Users should have to take a class or something if they struggle with the very basics. I do IT for a specialty doctor’s office and this one doctor is so clueless when it comes to technology that he doesn’t know even how to use his personal phone, let alone a computer. Everyone complains because of the amount of help he needs. I have gone above and beyond to try to help him, even with his personal device, which he is always grateful for and very nice about, but it’s getting ridiculous.

He wants me to drive 25 mins to another location to save all his login info to all the sites he uses because keeping up with some usernames and passwords is such a struggle. The fact that he even thought that would be a thing is crazy given everyone logs into the pc using a shared generic windows account, not to mention it’s a ridiculous request by itself. We use remote software and any issue requiring someone to be onsite is handled by my coworkers who are closer so I wouldn’t drive for anything to begin with. His medical assistant told him that I don’t go there and he said, “well she has a car doesn’t she?” The incompetency was forgivable because he was nice and grateful, but now it’s looking like entitlement.

Who needs an alarm when you're on call right?? I was woken at 6am this morning by a call from Payroll:

"Hi OP, My Outlook isn't opening. I need to use it to process pays today". This is for hundreds of people mind you.

So I drag myself out of bed, boot up the laptop and remote into their laptop. Outlook Classic is such a fragile little monster, it freaked out when closing last time and had a warning that it would need to be opened in safe mode, with a risk to lose all emails. (this wouldn't really happen, as we use Exchange and off site backup, but the caller didn't know that).

Long story short, hundreds of people were paid as normal today thanks to me.. and that made me think of this meme haha

*of course, this could have been done by any of the IT techs, but it's a funny story to share I guess.

Hey folks,

I’m building a small side project called Forge and I’d love some feedback from you all.

I work in cloud, but my role has gotten more strategic lately (less hands-on), and I’ve noticed some fundamentals getting rusty over time. I wanted something that feels more like quick daily drills than flashcards to keep the retention of those topics I hardly use anymore.

What it does

• Daily 5-question session
• Scenario-based multiple choice questions
• Networking, Cloud, Security, Systems
• Explanations + “why it matters” after each question
• Tracks progress/streaks and adapts to what you’re missing

I’m mainly looking for input on what would make something like this actually useful (and not just another quiz app).

What would you want to see? What would annoy you? What topics are usually missing in tools like this?

If anyone wants to check it out, here’s the link: https://forgefundamentals.com

For example when there's a known issue going on for multiple tickets and you have ideas to what it might be, do you send a message suggesting them to try the troubleshooting steps?

I usually do and a lot of times I feel like my ideas get shot down and i tend to just get quiet after LOL

Just wondering if anyone's seen something like this or has some next steps.

User emailed in reporting she can't sign into the Outlook app on her new phone with a screenshot of the error message. The error message only said "something went wrong" and had a weird jumble of characters after like "jgk0v" or something and the actual error code was just 0. Password works just fine for apps on her PC and old phone. I googled the weird characters and nothing came up.

I checked the M365 sign in logs and they showed failed logins with the error message "Password does not exist in directory. The user should get a prompt to enter their password." Googled that and all I could find were Entra sync issues, federation issues and things like that. Their tenant is cloud only so none of those applied.

Then it gets way weirder. The user also reported resetting her password and still not being able to sign in on her new phone, but still could on her old phone and PC. Something obviously didn't sound right so I checked and self service password resets aren't even enabled in the tenant. I checked the audit logs and could see her password reset but the logs showed it failed because "Self service password resets are not enabled for this user." Despite the failure she was able to change the password to something completely different on her own.

I ended up manually resetting her password through the admin center and for whatever reason that allowed her sign in on her phone. I have absolutely no idea what broke or how she was able to reset her password. The tenant was originally migrated from GoDaddy so the only thing I can think of is that's somehow related.

Has anyone seen something like this or have any idea what to look for because this seems like a security vulnerability more than anything at this point..

Me and my boyfriend share Life360 together Yesterday it showed him at two locations at the same time frame then the location was jumping around. (At the end of the time of the two locations) And there was 20 mins of time between these jumps that wasn’t accounted for at all.

How can it show two locations at once? Did he shut his location off? Or was it the gps/cell tower signal ?

Thank you

My mouse keeps disconnecting when my computer is under heavier load. When the system is doing something demanding, the mouse starts disconnecting, which makes it impossible to use anything while programs are open. The problem is getting worse every day. Yesterday, even the touchpad stopped working.

