What Will Happen in 2026? Our Experts Tell Us What to Expect

For Americans who felt 2025 was a ceaseless storm of norm-challenging change, there may be balm in the celebrations of the republic’s 250th birthday on July 4. But more soberly, 2026 will also be marked by Supreme Court decisions that could upend the very foundation of our democracy. Will work insecurity grow as AI matures from loud infancy into a tricky “technolescence”? What will memes have to teach us? And what about that new musical genre bubbling out of Asia? Bruin experts cast a light on the path ahead. 

The Economy: A Mixed Bag

UCLA Anderson School of Management macroeconomist Clement Bohr predicts the economy will remain largely “frozen” out of the gate but will see improvements as the year progresses on the back of fiscal and monetary stimulus. His overall general outlook is “rosy, with stimulations from the Big Beautiful Bill working through, if — and it’s a big if — administration polices remain stable and predictable.”

Bohr, an adjunct professor of global economics and management, is monitoring talk of an artificial intelligence bubble — just seven AI-fueled companies account for a third of all Wall Street wealth. But Bohr believes the tech giants are so flush with cash that even if some spending is kept off balance sheets through “special vehicles” created by often-veiled private credit concerns, the companies “can ride out downturns and keep on investing in new infrastructure during 2026.” And after that? “Right now, these giants generate about $60 billion a year in AI-related revenue,” Bohr says. “But by 2030, to keep up with rising chip power and costs, that will have to be between half a trillion and a trillion dollars.”

A leading researcher behind the internationally cited UCLA Anderson Forecast, Bohr is most concerned about the forthcoming Supreme Court decision as to whether a president can replace board members of the long-independent Federal Reserve — and the long-term ramifications this could have for the economy. “Economics is a social science, not a hard science, but one certainty that unites all economists is that subjecting federal money policy to political rather than business cycles, typically lowering interest rates for election advantage, is a disaster — as President Nixon found, as has Turkey,” he says. (Turkey’s hastily lowered interest rates resulted in 87% inflation; its interest rates are now around 38%.) “We have not hit the Fed’s inflation target for five years, and even a slight signal about loss of independence would freak out the bond markets and make this a lot tougher for everyone in 2026.”

Technology: The Rise of Punk Inventors

2026 will see AI boost research across many areas, especially biomedicine. But there will be a price to pay and a need to consider the toxic side effects as it grows from loud infant into hungry teen, says Ramesh Srinivasan, professor of information studies at the UCLA School of Education & Information Studies. It’s not just land, water, electricity and overexcited marketing that are key factors, but also AI’s social justice and social-psychological effects. Can we keep up with the rapid changes, with governments willing or capable of shielding us from the dark side of this new wave of technology? Says Srinivasan: “We may start to find out in 2026.”

He finds comfort in a surge of low-cost “punk” technologies, such as those developed by groups who have repurposed old ham-radio tech into privacy-first phone networks, especially popular in the world’s 91 autocratic regimes. “AI may get the headlines,” he says, “but human inventiveness is boundless.

Public Health: Threats From Pseudoscience 

The biggest challenges to public health in 2026 will remain misinformation, disinformation and “malinformation” — dangerous falsehoods spread for political advantage or out of sheer malice, warns UCLA medical epidemiologist Robert Kim-Farley M.P.H. ’75.

The return of measles, largely thought eradicated in American life, confirms that in 2026, once-trusted medical science will be under increasing pressure. Conspiracy theories promoted by “weird people” who are reviving debunked links between vaccines, autism and a host of other maladies, warns Kim-Farley, professor-in-residence at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

As health costs continue to rise, largely due to government cuts to the Affordable Care Act, Kim-Farley foresees a much-needed discussion about just how health care is paid for in the United States. 

He also sees great social benefit emerging from the current range of anti-obesity drugs if they can be widely distributed following new agreements with pharmaceutical manufacturers that will translate to more affordable medicines. “Right now, they look like a boon,” he says, “but medical science is always learning. And who knows what we might learn in 2026?”

