As 2026 unfolds, we sat down with Terry Storrar to get his perspective on the key trends set to shape the UK market this year.
Drawing on over two decades of experience, Terry brings a broad industry viewpoint and a deep understanding of market dynamics. In this blog, he shares his predictions for 2026 and where the biggest opportunities are emerging.
AI
I predict that the initial exploding enthusiasm surrounding AI will give way to more realistic growth. The emphasis will move from speculative hoopla to more actual value, even though the initial boost and investment surges have raised expectations. This will require companies to reevaluate their objectives and concentrate on giving AI projects that improve productivity and customer interaction, like agentic automation or applied machine learning.
Infrastructure will be impacted by this market stabilization as well. Since many data centers were constructed to handle workloads including a lot of AI, a slowdown in AI growth could result in the emergence of spare capacity. This offers the industry a chance to integrate sustainability and energy efficiency while rebalancing capacity towards more moderate, varied workloads.
Crucially, the human element will continue to be emphasized. Concerns about how AI will affect employment are becoming more widespread. Businesses are realizing that AI will enhance their current skill sets rather than replace people. The industry will shift toward a more reasonable perspective on AI where technology enhances human capability rather than replaces it as ethical and workforce issues continue to evolve.
Technology (Excluding AI)
For the tech industry, this year is all about people, sustainability, and balance.
Adoption of cloud computing is growing quickly and is expected to surpass the early “lift and shift” frenzy. Organizations are increasingly searching for scalable, modular solutions, including virtual private servers (VPS) and GPU-as-a-Service, to control costs and risks and enable more progressive scaling. Cloud models are therefore developing to accommodate this gradual, modular adoption as opposed to “big bang” changes.
However, data centers and technology companies continue to prioritize sustainability above all else. Companies must exhibit both operational effectiveness and environmental responsibility. Businesses will be able to accomplish more with less because to innovations like liquid cooling and power optimization.
However, people, rather than merely technology or software, will be the primary tech investment trend in 2026. Over time, human talent will be the real differentiator. Investing in talent will be crucial to releasing long-term value as infrastructure and technology advance. It will be essential to upskill and produce more cross-functional, generalist tech workers. The industry must also keep spending money on strategies to draw in younger people to tech-related jobs.
In 2026, the true catalysts for innovation will be skills, sustainability, and agility.
Fintech
Fintech companies seek a competitive edge in trading, payments, and currencies. They need speed and quick thinking to accomplish this, so the infrastructure provider they choose is crucial to the expansion of their company.
Uptime, latency, dependability, security, and size are critical factors for trading and finance organizations. When it comes to deciding where to put their workloads, none of these are debatable. In this sector, data changes in milliseconds, and companies are always searching for methods to enhance security and performance for their customers. Although AI and ML technologies will undoubtedly be taken into consideration, they will need to provide tangible productivity benefits to give a competitive edge, as this industry seeks for novel approaches to differentiate itself and typically doesn’t merely follow trends for the sake of doing so.
Sustainability
In the data center sector, sustainability continues to be the most popular topic. This must benefit the environment as well as the economy. We simply cannot continue to add these to the grid and run massive workloads; this is not sustainable in the long run. Therefore, a lot of money is being spent on ways to make technology do more for less. This translates into obtaining notable power efficiency in the data center sector.
All things considered, the sector is steadily and gradually improving. As seen by the fact that many companies are selecting data centers that run entirely on renewable energy, we are well on our way to achieving sustainable goals.
Channel
For the channel, sovereignty is a major selling point, and it will remain so in 2026. Customers need to be reassured by the channel increasingly about the country jurisdiction in which their data is hosted. Channel businesses are searching more for partners with the experience and global reach to do this.
Another key area of attention is the market for AI and machine learning. To enter these markets, the channel is leveraging partner networks. Like the early days of cloud computing, nobody can truly predict how AI will advance. People have begun to adequately assess how AI will be used in actual work circumstances, and the excitement surrounding the technology has somewhat subsided in recent months. This entails balancing cost and productivity advantages and figuring out how to maximize the utility of AI technology without breaking the bank.
In general, the channel is exploring various approaches to leverage partner ecosystems and technologies to support client needs. Instead of attempting to be a jack of all crafts, it makes sense to have successful partnerships to supply more services in a market that is changing quickly.
MSPs are choosing to be more transparent in their approach and are increasingly using hybrid models instead of hyperscalers. This year, several well-publicized outages have brought attention to the dangers of depending solely on one source. MSPs must counsel their clients on how to divide their workloads among several partners to maintain uptime if a single supplier fails.
Customers are worried about costs and budget creep; thus, the channel may greatly benefit them by giving them options and choices. The careful selection of vendors is largely responsible for this.