Anthropic has identified eight major trends that are set to transform the software development lifecycle in 2026. These include a shift from individual executors to coordinators and architects, evolution of single agents into coordinated teams, and the emergence of long-running agents capable of building complete systems.

Other notable trends are the scaling of human control through intelligent collaboration, expansion of agent usage across new scenarios and platforms, changes in software development economics, democratization of coding beyond traditional engineers, and improvements in security alongside new emerging threats.

The company emphasizes that these changes will make 2026 an eventful year for developers and impactful for everyone due to the pervasive role of software in daily life.

Read more on Anthropic’s blog