The Energy and Infrastructure Challenges Behind Physical AI
For three years, "AI" meant something you talked to. A box on a screen that wrote your emails, summarized your meetings, and occasionally hallucinated a court case. That version of AI lived entirely behind glass, with no hands, no weight, no stake in the physical room it was supposedly helping you navigate. In 2026, that framing is starting to look dated, and not because the chatbots got worse.
In late 2025, Forrester's chief research officer, Sharyn Leaver, predicted that "the AI hype period ends" in 2026 as pressure for measurable results intensifies. Gartner's 2025 Hype Cycle for AI described a gradual pivot away from generative AI as the central focus toward enablers such as AI-ready data and agents, and coverage of the report places generative AI in the "Trough of Disillusionment."
The bills are showing up in earnings, too. In August, Canva, which Fortune callsa rare startup that grew...
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