Be There Before®
If tech media had New Year’s resolutions, January made it clear that 2026 is the year AI grows up. Coverage across cloud, fintech, cybersecurity, connectivity, and insurtech pointed toward governance, control, and trust as agentic AI moved from experimentation into real enterprise environments. Cybersecurity coverage doubled down on zero-trust and hybrid cloud as non-negotiable guardrails for autonomous systems, while connectivity reporters tracked massive chip investments and geopolitical maneuvering shaping AI’s supply chain.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR COMMS PROS:
Media and customers are still looking for innovative and new AI platforms, but ensure your messaging covers these areas:
1. Governance: Media expect companies to address security, access controls, and compliance alongside innovation.
2. Trust: Data handling and reliability are now core to AI coverage. Anticipate them in every pitch.
3. Scale: Chips, cloud resilience, and supply chains are shaping the conversation. Show you understand what enables AI at scale.
4. Regulation: Policy is clearly framing AI coverage. Offer clarity and context to stand out.
As next month’s BTB Tech report will likely show, Anthropic’s early-February launch of its Claude Cowork agent rattled markets, sparking a SaaS selloff and signaling growing investor anxiety that agentic AI could disrupt traditional software business models. We'll be staying on top of this development as the story unfolds.
Agentic AI surged across January coverage as major tech players launched platforms and regulated industries such as fintech and insurtech moved toward adoption. That momentum triggered a parallel rush from regulators and cybersecurity leaders to shore up resilience against the new risks these agents introduce. Expect this push-and-pull to define the year as AI platform investment accelerates and security works to keep pace.
Connectivity jumped in January as CES put chips and their consumer impact center stage. Big Tech’s Q4 earnings, major semiconductor investments, and heightened focus on AI regulation kept cloud and connectivity reporters busy, while other verticals saw only modest dips in share of voice from December. This indicates media attention remains abundant. Brands simply need to align with the topics driving the moment.
We monitor coverage across vertical trades in three main topics: policy and compliance, investment and funding, and innovation.
Click on a topic below to drill down further into the conversation.
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In a First Time Founders episode, host Ed Elson likens Substack to a city. Substack co-founder Chris Best describes the platform as “intensely cosmopolitan,” full of distinct neighborhoods. Whoever you are, he says, your tribe, subculture, or ideology has a home. These neighborhoods, rich with intellectual and cultural diversity, coexist in ways that rarely work in mainstream media. For comms professionals, Substack coverage requires understanding each unique neighborhood and tailoring stories to resonate at deeper levels.
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Enterprise adoption of AI accelerated, and infrastructure conversations followed, particularly around deployment readiness. Fintech had a renewed focus on crypto, Web3, and real-world asset (#RWA) tokenization as markets opened the year with cautious optimism. Cloud and connectivity discussions leaned into infrastructure elevated amid continued breach activity.
The beginning of 2026 has signaled a reordering of priorities across B2B tech. Cybersecurity dominated the conversation, reflecting how risk, geopolitics, and AI-enabled threats are now shaping every sector. Fintech continued to command outsized attention as AI-native finance and digital assets moved further into the mainstream. Meanwhile, cloud and connectivity were less about hype, more about enabling scale, and insurtech activity underscored growing pressure to modernize amid cost and climate realities.
Across verticals, conversations centered on capital investment, sovereignty, security, and governance. The focus entering 2026 is execution, which requires a healthy balance of scale, resilience, and trust.
January signaled a more commercial, regulated social landscape. TikTok finalized its U.S. joint venture to keep the app running while policy scrutiny continues. Youth safety rules tightened, too, as Spain moved to ban under-16s from social media, emphasizing a wider push for real age checks across platforms.
February 2026
Caitlin New
VP, Comms
Helen Murphy
VP, Comms
Caroline Harvey
VP, Planning
Allyson Hodapp
Senior Manager
Lindsay Laulis
Manager, Digital
Erin Eckert
Manager
Lydia Crow
Associate
Kenna Jones
Associate