As 2026 Approaches, Is Your Business Model Still Relevant?

As 2025 draws to a close and the promises of 2026 come into view, a critical question confronts every enterprise: how must we redesign our businesses to win? At Tekedia Institute, we have long emphasized that business models are supreme. If the underlying logic through which a firm captures value, for fixing frictions in the market, is broken, no amount of effort, talent, or technology will change the outcome.

A robust business model is paramount for a company’s success, even more so than factors like strong leadership or execution alone. The business model, encompassing how a company creates, delivers, and captures value, is considered “supreme” because it dictates the fundamental logic and operations of the business.

Essentially, even with the same products or services, the business model adopted can drastically impact a company’s performance. Freemium or subscription business model on the same products? Whatever you decide will re-align how factors of production within that firm will be used.

In this AI era, the central issue is no longer whether you are using AI operationally in your firm, but how AI is reshaping your business model. Yes, besides running with AI, is AI transforming the enterprise, moving from artificial intelligence to enterprise intelligence?

Many business models that worked well in the past are now stale. Companies that once hired thousands of young people in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to provide entry-level engineering services to firms in Europe and America are now under severe pressure. Many have folded; others are shadows of their former selves. The reason is simple and uncomfortable: AI has disintermediated the entry-level roles that sustained those business playbooks.

When AI arrived, we paid attention to the signals. At Tekedia Institute, we recognized early that change was not incremental; it was structural. As supply of courses became abundant, value shifted away from merely offering courses toward improving learner outcomes. In a world where AI can generate unlimited content, the advantage no longer lies in static online materials. It lies in helping learners make sense of abundance, think into knowledge, and acquire actional insights.

That realization forced a redesign. We pivoted toward more live, interactive programs, focusing on guidance, interpretation, and execution rather than content alone. The business model evolved because the environment changed. That is why Tekedia AI Lab program is a live program.

The question now is this: what signals are you seeing in your own business? As 2026 arrives, are you rethinking the logic of how you create and capture value or are you hoping yesterday’s model will survive tomorrow’s realities? Rethink your business model for 2026.

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