Leaders predict AI to continue permeating all aspects of KM in 2026
AI continues to be the topic du jour for various aspects of knowledge management, and 2026 looks to be no exception as leaders in the industry look ahead.
According to Dimension Market Research, the AI-driven knowledge management system market is expected to grow by $251.2 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43.7% from 2025 to 2034.
The research report shows several top trends in the industry include:
Customer support and self-service portals: An AI-powered knowledge management system can power chatbots and virtual assistants that offer instantaneous answers to customer inquiries.
Enterprise knowledge sharing and collaboration: Organizations leverage artificial intelligence knowledge management systems (KMSs) to centralize institutional knowledge for easy searchability by employees. AI helps recommend relevant documents, insights, or experts within an organization for improved collaboration and decision-making processes.
Regulatory compliance and risk management: Compliance, risk, and organizational AI-driven KMS solutions help businesses remain compliant with industry regulations by continuously tracking, updating, and organizing compliance documents.
Accelerated Research and Development (R&D): In industries such as pharmaceuticals, AI-powered KMS can analyze vast datasets, research papers, and patents to spot trends, foster innovation, and accelerate product development. AI can summarize complex studies while simultaneously discovering patterns or suggesting areas worthy of further exploration.
“When thinking specifically about generative AI and LLMs, the main capabilities that got boosted thus far by this technology are handling of unstructured documents. But the processing pipeline is defined with natural language without the need for dedicated training,” said Matej Bukovinski, CTO, Nutrient. “The semantic understanding of the content enables more resilient data extraction regardless of the underlaying structure. A significant reshaping will occur in subsequent workflows following data extraction, which with agentic capabilities, will be able to reduce the need for humans in the processing loop.”
He expects the trend of incorporating LLMs in intelligent document processing (IDP) to continue.
“Cost, performance, and privacy considerations are key factors causing concern for wider adoption in high-volume enterprise IDP workflows. Those will be further alleviated with new, more cost effective, and efficient models, including ones enabling a full on-premise deployment,” Bukovinski said.
RWS sees 2026 as the year when translation becomes infrastructure, and the winners will be those who combine automation with accountability, noted Luis Lopes, principal product manager at RWS. The next competitive edge lies in orchestrating AI, human expertise, and workflow intelligence into a single, auditable system that delivers quality, speed, and trust—all at once.
“At the same time, ‘auto-draft, human-final’ workflows will become the default,” said Lopes. “Generative AI will handle first passes on UI strings, marketing copy, and support content, while human reviewers focus on tone, nuance, and risk-sensitive material. This model will free creative teams to focus on brand storytelling while maintaining the linguistic precision global enterprises require.”
The world isn’t slowing down, said Ken Tuchman, chairman and chief executive officer of TTEC,and brands that don’t keep up are falling behind.
“Technology is evolving, customer expectations are rising, and brands that stay stuck in the past will lose customer satisfaction, revenue, and loyalty by the day. Our 2026 trends report shows that brands that integrate technology, data, and human insight effectively are the ones that consistently deliver seamless customer experiences that truly earn loyalty,” Tuchman said.
According to TTEC’s report, the five trends shaping CX in 2026 are:
- Agentic AI goes mainstream — AI moves from pilot projects to production, but success depends on trustworthy data, transparent models, and robust security.
- Tech stack clarity becomes critical — Fragmented CX systems hinder performance. Consolidating platforms and aligning technology with outcomes drives agility and measurable results.
- Personalization evolves into precision — Customers expect hyper-personalized, real-time interactions powered by unified, high-quality data that anticipates their needs.
- Empathy gets re-imagined — Balancing AI efficiency with human empathy ensures interactions are caring, consistent, and resolution-focused.
- Resilience defines the future of CX — Economic shifts, workforce volatility, and fraud require adaptive CX models underpinned by intelligent automation and flexible global delivery.