Tuesday, December 2, 2025

2026 will be the year of AI monetization, says Wedbush’s Dan Ives

Good morning. Enterprise and global AI spending is widely expected to climb in 2026, driven by expanding AI infrastructure and the broader adoption of AI software and devices. Rather than being concentrated only among top tech giants, investment is increasingly coming from a wider base of enterprises.

Gartner forecasts global AI spending to exceed $2 trillion in 2026, led by the integration of AI into products such as smartphones, PCs, and other underlying infrastructure. Regional economic conditions, regulatory environments, and access to skilled talent will influence how quickly individual companies scale their initiatives. Not every company will commit to large hardware upgrades or wide deployment at the same pace.

To understand how the market is shaping up, I asked Dan Ives, a managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities, for his view. “We believe 2026 will be the year of AI monetization as the infrastructure leads to the use cases for enterprises and consumers,” Ives told me. “This is just the beginning, and we expect a bullish 2026 for tech and the AI Revolution.”

Wedbush analysts wrote in a Monday morning note that they are seeing AI-related business ramp up faster recently, and that this momentum should carry into 2026 as end-user enterprises fast-track deployments. The analysts also reject the idea that the market is showing signs of an AI bubble, emphasizing instead that adoption remains in the very early stages as CIOs and business leaders determine where AI can deliver meaningful value in their organizations.

Deloitte’s recent report similarly anticipates continued and rising AI spending in sectors such as tech, media, and telecom, but emphasizes that the focus will shift from experimentation to execution. “New foundational models, or even shiny new enterprise agentic applications, continue to impress—but translating those beyond pilots and trials requires work that’s typically considered less exciting, like data hygiene, integration into existing workflows, governance, new pricing models, and regulatory compliance,” according to the report.

These forecasts point to a common inflection point: 2026 will be less about dazzling new AI models and more about turning existing capabilities into measurable business results.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Fortune 500 Power Moves

Amanda Brimmer was appointed CFO of leasing advisory and head of corporate development at JLL (No. 188), a global commercial real estate and investment management company. Reporting to JLL CFO Kelly Howe, Brimmer will partner with business leaders globally to drive financial growth and performance. Brimmer brings more than two decades of experience from Boston Consulting Group, where she most recently served as managing director and senior partner.

Galagher Jeff was appointed EVP and CFO of ARKO Corp. (No. 488), one of the largest convenience store operators and fuel wholesalers in the U.S., effective Dec. 1. Jeff most recently served as EVP and CFO for Murphy USA, Inc. Before that, he spent nearly 15 years in senior and executive finance roles with retailers, including Dollar Tree Stores, Inc., Advance Auto Parts, Inc. and Walmart Stores, Inc., in addition to a decade-long career in finance and strategy consulting at organizations including KPMG and Ernst & Young.

Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 company C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.

More notable moves

Nick Tressler was appointed CFO of Vistagen (Nasdaq: VTGN), a late clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, effective Dec. 1. Tressler brings over 20 years of financial leadership experience. Most recently, he served as CFO of DYNEX Technologies, and before that, he was the CFO at American Gene Technologies, International, and Senseonics Holdings, Inc. Tressler has also held senior finance roles at several biopharmaceutical companies.

Charlie Dowling was appointed CFO of Revive Infrastructure Group, a utility infrastructure services provider. Dowling brings to the company more than 30 years of experience. He began his career in public accounting with Arthur Andersen, and later advanced through senior financial leadership roles across the construction, manufacturing, and industrial sectors.

Big Deal

E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley’s monthly analysis found that in November the firm's clients were net buyers in 10 of 11 S&P 500 sectors—and all signs pointed to them buying the tech dip, especially in some of the market’s megacap AI leaders, according to Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing. The top-three sectors for net buying activity were consumer discretionary (+13.41%), utilities (+7.35%), and communication services (+4.9%). Tech was close behind at +4.65%.

"A good deal of the activity in the utilities sector again appeared to be driven by 'risk-on' buying in the alt-energy space rather than defensive purchases of traditional utility stocks," Larkin noted. "And for the second month in a row, clients rotated away from strength in the health care sector."

Courtesy of E*TRADE

Going deeper

“How AI’s persuasion style mirrors humans” is the topic of the latest episode of Wharton’s Ripple Effect podcast. Wharton Professor Ethan Mollick discusses how AI systems respond to Robert Cialdini’s principles of persuasion, such as authority, reciprocity, and commitment. The episode explores why certain nudges make guardrails more flexible, how larger models show stronger resistance to influence, and how insights from social psychology reveal the emerging “para-human” nature of AI.