Good Morning and Happy Tuesday. This is issue 32 of The Tech Stop, and the first of 2026. These are the four areas where you need to focus this year:

2026 Tech Focus: Make AI core infrastructure, augment humans with AI, upgrade risk management, and embrace tokenized systems.

1. AI is now core infrastructure, not experimentation. AI will be embedded in operations and decision-making.

   POV: Standardise AI platforms, and shut down shadow AI. Embed AI into core systems via APIs, not standalone apps. Establish AI governance.

2. Augment people with AI to accelerate execution and reduce friction, and not replace people with AI.

   POV: Identify top workflows where time is lost, and deploy agents to remove friction, and not just automate tasks.

3. Risk management is a growth constraint: Cybersecurity, data sovereignty, ESG compliance, and future-proofing encryption are essential.

   POV: Move to zero-trust by default, enforce sovereignty controls, and begin post-quantum crypto readiness assessments. Automate ESG and compliance data collection.

4. Concentrate on tokenised systems that understand industry workflows. Strategic partnerships matter more than building in-house.

   POV: Buy or partner for industry-specific AI platforms rather than building horizontal tools. Pilot tokenisation / digital asset tracking to reduce friction in contracts and supply chains.

And just for fun this week — I’m not entirely sure this is fun, but it’s certainly sobering…

That’s everything for this week — see you next Tuesday 😀