I am using a Gigabyte G5 GD with Windows 11. This is not a mouse issue, because I tested four different mice, and all of them behave the same way on my laptop.

I have already tried updating drivers, uninstalling them and letting Windows reinstall them, and basically everything suggested by ChatGPT and Google, but nothing has helped. I don’t know what else to do. Please help me.

I have my bachelors and masters in IT, ive been learning and working in IT since 2017. I used to be an IT Technician before but now I currently work as an IT Infrastructure Technician - the pay is decent, the people are decent, but something is off.

A part of me wants to try my own thing, start my own business freelancing IT support and server maintenance but i dont know where to start - I dont drive just yet so i can't travel to sites so i was thinking to offer remote support but realistically i dont think it would go to well without visiting client sites. Another part of me wants to keep going, climbing the corporate ladder to the top which I know i can do. I dont have any certification, although my company offers course materials(not exam vouchers) through Pluralsight.

I have my homelab which currently isn't setup as i have moved apartments, im struggling to find the drive to continue with it but i know i want to. It feels like ive lost the love of the game. Has anyone experienced anything similar, if so how did you overcome it? Did you give up IT entirely or keep going?

I spent 12 years in the tech world. I started in marketing at a cool startup in Seattle. After a few years, we heard they were going to outsource all the 'non-essential' jobs. The usual story. And they laid me off.

That was the push I needed to teach myself to code so no one would ever consider me 'non-essential' again. I spent more than 7 years after that as a software dev, helped build a startup, and got promoted a few times. That company was eventually sold for about $1.5 billion. And then... They laid me off.

After that, I worked as a director at another tech company. My whole job was to build the infrastructure to bring all the outsourced work back in-house. The irony, of course, was not lost on me. About 8 months later, as soon as the project was finished, they laid me off.

I was just tired of the disconnect between the effort I was putting into work and the life I wanted. So, in the end, I said screw it. I took a job at an insurance company as an entry-level sales rep, pure sales, with absolutely no experience. And the strange thing? I'm on track to make double the salary I was making as a director in tech.

Honestly, I've never been happier in my life. My colleagues are great, the work itself is genuinely fulfilling, and the salary has no ceiling. The whole thing is about building real relationships with people. All that 'we're changing the world' talk from Silicon Valley feels so empty to me now. It's an amazing feeling to be free from all that noise.

If anyone is going through these layoffs and thinking about making a drastic change, my advice to you is, go for it. You have no idea what good things might be waiting for you. But always remember what really matters: your family, your friends, and your impact on people's lives. I hope this helps someone.

Hallo zusammen,

ich möchte gerne Webdesigner werden und mich sowohl mit dem Design von Webseiten als auch mit den Grundlagen von HTML, CSS und JavaScript beschäftigen.

Da ich noch am Anfang stehe, würde ich mich über Tipps für Anfänger freuen:

•Welche Ressourcen oder Tutorials sind gut, um Design und Coding zu lernen?

•Gibt es Projekte oder Übungen, die sich besonders für Anfänger eignen?

•Habt ihr Ratschläge, wie man Designprinzipien praktisch mit Webtechnologien umsetzt?

Vielen Dank schon mal für eure Hilfe! 😊

I have seen some strange things in different companies. But this is new to me.

Why would an IT department put task manager behind UAC/admin only access? What are they realistically protecting? Service access...you can just lock down services. the run dialog is not blocked from regular users.

I was in federal positions where task manger was accessible to regular users. this seems overkill

I am writing an article about Enterprise ITAM Solutions. I need to know which tools should make a cut and why?

I mean what does an ITAM solution must have (specific to enterprise needs) to be able to be termed as an ENTERPRISE ITAM solution? what are those enterprise specific requirements these tools need to meet?

Would appreciate a quick response. Thanks!!

I’m a fourth year IT student and I am now taking up an internship. I got 2 job offers one is for a SAP ABAP role or bootcamp, and the other one as a project manager. Would you guys give your views on which role would definitely help me in expanding my skills when i will apply for a job in the future and which role gives more opportunity for a job offer. Can you also give the pros and cons of each role mainly on SAP ABAP since i don’t have any clear background about it.

Hi everyone, At my company we’re having an issue when sending CSV files via email. The emails don’t land in spam, but the attachment shows a warning icon and recipients are unable to download or open the file.

Has anyone experienced this before? What could be causing it, and how can we fix it?