Climate Science: Making Up Lost Ground

Public interest in climate change fell off a cliff in 2025, demonstrated by the number of no-show nations at the COP30 climate conference in Brazil. So says Glen MacDonald, director of UCLA’s White Mountain Research Center in the Owens Valley, where scientists from around the world track environmental change at high altitudes — with these studies now at risk.

“This has to be a year of reflection, reorganization and resolve,” he says. “With so many nations stepping back from environmental protection targets, we have to ask whether we have been too ambitious. We have to reach younger people, in particular, who are more concerned with everyday issues, such as do they have a job tomorrow,” says MacDonald, UCLA’s Professor of California and the American West.

He worries that 2026 could be the year when global temperatures hit a breaking point known as the 1.5 C rise. “I don’t know if we are quite there,” he says, “but we are very close, and 2026 is most likely to be hotter than last year.” He adds that California will be especially vulnerable to increasingly erratic weather cycles: “We get around 12 heavy rainstorms a year; we lose two or three and we are back in drought.”

In the wake of the Paradise and Pacific Palisades/Eaton wildfire tragedies, builders are scrambling to update fire resistance — even if authorities remain wary of enforcing them on older buildings, which is most of the state’s housing and industrial stock. “We prepare for the worst,” MacDonald says, “but we will still be taken by surprise when it happens.”

Law: Danger at the Supreme Court 

Professor Joseph Fishkin, a constitutional scholar at the UCLA School of Law, fears that while lower courts will continue to uphold legal norms in the coming year, the U.S. Supreme Court will “bend over backwards” to bolster the political ambitions of the current administration.

“It’s the most conservative Court since the late 19th century,” he says of the Roberts Court. “It has usually been a lagging indicator behind public opinion, but now, with growing [White House] unpopularity, it is in danger of losing public support and inviting congressional scrutiny under a new administration.”

Whether that comes to pass may rest on the Court’s 2026 rulings.

 “There are fundamental questions in the air,” Fishkin says. “Will the 14th Amendment [defining birthright citizenship] still apply? Last year, we assumed it would; this year, we cannot be so sure. The Court may reject extreme challenges to the Voting Rights Act, wanting to appear moderate, but still narrow what was thought to be settled law for 60 years, to the electoral advantage of White House allies. They will carry a lot of water for this regime.”

While past Republican administrations have dialed back systemic discrimination actions, Fishkin says the Trump administration is very active — at least on behalf of plaintiffs who are Christian groups and white men — and likely to remain so in 2026. Still, he says, there are limits as to what the law profession writ large may be willing to breach. 

“The White House faces a personnel problem: It is running out of people who are expert in the craft of law who are willing to risk disbarment by persecuting political enemies,” he says. “The White House can forgive their federal crimes but not restore their law licenses and respect.”

Popular Culture: A New Sound 

Trend-spotters did not see the KPop Demon Hunters or the 6-7 meme coming in 2025. And they’re likely to miss the next generation of organic fads in 2026, too, according to Tiffany Naiman, director of music industry programs and assistant teaching professor at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music. 

While she foresees Hollywood and TikTok increasingly depending on AI-generated content, she feels popular music will lean the other way — back into authenticity. “EDM [electronic dance music] will fade as more of my students take up guitars and other ‘analog’ instruments,” says Naiman, a former band manager. “They want to feel real, personal connections with their heroes, those who share their daily lives rather than stay aloof and private.”

She predicts “a renaissance in underground roots music, Afrobeat and Latin American sounds. But the incoming wave will be M-pop — Mandarin-language music from China.” Specifically, look for M-pop acts such as Jay Chou, G.E.M., Jolin Tsai and Singaporean Stefanie Sun to enter the American music scene. 

‘The big three record companies — Universal, Sony and Warner — are signing up the biggest names, who are preparing high-tech shows that will blow you away,” she says. “Watch out for them in 2026.” 

We will. 

Check out UCLA Magazine’s Fall 2025 issue.