LinkedIn forecasts 2026: creator empires, AI-driven job shifts, globalization, and renewed focus on connection, safety.
I am an MIT Senior Fellow & Lecturer, 5x-founder & VC investing in AIDotted lines connected to the abstract graphics, network connections.Toward the end of the year here, we have a roundup of trend projections from the part of social media that we have most associated with our vocational lives.
Yes, I’m talking about LinkedIn, a platform that really has no parallel when it comes to documenting a user’s career. The influence of the site is arguably on the decline, but most career professionals have made themselves at least a cursory page where potential employers, colleagues and clients can find them. So what does Linkedin think is on the horizon? A lot of these ideas have also been expressed elsewhere, as the world looks collectively at technological advances unparalleled in human history. Here’s some ofThis is a concept that you’ll find front and center in Linkedin’s paper, and it’s something that I’ve been hearing a lot about at conferences, and from the titans of tech as we ponder what the post-AI world is going to look like . It’s the idea that individual humans will also be empowered to create their own brands, to play in a big market along with the robots.“Back in 2008, people were just starting to turn their passions into content and income through this new thing called social media. That era marked the birth of influencer marketing. People laughed then — but today it’s a legitimate business. And what’s next will be even bigger. Individual creators will become the most powerful enterprises in the world, driven by three powerful forces: consumer products, blockchain and AI.”The report writers cite Charli D'Amelio’s snack brand, Emma Chamberlain’s coffee, and something calledthat has added to the panache of the Kelce boys – as examples of how all of this works. Beyond that, in the dream of the individual’s ascent, the report mentions womens’ health, which will probably get a shot in the arm , and education, where each of us could have our own Socratic mentor, tutor, and philosopher king in our ears. Yes, it’s easy to imagine that the average person will gain tools as AI progresses. But some of the other trends will produce challenges for the individual, as well as the population as a whole.Among the largest concerns about the disruption promised by AI, none is above job displacement. We’re simply standing there slack-jawed, seeing robots and computers start to do nearly everything that we do, better. From creating graphic designs to taking out the garbage, the brawn and the brains of humanity are becoming redundant. The Linkedin report points to bright spots, like fairer recruitment practices, and a renaissance of small business, and to be sure, the more creative young entrepreneur might find a nice niche in providing service to bots, but the social contract as it has stood for all of this nation’s history is that each able-bodied person will have a job to do, so we need to either preserve that, or work out something else.Years after Tom Friedman made his name on globalism predictions, we have an international market that’s pretty plugged in, tariff hiccups notwithstanding.“A more resilient form of globalization — the worldwide movement of goods, services and capital — will take shape, despite claims that it’s breaking down. Trade frictions between major economies will remain elevated, but that’s a feature of commercial relations between countries, not a bug.”“Changing trade patterns is harder than it seems,” Solomon adds. “A company may decide to shift its supply chains, but that shift doesn’t happen overnight — and even then, those supply chains won’t be completely localized. Companies will continue to weigh a mix of on-shoring and friend-shoring to balance efficient production and delivery, market access and national security. At the same time, several forces will continue to push against localization. Capital flows are dynamic and will keep moving toward economies with structural growth, technological innovation and a robust rule of law. And AI is a powerful force — one whose innovation cycles rarely adhere to national borders.”Well, capital flows are dynamic, for sure, and AI is a powerful force. Some of the rest of this sounds a little cryptic, but the general idea stands – global trade is going to be different.Another segment of this is how we, as humans, are going to choose to interact with the digital world. In general, the report writers argue that societies will start to get a handle on the dangers of undue AI influence, mentally, on people, with regulation, self-imposed guardrails, and public awareness that will, for example, drive efforts to get rid of screens for young people, and restrict the use of AI “therapists” as well as constraining the social impact of these bots informally. In addition, the report writers posit another big trend that I heard referenced by a panel over coffee this morning – that live events, and live interaction, will be prized. Here’s an illustrative quote attributed to Aaron Hurst, the U.S. Chamber of Connection’s founder and CEO: “Connection is the single greatest predictor for everything from our health to economic mobility to a functioning democracy. In 2026, we will start to see leadership across the country come together to mobilize the scale of response needed to ensure we reverse this trend.” That’s a good bit of what readers get from this screed on the future of work, life and business. Happy 2026.
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