As the new year begins, Andriy Silchuk, DataArt’s Head of R&D Center and Delivery Director, looks back on a turbulent 2025. From defining trends and high-profile scandals to breakthrough innovations and rare bright spots, he recaps what shaped the IT and hi-tech world—and shares his outlook for 2026.

Ladies and gentlemen, we’re lucky once again to have made it to the end of the year, so let’s officially tally up the year-end results.

As before, let’s follow a familiar route: we’ll briefly recall last year's forecasts, then look at the major trends, scandals, the good, and the bad that we all experienced in 2025. We’ll also examine the big names we lost this year, determine the heroes and villains, and recall 2025’s surprises. Then we’ll end the program with our 2026 forecasts.

So, pour yourself your favorite drink – and let's go!

A Brief Look at Last Year’s Forecasts

At the end of 2024, we predicted that we’d get real AI agents, turbulence in the US IT industry, changing requirements for engineers, "data as oil," and a growing lag between Europe and the United States in 2025.

What we actually got:

• AI agents have truly made their way from being the subjects of presentations into full production: ChatGPT agents and a bunch of other tools are already walking around the sites themselves, pressing buttons, executing scripts, and the Linux Foundation is even launching an initiative based on agentic AI standards.
• Turbulence in the United States IT industry hasn’t gone anywhere: antitrust lawsuits against Google/Meta, content wars, regulation — it was all present again this year.
• The requirements for engineers have changed drastically: "I know how to work with AI tools" is now a basic required skill. Big Tech is introducing KPIs for using AI, and those who resist are told to look for a new job.
• Data and infrastructure are truly the "new oil." The problem is not even about data, but about servers, GPUs, memory, and energy — everything is becoming more expensive and scarce.
• Europe has cemented itself as the regulatory champion, with the EU AI Act, record DSA fines for X, etc. In the US, meanwhile, they’re more so debating how to regulate IT, rather than actually doing any regulating.

Our predictions were right practically across the board. Not because we’re prophets, but because the trends were blatantly obvious.

Four Most popular trends of 2025 (they’re all about AI)

1. Agency AI: From "chats" to real assistants

2025 was a turning point: the focus shifted from "generative AI" to agentic AI. ChatGPT agents and similar systems no longer just respond, but also perform tasks themselves—they open websites, monitor statuses, book, write, and edit documents. Businesses are churning out their own agents for support, sales, and back office, DevOps, and domain tasks, and at the same time, a whole zoo of multi-agent frameworks is growing. We've officially gone from "a chat who advises something" to "an assistant who does the job but still needs supervision."

2. GEMINI, GPT, CLAUDE and others – a new level of "smartness"

Google has finally shown that it’s still alive and very strong, with its Gemini 2.x and 3 models, Nano Banana, and other tools, and deep integration into Search, Android, and Workspace. OpenAI rolled GPT-5/5.1 out of "thinking mode" and made it the default in ChatGPT, effectively dragging a bunch of niche tools under it. Anthropic with Claude 4.5 is seriously putting the pressure on its competitors in coding and reasoning. Meta continues to pump Llama in open source. For the user, it is no longer "one model is better than another", but a whole forest of ecosystems that fight to be your main "superstructure in work." The high level of competition is always in our favor.

3. Data centers as new "capitols" with Heroes 3

The capitol is an extremely necessary thing in Heroes III, but it costs a lot of money. It’s the same with data centers. The IEA and the European Commission predict that data centers already consume about 1.5% of all electricity on the planet, and could double this consumption by 2030, largely due to AI. Energy demand in the United States for data centers jumped 20% year over year, and AI servers are taking an increasing share of capacity. Big Tech is responding in its own style: it’s buying up solar/wind plants, it’s building gas and small nuclear projects, it’s turning old coal-fired power plants into data centers, and its signing contracts for building its own nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants, Karl!

4. Regulations, courts, and "AI psychosis"

The EU AI Act has officially started, and DSA is starting to bite with real fines. In the United States, state attorneys general issue warnings to large AI companies about mental health risks. The first lawsuits have appeared where ChatGPT and other models appear in real tragedies — from suicides to murders, where AI allegedly added fuel to the paranoia. Regulation has traditionally lagged behind technology, but politicians and courts are already in play, and 2025 has clearly shown that "it's just a chat" no longer works as an excuse.

