42001, not just as compliance checklists, but as public trust signals. When security becomes this verifiable, it transforms into a decisive factor in purchase decisions, allowing organizations to close deals that competitors hiding behind opaque policies cannot even attempt. Security posture is becoming as critical to the sale as the product’s capabilities themselves. The winners of 2026 won’t be the organizations that moved fastest on AI, but those that moved fastest on governed AI adoption. Companies that attempt to strictly block or control AI risks will paradoxically find themselves less secure, as their teams turn to unauthorized "shadow" systems to get work done, creating the exact vulnerabilities leadership feared. By contrast, market leaders will be the security teams that enable risk rather than prevent it, making the secure path to innovation the fastest path for their developers. Ultimately, this strategy redefines the relationship between speed and safety. By embedding governance directly into the technology stack, organizations can ensure that their "governed velocity" outpaces the reckless speed of their rivals. By the end of 2026, the greatest competitive advantage will belong to those who treat security as an accelerator of innovation rather than a blocker. In an AI-driven world, trust does more than drive customer loyalty, it drives revenue. #2026predictions #cybersecurity #enablingbusiness #securityistrust

As the year 2025 winds down, there is one really positive shift I'm anticipating for research teams in 2026... and that's the democratization of insights. Research teams will become high-speed enablers of continuous testing and experimentation. How? We'll see AI agents handling routine research tasks while researchers focus on more complex, strategic work that requires our expertise and judgment. This is already underway, as 15% of researchers are actively using AI agents. And within 12 months as many as 44% intend to use agents in market research workflows. I expect that number to grow rapidly as early results prove AI can handle this work. The real shift won't be technological. It will be organizational. Companies that align leadership vision with frontline execution, closing the gap between those who believe AI is revolutionary and those actually using it daily, will capture disproportionate budget increases and strategic influence. By the end of 2026, we'll see a clear two-tier system emerge: research teams that successfully democratized insights and deployed AI tools will be expanding their strategic scope and influence, while traditional teams will be working to catch up. What's your take? What do you think will define market research in 2026?