Heading into 2026, any business still caught in this extended experimentation phase should treat itself as officially behind. The window to establish structural competitive advantages is closing. Future success depends less on chasing the latest model and much more on adopting a systemic, enterprise-wide approach.

The boardroom conversation around artificial intelligence has, until now, fixated on model capabilities and upfront licence fees. This narrow lens is proving dangerously inadequate. Across FTSE 350 companies and mid-market PLCs, a silent cost escalation is underway, one driven not by the AI models themselves but, by the context they consume. Every document ingested, every customer interaction logged, every agentic workflow executed: each carries a chain of token consumption,

Recent research by NBER economists suggests these AI agents in particular, could drive a "Coasean singularity," a point where transaction costs fall towards zero, radically reshaping how markets function. In essence, tasks like finding information, negotiating deals, and enforcing contracts which are traditionally costly frictions in commerce, may become nearly instantaneous and costless.