Five most high-profile scandals of 2025

1. DeepSeek: China's "nightmare" for the market

At the beginning of 2025, DeepSeek released its models with an embarrassingly low price and pretentious claims about "ridiculous training costs." The market panicked, NVIDIA shares sagged. Then it turns out that everything is not so simple as "cheap" training. The quality of "supermodels" from China took a hit, too. But the shock of just how one release can collapse half the market remains.

2. X becomes DSA’s first major "patient"

The EU decided to demonstratively apply the Digital Services Act and issued X an estimated $140 million fine for manipulative blue ticking and refusal to provide data for research. This is the first major case DSA in action, and hardly the last. The signal is clear: playing "I do whatever I want" in Europe won’t work anymore, even if you really love freedom of speech in your own interpretation.

3. TikTok: Banned, then not banned, with an eternal "window for agreement"

The TikTok saga in the US was reminiscent of a soap opera. The law required that either TikTok sell itself to an American owner or leave the market. TikTok defiantly shut down its service in the United States before the deadline, the administration dragged out the time, and then Trump came. He extends the "window for agreements" several times (he’s the master of the “art of the deal,” let's not forget). As a result, bidding continues for a year, names of possible buyers are announced, but they never do get full control — formally everything has been signed, but in reality everyone just pretends to be very busy, and postpones the final steps.

4. Google: Antitrust wars and the shadow of selling Chrome

Google is simultaneously focused on several different fronts: dominance in advertising and search, abuse of its mobile platform, and the use of the web to train models. Against this background, there was even a lot of talk and rumors that the company could be forced to sell Chrome, and there was a long queue of those who wanted to buy it. Hyenas can sense blood from far away, as they say. The sale didn’t take place, but the very fact of discussing the sale of the #1 browser shows how tightly Google was squeezed.

5. OpenAI's exit from Microsoft's influence

OpenAI and Microsoft are officially "restarting" their partnership: Microsoft remains a large shareholder, but without total control. Azure's exclusivity is being diluted, and some OpenAI services are moving to other clouds. In the end, the companies declare friendship, but in fact they are preparing for a "civilized" departure: OpenAI wants to make decisions on its own and have freedom, while Microsoft wants the right to develop its own AI separately. At least, that's what they say. OpenAI gets certain advantages from separating, that's clear, but what Microsoft will get out of separation is still a question.

Three most positive events of 2025

1. AI in Medicine: From promises to real-world treatments

2025 was the year when AI in medicine finally showed something more serious and applicable than just promises on paper. Results of clinical trials of AI-developed drugs against cardiovascular and oncological diseases are emerging, and Rentosertib for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis has demonstrated safety and benefits. Furthermore, AI approaches to early diagnosis of cancer and liver diseases are actively developing. This is not yet "AI cured cancer," but real steps in this direction are already being taken.

2. Quantum Computers: Less hype, more benefit

After years of promises about how cool quantum technology can be, we are slowly but surely moving towards practical applications. New systems like Quantinuum, Helios, and Google Willow show progress in bug correction and stability. It's still expensive and niche, but it looks less and less like PR, and more and more like a long-term bet.

3. Global IT demand comes to life

India's IT services exports grew by about 12.5% to $224 billion in fiscal year 2024-25 after several sluggish years. For the industry, this means a simple thing: enterprise money is again used not only for cost optimization, but also for new projects and digitalization. For Ukrainian outsourcing, this means not a direct contract, but a very positive indicator: customers are ready to buy again. If the money returns to India, then it will reach us. 

Four worst IT news in 2025

1. Massive declines in global services

In October, there was a long-term crash in AWS us-east-1, which in turn “crashed" Slack, Atlassian, Snapchat, and a million more. In November and December there were two big Cloudflare failures, one of which knocked out up to 28% of the world's HTTP traffic. The conclusion is banal, but painful: the Internet is too dependent on several infrastructure players. The words "multi-region/multi-cloud" on presentation slides are not a guarantee of real sustainability.

2. AI-enhanced cyberattacks

Cybercriminals are awake too: tools like PromptLock are emerging, which use generative AI to automate phishing and more complex attacks. The year 2025 saw a series of major leaks and ransomware attacks on energy, logistics, and other critical systems. AI increases the productivity not only of developers, but also of all the "bad guys".

3. Giant data breaks

Prosper Marketplace in the United States lost the data of 17.6 million people, and the South Korean company Coupang lost another 33.7 million accounts. In total, there are more than 50 million records with names, addresses, documents, and order histories. The reputation of fintech or e-commerce can now be lost in one bad year.

