2026 Outlook Market Technology: Dawn of a New Operating Reality

Advances in artificial intelligence are taking market operations beyond algorithmic uses and toward predictive and highly automated capabilities that enable real-time surveillance, risk modeling and decision support at scale and speed.

The next thing to watch in the AI space for 2026 is the growth of agentic AI. These tools are expected to further enhance productivity and automate workflow orchestration while also offering deeper and more relevant insights on demand. An agentic AI workbench that facilitates the linking of open and custom agent models is becoming a new ideal. With the right contexts and considerations in place, humans in the loop can elevate their activities and interventions.

AI is also quickly becoming a baseline expectation from market participants, who are largely more advanced and nimbler in their adoption of AI.

For market providers, this requires infrastructure that is not only cloud-native but architected for deterministic processing and high-volume data integrity—the real driver of AI success. As the industry prepares for the adoption of agentic AI and automated decision-making, trust in data remains the foundation of operation. To drive true organizational transformation, AI strategies must be closely aligned with overarching business objectives and an integrated vision. Without this alignment, technology investments risk creating fragmented systems and diluted innovation rather than delivering scalable long-term value.