Tempo’s 2026 predictions: Static plans to living strategy
Tempo Team
Key Takeaways
In 2026, we’ll see organizations:
Lead with empathy as AI matures
Treat strategy as a living, shared system
Measure success by adaptability, not perfection
Use visibility and tech for all employees, not just managers
New year, new plans, and new ambitions to live up to. Workers are adjusting to a world of AI and uncertainty, but just because the winds are blowing fiercely doesn’t mean we can’t adjust our sails and still get to where we want to go.
We spoke with our senior leaders here at Tempo and compiled our own take on what 2026 has in store for the workplace, as well as where we anticipate we’ll be in 12 months.
We’ve broken this down into four trends – and we give you our permission to come back and make fun of us next year if our magic eight ball was wildly off.
Vic Chynoweth, CEO of Tempo Software
AI needs (and will take) a human-first turn
“AI is sticking around – but we can’t pretend like there isn’t a fear factor developing alongside it.
“Too many have fallen into the trap of running wild with exploring all the potential of new tech. It is incredible, but if you don't focus on helping people with their day-to-day work, you can risk losing all that potential, as people won't embrace it. “We’re opening up so many efficiencies, but it's time to be careful not to shoot ourselves in the foot as we try to leap to the moon. What we need to do is introduce AI’s benefits in the right way, with the right goals in mind, so that people lean in to win – not doing what they can to try not to lose.
“This doesn’t mean curbing our goals; it means understanding that all changes need to be deployed carefully. Emphasize how work gets better, faster, and that jobs won't change overnight.
“It’s a common idea that change is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean that it will reach its potential.
“If we want the game-changing positives AI can bring, leaders need to wise up and deploy it carefully from the ground up, with workers in mind. If not, we’ll just add a few more useful add-ons to our toolkit that some use instead of a whole new world of better work for everyone.”
Shannon Mason, CSO of Tempo
Radical visibility will be all the rage
“In 2026, visibility won’t be about dashboards – it’ll be key to growth and survival.
“Leaders will demand a real-time view of where money, time, and effort are generating value – and where they aren’t. This shift will be most pronounced in highly regulated industries, or ones with offices spread across the globe.
For them, visibility and control aren’t nice-to-haves – they’re survival tools. Distributed teams, complex portfolios, and constant scrutiny demand a single source of truth. It's the only way to manage multiple teams' worth of budgets, capacity, priorities, and progress.
“However, the big change comes from the democratization of insights. Workers at all levels will see their impact, and see how their (and others!) work connects to overall outcomes.
“That may result in more people battling it out and speaking up during standups, but why not welcome that change? The more informed people are, the better they understand their work and stand up for it.
“Data alone won’t change outcomes. Decisions will. We can make so much data – the ones who turn that noise into clarity will be the ones moving faster, with less risk, and more engaged employees.”
Marie-Michele Caron, CRO of Tempo Software
The next big shift in software isn't delivery, it's planning
“My prediction is that in 2026, we will confront an uncomfortable truth: Planning is still stuck in rigid cycles. We spend hours putting together year-long plans that don’t survive with their first collision with reality.
“With tens of thousands of new software projects launching every day, static planning has become a structural risk.
“We moved from paper to pixels, but never updated our way of thinking about planning. They are still static snapshots of the good ideas we had months ago. Things that might not be relevant now, but they once were.
“We need to move past the idea that our plans just get us going, then we try to deliver something ‘close enough’ to a dusty scheme.
“The change comes from tech and mindset. To give it a name: Adaptive strategic portfolio management. Effe
ctively – using our newfound data, dashboards, and visibility to have dynamic plans. Plans that bend and change with tweaks to capacity, availability, and clearing all the other chaos that reality brings.
“This one isn’t so radical – imagine trying to tell someone from 20 years ago that we can see budget remaining, individual hours, and more on a project. Then we can take that data, compare it to our original scope, and get a report or dashboard ready for the whole team in minutes.
“That’s pretty incredible from where we were in the past. It might not be hoverboards, but still real progress.
“The age of SPM will help teams with capacity, spotting roadblocks, and making better decisions. Managing and planning our work is getting more complex, and our tech is rising to meet it.
Shannon Mason, CSO of Tempo
Adaptability over efficiency
“This is a bit more of a spicy one – I believe adaptability will become far more critical to success than getting things done fast. Why? 2026 is already shaping up to be a year of major geopolitical change – and that doesn’t reward perfectly optimized plans.
"When the going gets tough – the ones who thrive are the ones who stay flexible."
“Market conditions shift faster than planning cycles and customer expectations evolve mid-build. Then you factor in regulatory and economic forces, which can upend priorities overnight.
“In that context, hyper-efficient execution against outdated assumptions becomes a liability. Efficiency focuses on doing the “right” work faster – but adaptability determines whether the work is still right at all.
“As we said above, many tech teams have spent the past decade optimizing delivery. We all saw the value in shorter cycles, faster deployments, and better utilization. Now we need to develop our ability to respond with minimal disruption, absorb new information, and get as much success as we can.
“Tech is moving to support this change – as efficiency will always be important, but it is time to play catch-up to improve other parts of our workflows.
Apologies for using a sports analogy – but it’s like having the best defense in the league. It isn’t the flashiest thing – but it is what wins championships and keeps winning them over flash-in-the-pan success.”
The bottom line
There is a cynic in all of us that scoffs at predictions – things will be like they were, and anyone who says otherwise has other motives. However, 2025 ended in a different place than the previous year, and our workplaces have undergone massive changes since 2020.
Fast or slow – change comes, and it is better to be prepared. While the “Age of AI” isn’t exactly locked in, changes to the way our systems can work – human or technological – will be shifting. We’ve got access to more data, more communication, and more automation than ever before, and we’ve put our necks on the line to say what we think we’ll do with it.
If you want more, we’ve got a keynote from Marie and Vic covering their thoughts on the future of Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM). It covers what it is, why you should care, and how it could help teams like yours transform their day-to-day for the better.