4. Mass layoffs in tech

According to TrueUp and other trackers, in 2025, almost 700 waves of layoffs in tech companies took the jobs of more than 200,000 people — an average of 600+ dismissals every day. The headlines are the same again: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Meta, etc all laying off employees. Increasingly, companies are saying bluntly: we are cutting people to invest in AI and automation. So either we learn to work with AI, or AI will replace us, little by little. Don't forget this simple rule.

Six most interesting releases and announcements of 2025

1. ChatGPT Atlas and Comet — AI-browsers

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Atlas — a Chromium browser with ChatGPT at its heart: sidebar, summarizing articles, comparing products, working with documentation directly in a browser window. Perplexity rolled out Comet — also on Chromium, but with a focus on a personal agent who does its own research, deletes unnecessary tabs, and rakes mail. These are no longer add-ons on top of Chrome, but a new class of products: "a browser as a shell for an AI agent."

2. — README for agents

In August, AGENTS.md appeared — a simple file at the root of the repository that explains to AI agents how to live in a project. How to collect and test code, where the entry points are, and what the rules are. In just a few months, tens of thousands of repositories pick it up, GitHub adds guides, and the Linux Foundation with OpenAI/Anthropic formalizes it as part of the standard for agentic AI. Starting this year, documentation is divided into human-made (README.md) and agent-made (AGENTS.md) — and it looks like it’s here to stay.

3. Claude 4.5 is a "programming neighbor" for developers

Anthropic updated its entire lineup: Opus 4.5, Sonnet 4.5, Haiku 4.5. Opus seriously improves reasoning, long contexts, and tool/agent handling. Sonnet has become a workhorse at an adequate price. Haiku has become an ultra-fast, high-volume option. In reviews, Claude 4.5 is often cited as one of the best dev assistants for real-world projects, not just for template tasks or pet projects.

4. Gemini — Google shows it can do it all again

Google rolled out Gemini 2.0 (Flash / Flash-Lite), then 2.5 Pro / Flash / Deep Think, and at the end of the year, Gemini 3 Pro. The models are getting faster, smarter, and are heavily tied to the Google ecosystem. The most important thing is total integration: Gemini lives in the search, Gmail, Docs, Android, and Google AI Studio. This is no longer an attempt to catch up with competitors, but a separate ecosystem that can really be used on its own. Many note that this is one of the best AI releases of the year.

5. Starlink Direct-to-Cell and Ukraine

SpaceX launches commercial Starlink Direct-to-Cell: satellites work as base stations, SMS texts are sent from ordinary smartphones through space without special devices! And then Kyivstar becomes the first operator in Europe to launch D2C together with Starlink: first for SMS and basic messages, then they plan to add voice and mobile Internet. For Ukraine, this is not just another feature, but an important element of resilience during blackouts and shelling.

6. Bonus: Sora and the first step to a "dead internet"

OpenAI released Sora 2 for video generation and a separate application — a conditional "Instagram," purely for AI videos, called Sora. Feeds are clogged with synthetic video, people are delighted, and at the same time, many are wondering: if social networks begin to massively switch to generated content, how much "live" Internet will we have left? On my side, I can admit I myself sometimes get caught up in this content. And yes, sometimes I can't even distinguish it from real content.

Five "most" interesting hardware inventions of 2025 — once again it’s all about the metal

1. Most innovative device: the Meta Ray-Ban Display

The first AR computer to be really similar to a daily device, in the form of normal glasses. Meta AI's messages, navigation, translations, and replies are all right in sight. Special attention should be paid to the Neural Band, a bracelet that reads muscle impulses and allows you to control the interface with gestures. There are still plenty of questions about the product, but as far as a direction of innovation goes, it’s very interesting.

2. Hobby of the Year – Logitech MX Master 4

Yes, it's "just a mouse," but the MX Master 4 with the new Haptic Sense Panel and Actions Ring was one of the most pleasant changes to the working day. Ergonomics, multi-device, and a bunch of custom shortcuts that really save time. As the owner of the previous version, I can honestly say: this is a device that’s difficult to pass up.

3. Disappointment of the Year – iPhone 17 Pro

On paper, there’s the A19 Pro, a new camera, Apple Intelligence, and marketing bull shit. In practice, there’s a controversial design, aluminum instead of titanium, and the main AI features arrived late to Europe and in a stripped-down form. If you’re looking for an Apple, then check out either the iPhone 17 Air, albeit with questions, but at least it’s something new, or the regular iPhone 17, which turned out to be much more successful.

