Stanford HAI Reviews the Defining AI Moments of 2025 and Looks Ahead to 2026

Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) has published a retrospective of the most significant AI stories of 2025, highlighting the rapid advancements and growing pains of the technology.

The report notes that smaller, more efficient models are now matching the performance of larger models from 2022, and that business adoption of AI has surged. Looking to 2026, Stanford experts predict a shift from "AI evangelism" to evaluation, with a greater focus on rigor, transparency, and the real-world utility of AI systems.