Capital and energy
$6.7T
projected into data centers by 2030. Power is the limit: China added about 540 gigawatts in a year, the US about 53.
Workshop Recap, October 15, 2026
The State of AI,
Q4 2026.
Last updated
Mike Schwarz's quarterly briefing for founders and CEOs: where money and power are going, the age of agents, nine trends for 2027, a live readiness check and a website rebuilt by agents.
$3B
a day flowing into the AI build-out
81%
of venture dollars go to AI, up from about 31% two years ago
<5%
of businesses run agent teams, by Mike's estimate
82%
lower cost per finished task on Mike's agents
Figures as Mike shared them on the day.
Chapters
About 90 minutes, in 20 chapters.
Select a time to watch that part on YouTube. Times are approximate.
- 0:33Why a Quarterly Briefing
- 5:24A Question Board, Built on the Spot
- 9:00The Live Demo Begins
- 17:27Money Pours Into AI
- 21:08Power Is the Bottleneck
- 22:46The Age of Agents, and Uneven Adoption
- 27:20Open Models Close the Gap
- 29:50Resistance and Hidden AI Use
- 34:14Calls to Slow Down
- 36:24Falling Prices
- 41:04This Quarter's Releases
- 45:03Security: When, Not If
- 49:00The Solo Founder Wave
- 52:13Nine Trends for 2027
- 1:03:18Live Readiness Check
- 1:15:58The Demo Reveal
- 1:22:04Fix the Agent, Not the Work
- 1:24:54Built for This
- 1:25:45Audience Q&A
- 1:31:06Bonus: AI for Business Strategy
Key Takeaways
Six things to take away from this quarter.
The age of agents
Hours
is how long agents now work on their own. You're not too late, but you have to move fast.
Models and cost
2x
as fast on Mike's agents with the newest model. Measure the cost of a finished task, not the unit price.
People and culture
52%
of people who use AI at work hide it from their boss. Make it safe to talk about AI.
Security
#1
worry for Mike is agent deception. Every agent is a doorway into your company.
Business models
Days
to start a profitable company as a lean founder with agents. Plan in real time, not only on ten-year goals.
Nine Trends for 2027
What Mike expects in the year ahead.
Agents everywhere
Large teams of specialized agents in every role. Mike runs about 200 of his own; Shopify runs about 900.
Rising security risk
More agents means more ways in. Plan for an incident as a matter of when, not if, and know how you'd recover.
Waiting gets expensive
On an exponential curve, a few months' delay can turn into a gap you can't close.
Public pushback
More resistance over jobs, power use and data centers, and more churn in the job market.
Agents as a service
Experts turn their know-how into agents and sell their brand and trust, with a person signing off, at a fraction of the price.
Sovereign AI
Countries, and companies, want their own AI systems and control of their own data.
Local AI
Small models on your own hardware handle 80 to 90% of the work; the most advanced models take the hard 10 to 20%.
Software gets knocked off
Software with no data or real value behind it gets replaced by custom tools businesses build for themselves.
Robots are coming
Robots in mainstream production around the end of 2027, and self-driving services keep expanding.
Live Readiness Check
What the room told us.
Ten questions, one per pillar of AI readiness, answered live by the room.
- People answered4825 answered all ten
- Room score49/100
- Strongest area7.3/10Culture
- Weakest area3.6/10Technology
Strongest to weakest area
Average answer out of 10. The two weakest areas are in orange.
How individual scores spread out
People in each score range, out of 100.
- 3 people
- 12 people
- 13 people
- 16 people
- 4 people
% who agreed, by question
- Have you planned for advanced AI changing your business model?Strategy36% agreed
- Do you set at least one AI goal each quarter?Strategy59% agreed
- Can your team talk openly and safely about AI?Culture73% agreed
- Has your team moved beyond chatbots to agents?Skills43% agreed
- Is your company knowledge in one place agents can read?Data38% agreed
- Can agents connect to your main business systems?Data38% agreed
- Do your agents have a dedicated home?Technology29% agreed
- Are your core processes written down and current?Process59% agreed
- Do you have AI policies?Governance39% agreed
- Do you have a dedicated AI budget?Finance29% agreed
Low scores are normal. Mike said the average is around 20% or less. It's a marathon, so pace yourself.
On budget: he recommended at least 2% of revenue. The leaders spend 3 to 5%.
Live room poll, 48 answers, as shown on the day. Answers score 0 (strongly disagree) to 10 (strongly agree); agreed means agree or strongly agree.
Live Demo
A website rebuilt by a team of agents, during the talk.
A Canadian metal-fabrication company volunteered its website. About an hour later, the agents' version went up on screen.
Company name and logo hidden. Scores as reported on screen that day.
Google search score (SEO)
56 before, 97 after
AI-answer score (AEO)
39 before, 88 after
Page speed score
75 before, 99 after
Conversion best-practice score (CRO)
25 before, 84 after
- 9 → 17+ pages
- ~2,300 → ~12.5k words
- 0 → 6 blog articles
- ~13 lead agents, each with helpers
The agents covered
- Requirements and strategy
- Industry and competitor research
- Brand and brand board
- Page wireframes
- Search and AI answers
- Conversion
- Copy and design
- An ad campaign
"If the agents make mistakes, I no longer fix the work, I fix the agent."
Audience Q&A
The questions the room asked, and what Mike said.
22 questions came in on the live board, run by Jeannette Tran. Thank you to everyone who submitted one. Here are answers to some of the best.
Keep Going
Where to take this next.
Share your feedback (2 min) →
Two minutes. Tell us what worked for you and what you'd like covered next time.
Take the AI Readiness Assessment →
Score your business in more depth than the live check, then repeat it every quarter with your leadership team.
Watch Agentic Development →
Our earlier workshop recaps: directing your first agents in Part 1, then running a whole team of them in Part 2.
AI Glossary →
Plain-English definitions of the AI terms you'll hear in briefings like this one.
AI Learning Centre →
Guides, explainers and tools to keep learning between briefings.
Talk to MyZone →
Want help putting a team of agents to work in your own business? Book a session.
Frequently asked questions
What is the State of AI briefing?
A quarterly briefing from Mike Schwarz of MyZone AI for founders, CEOs and business leaders. This one ran online on October 15, 2026, a week after the same talk was given in person in the Vancouver area on October 6.
When is the next one?
The next State of AI is in January 2027.
Are the figures on this page independent research?
No. Every figure is what Mike shared on the day, not an independent finding.
Put this quarter to work.
Take the assessment with your leadership team, or email Mike directly at mike@myzone.ai.