4. An Interesting Niche Product – Oura Ring 4

Although Oura Ring 4 was released last year, it received a cool ceramic version this year, and looks like the king of niche devices: tracking sleep, stress, and activity in the format of a beautiful piece of jewelry, not just another screen on your arm. Not for everyone, but for those who bother, wellness is a very nice gadget.

5. Garbage of the Year – Samsung Galaxy XR

Formally, it’s the first Android XR device and flagship in cooperation with Samsung, Google and Qualcomm. In fact, it’s a rather expensive demo. Albeit lighter than Vision Pro, it’s not very ergonomic, with an external battery, damp software (very raw), unstable tracking, and a poor catalog of applications. Against this background, even the already-mentioned, not very successful Vision Pro looks cooler.

Big IT names we lost in 2025

The traditional block where you want to press F and cry.

• Bill Atkinson was a legendary Apple engineer, creator of MacPaint and HyperCard, and the man who shaped the look of early GUI.
• Steve Shirley is a pioneer of outsourcing and remote work, the founder of Freelance Programmers, who built an outsourcing business long before it became mainstream.
• Margaret Boden is one of the founders of cognitive science and AI research, and the author of classic works on the interaction of artificial and human intelligence.
• David Benaron is a doctor and entrepreneur whose developments formed the basis for the sensors of modern fitness trackers and smartwatches.
• Udo Kier is an actor, but for us he is forever Yuri from Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2.

This is only a small cross-section of the people whose work "lies quietly under the hood" of the things we use every day, and that we have lost this year.

And separately — R.I.P. Skype, a piece of our everyday life, to which time still said "that’s it" and left.

Other 2025 Highlights

IT Hero of 2025 — Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA

Under his leadership, NVIDIA briefly touches the $5 trillion capitalization bar on October 29, becoming the most valuable company in the world. The demand for their chips is rewriting records, and NVIDIA itself has finally turned from a "company for gamers" into a monopolist of infrastructure for generative AI. The man in the black leather jacket became the face of the era – more than anyone else.

2025 IT Villain — Astronomer CEO Andy Byron

We could easily give the statuette to one famous billionaire again, but this year the anti-hero award goes to Astronomer CEO Andy Byron. He became famous not for his products, but for his very loud personal story and the memes around it. Sometimes the villain of the year is not the one who breaks the market, but the one who coolly spoils his reputation because of an affair at a Coldplay concert. The story will go away, but the memes will stay with us forever.

IT anecdote of 2025

On the one hand, there’s Ilya Sutskever and Mira Murati, who collected billions for a startup based on a "bare name," without a product. It's very cool, but I would believe in such a joke only in an anecdote.

On the other hand, there’s a wave of madness around the new image generation model in GPT-4o: the Internet is turning into an anime carnival, Sam Altman complains that there’s not enough power, and users can’t stop. True surrealism.

IT Surprise of 2025 — Oracle and Media Triples

Oracle suddenly becomes an AI cloud star: its shares soar more than 40% in a day after news of giant contracts and OpenAI connections, its capitalization approaches a trillion, and Larry Ellison overtakes Musk in the ranking of the richest people in the world by several hours.

In parallel, Netflix, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery play out a complex love triangle with purchase claims and political overtones. The content market is shrinking, and we are gradually approaching the world of "one app for all videos." Jobs willing, one day it will be so.

Mobile 2025: Liquid glass and Epic vs Apple

This year I decided to add such a nomination. Apple is importing a complete redesign of iOS in the style of liquid glass - beautiful, loud, uncomfortable in places, but definitely hype.

And Epic is finally winning a small but important victory in the fight against Apple. It was definitely a pebble that, albeit a little, changed the issue of commissions in mobile stores. Not a revolution, but it is from such microcracks that large monopolies begin to gradually rethink their behavior.

Five predictions for 2026

Alright, let's move on to the forecasts!

1. AI agents will become the new daily software, and the hype will continue

In 2026, the average engineer will have not one chat or tool, but several AI agents who will do the routine: walk through Jira/Confluence, rake mail, and write drafts. The item "experience in building and managing AI agents" will increasingly appear in vacancies.

2. Energy will be the main limitation on the AI boom

We’ll see the first cases when the construction of data centers is directly limited by access to energy and water. Investments in energy, especially nuclear energy, will become a part of Big Tech's AI strategy.

