As the global landscape of innovation evolves at an extraordinary rate, 2026 is poised to be a pivotal year for startups and tech innovators. Having managed swift digital transformation, breakthroughs in AI, economic adjustments, and changes in workforce trends, leaders are shifting their focus beyond mere growth; they are concentrating on resilience, responsible innovation, and the creation of long-term value. The upcoming year is anticipated to challenge organizations on how well they can find a balance between speed and sustainability, experimentation and governance, as well as ambition and impact.

Below are the viewpoints of senior leaders in startups and technology aimed at creating a more inclusive and robust digital future.

Peter Marelas, Senior Director of Product Management, New Relic

"Today’s observability tools tell engineers what’s happening. In 2026 and beyond, observability platforms will go beyond dashboards and alerts; they will identify and action. The next wave of platforms will introduce autonomous AI agents capable of identifying issues, reasoning through causes, and initiating fixes in real time.”

“Human oversight will remain essential with new ‘critic agents’ that will validate proposed actions, manage ambiguity, and escalate complex issues to people when needed. Engineers will be able to focus on defining rules and boundaries that shape system behavior by teaching AI how to think, not just what to do. This shift will drastically reduce repetitive firefighting, allowing teams to focus on innovation, resilience and improved system performance.”

New Relic is a cloud-driven analytics platform that offers comprehensive observability, enabling developers and operations teams to track, diagnose, and enhance software performance from the user interface to the infrastructure.

Praveer Kochhar, Co-founder & CPO, KOGO AI 

“2026 marks the death of context switching in the enterprise. The tool sprawl era—15 co-pilots, 30 browser tabs, swivel-chair between systems—ends when unified agentic systems prove they can execute work across ERP, CRM, ITSM, and data lakes without human glue.”

“But autonomy without governance is chaos. The technical shift isn’t just agents that can act—it’s architectures where policy enforcement, human-in-the-loop gates, drift detection, and audit trails are built into the runtime, not bolted on after deployment. We designed KOGO OS around this principle before we wrote a single line of agent code: Responsible AI as the foundation, not the afterthought.”

“By 2026, enterprises demand agentic meshes—cross-functional agents with shared memory, coordinated handoffs, and measurable SLAs—running inside their walls. The architecture question shifts from ‘can AI do this task’ to ‘can our OS govern agents that plan, act, verify, and learn autonomously while respecting our policy at runtime?’ That’s not a co-pilot. That’s an operating system for AI-native work.”

KOGO AI provides a "Human-First," Agentic AI platform (KOGO OS) that enables businesses to create, implement, and oversee intelligent AI agents, emphasizing the enhancement of human productivity via the automation of complex tasks while ensuring security and compliance.

Anand Sampath, EVP, CEO of BPS & Head of India Delivery Center, Visionet Systems 

“GenAI is set to transform BPS and the technology landscape by reshaping how enterprises operate, make decisions, and deliver value. By automating routine, document-heavy work and enabling self-optimizing workflows, GenAI will accelerate intake, summarization, quality checks, compliance reviews, and exception handling, cutting operational cycle times by 30–50 percent while improving accuracy and consistency. This shift allows human talent to focus on higher-value, judgment-intensive activities, strengthening overall operational resilience.”

“In the mortgage lifecycle, GenAI is expected to deliver major efficiency gains across Origination, Underwriting, Title, Settlement, and Servicing. AI will automate ingestion and validation of income, asset, title, and closing documents, predict conditions, flag discrepancies, and streamline compliance checks reducing cycle times by 25-40% and enabling teams to handle exceptions rather than routine tasks.”

“AI-powered IDP platforms like DocVu.AI will be central to this transformation. By intelligently extracting, classifying, validating, and summarizing data across all loan documents, DocVu.AI improves decision-making, enhances QC, and ensures audit readiness at scale. With continuous learning and real-time insights, it reduces manual review significantly while elevating underwriting and post-close precision. Together, GenAI, BPS expertise, and platforms like DocVu.AI will create a semi-autonomous, exception-driven mortgage ecosystem that delivers faster, higher-quality, and scalable operations.”

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Visionet is an international provider of digital technology solutions and IT services that assists companies in achieving digital transformation, modernizing their enterprises, and integrating data and AI, with an emphasis on sectors such as retail, banking, and manufacturing.

Kshitij Tiwari, Founder & CEO, ideazmeet

“2025 has been a watershed year for global manufacturing - a year in which supply chain resilience, digital sourcing, and trusted networks shifted from strategic priorities to operational imperatives. As businesses navigated geopolitical shifts, production realignments, and rising buyer expectations, the ability to discover verified partners, move quickly, and operate with transparency emerged as a true competitive advantage.” 

“At ideazmeet, we witnessed manufacturers and MSMEs step confidently onto the global stage, leveraging digital visibility and intelligent matchmaking to unlock new markets and forge stronger partnerships. The momentum around India as a reliable manufacturing destination has never been more tangible, driven by China+1 strategies taking firm shape and domestic manufacturers scaling their capabilities to meet growing global demand.” 

“As we step into 2026, manufacturing is entering a phase defined by deeper integration, smarter platforms, and ecosystem-led growth. The future belongs to connected manufacturing networks that blend technology with trust, data with decision-making, and speed with accountability.”

“Technology will play an even more critical role in enabling resilient supply chains, smarter procurement, and large-scale cross-border collaboration. For India, this represents a historic opportunity to position itself as the world’s most reliable and digitally accessible manufacturing partner and live the "Make in India - for the World" dream. At ideazmeet, our mission is to empower manufacturers with global visibility, simplify sourcing for global buyers, and build a truly borderless manufacturing network driven by trust, efficiency, and long-term value.”

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Ideazmeet is an innovative digital ecosystem and networking platform, protected by a patent, designed for the worldwide manufacturing sector. It links manufacturers, suppliers, buyers, and service providers to enhance sourcing, collaboration, and innovation across industries such as engineering, chemicals, and electronics.

Debidutt Acharya, Co-Founder & COO, One800

“The mobile repair industry in India is experiencing a decisive shift from unorganised, opaque servicing to technology-led, trust-first experiences. Consumers today are far more aware, price-conscious, and protective of their data, and they expect complete visibility into how their devices are handled. This year has marked a strong growth phase for One800 as we scaled from a promising concept to a structured, tech-enabled repair ecosystem with real national ambitions.”

“Our aim of providing lab-quality repair services with absolute transparency through our Live Repair streaming feature has finally become a reality and is being deeply appreciated by our customers. With increasing consumer demand for reliable, transparent, and fast mobile repair services, we have seen strong traction across models, categories, and repeat usage. Our controlled repair labs, certified technicians, and live repair technology have helped us earn trust at scale, something that is critical in a service as sensitive as device care.”

“As we move into 2026, device care will no longer be a back-end service, it will become a full-fledged, tech-enabled consumer experience. The next phase will be defined by faster repairs, deeper transparency, tighter data security, and seamless integration across repairs, warranties, insurance, and refurbished devices. One800 will firmly focus on expansion, deeper technology integration, and building the brand as India’s most trusted repair backbone." 

"With plans to scale across multiple cities, strengthen supplier partnerships, and expand into adjacent categories like laptop repairs, we are gearing up for our next phase of accelerated growth.’’

 

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One800 is an Indian technology service firm transforming after-sales assistance for electronic devices, particularly smartphones, by providing clear, live-streamed, lab-quality repair services through their application, which includes certified technicians, genuine parts, and rapid service delivery.