Source: Featured Blogs - Forrester
Forrester marks 2026 as the year when AI shifts from co-pilot (fixing syntax, suggesting functions) to orchestrator—managing requirements, testing, deployment, and team coordination across the full software lifecycle. This redefines who owns the development process: instead of developers delegating discrete tasks to AI, they're now delegating work streams, which changes hiring profiles, team structures, and where bottlenecks form. Competitive pressure moves from engineers who write faster to organizations that can design workflows where AI agents make meaningful trade-offs (shipping speed vs. technical debt, for example) without human intervention at every gate.