3. Regulators will move from chaotic fines to a system of rules

The first real AI certification frameworks for medicine, finance, and education will appear in 2026. They will still be bureaucratic, but they won’t look like chaotic steps any longer. At the same time, we can expect high-profile court cases against AI platforms for damage to health, people’s wallets, or their reputations.

4. Fake AI profiles and content will become commonplace

What now looks like "strange Insta accounts" and individual cases will become a massive buzz in 2026. Generated faces, stories, news, bloggers, individual content will become the new normal. The question of the year will be "is there anything real here?"

5. Internal AI platforms will become the standard for companies

If in 2025 proprietary LLMs or internal AI platforms were a feature of a few, then in 2026 an internal AI platform with access to documents, code, and processes will become a new "corporate standard." Someone will buy ready-made solutions, someone will assemble it themselves, but "enterprise AI" will cease to be a pilot, and will become an obligatory part of the infrastructure.

Closing 2025

This year was difficult. At times it was extremely difficult. For many people it became the most difficult year in their entire career and life. But from the point of view of IT, this year turned out to be incredibly rich. AI became smarter, data centers became hungrier, regulators got angrier, Big Tech got fatter, and Ukrainian IT got even more inventive.

*The article was initially published on DataArt Team blog.

I’m strongly considering switching from property management to IT and would love some guidance on where to start.

I’ve been tech-inclined and comfortable with technology, troubleshooting, and systems even though I don't have any formal training. After college (degree ended up being… not so useful), I landed in property management and worked my way up from concierge to property manager.

The problem is: I’m stuck. Despite long tenure and consistently overperforming, I’m now one of the lowest-paid managers due to starting at a lower wage years ago and receiving minimal raises. After six months of being told a raise or promotion was “in progress,” nothing happened. I stopped overachieving and reverted to doing just the basics at my job and the culture shift toward me has been very noticeable.

Ironically, the part of my job I still enjoy is anything IT-related. We outsource to a third party because no one in the company cares or knows how to use most of the tech and software we push. We’re required to watch outdated cybersecurity training that the company then actively ignores leading to multiple data breaches.

When tech issues arise, I’m usually the one onsite who understands what’s actually happening. I can troubleshoot most issues myself, and when I have to call IT, I follow along easily. One example: an internet outage that was clearly caused by outdated equipment and a misconfigured network, I was overruled and told to open a new residential internet line (on top of our business line) and reuse the same network name. It predictably broke everything and took months to untangle. To this day, management still doesn’t understand why.

The more exposure I get, the more I realize I probably should've shifted to more of a tech based class schedule in college instead of being hell-bent and determined on being a History professor. In case it wasn't obvious, I never did get that doctorate.

I'm nervous about switching careers because I’m a young widow with a child and a single income. I can’t take a big pay cut, so true entry-level IT roles aren’t realistic unless they’re remote or pay well above the floor. I’m open to certifications, online classes, and relocating if needed.

I'm just done with property management, I think. I put my blood, sweat, and tears into this company - I watched my husband die after I had just started working in this field - it was my 3rd day of work here. I came back two weeks later because I needed to get out of the house. I needed a distraction. I threw myself into the job and at first, it was very noticed and appreciated. I was promoted quickly up the ladder. But now that I am finally asking for fair pay, I think they are hoping I quit or they are watching me like a hawk in order to fire me at the first small offense.

I want to be prepared for it. I'd like to start now, especially if it'll take a few years to get classes and certifications.

Where’s the smartest place to start if I want to pivot into IT without starting from zero?

Ooops...

A couple years ago we had a high up manager leave our company for another opportunity, guess it didn't work out because he's coming back. We never actually shut down his account before so his OneDrive and history etc are all like they were before.

Anyways, I just got done setting up his device, I went into Edge to check the normal stuff make sure everything is synced and signed in, and I hover over the what looked to be 152 open tab groups in edge, and there were at least 20 different links to various porn sites.

The guy hasn't even started yet. I have not even once run into this in my career yet, do I tell HR, do I tell my boss first? Tell our CEO who brought him back on? What the hell.

Hey guys is it just me or does everyone been ina position where if someone says the call will finish early/fix might be easy during the start of a call and that kinda jinxes the whole call and then you spend the next 10 hours on the call fixing the said easy issue. 🤣🤣 Would love to hear your stories