One of the standout presentations at SXSW was from Amy Webb, CEO of Future Today Strategy Group and a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Before the crowd could determine if her speech was serious or satire, the University of Texas marching band was trumpeting down the aisles of the Downtown Austin Hilton’s conference hall. Cymbals smashing. Horns blowing. Mobile phones recording.
To say, “that’s one way to begin a speech,” would be an understatement.
Ms. Webb’s remarkable insights pour out at times as well-crafted witticisms that would be hard to catch with a gillnet. (Thus the crowd’s shifting eyeballs as she walked out on stage in a black cape and began presenting a “eulogy” for her Tech Trends Report, a nearly two-decade long project.) Other times, she’s as blunt as a lead pipe.
Throwing off her cape and thanking the marching Longhorns, Ms. Webb fully commanded the auditorium, using her presence to announce the birth of her organization’s new product, Convergence Outlook.
The innovative report is based on an original methodology developed to predict “convergences,” defined as the moment in time “when multiple trends, forces and uncertainties intersect and interact to create a combined impact that is greater, and often different in kind, than the sum of their individual effects.”
Ms. Webb used a meteorological metaphor to illustrate convergences, telling the crowd that data is the individual markers, such as wind speed, temperature and humidity. A convergence is the storm. They are defined by four rules, according to Webb. They create system level changes, create new realities, redistribute power and values and are hard to reverse.
“So, what do you do with a convergence? You use it for strategy. You use it to figure out what to accelerate, what to pause, or what to completely reframe as you’re starting to build things,” Webb said.
Her organization’s full Convergence Outlook is well over 300 pages long (available at its website), but she offered the crowd three of them to consider as we push into 2026.
Human Augmentation
As Webb put it, “We humans have never been satisfied with our factory settings.”
This convergence deals with ways to leverage technology or biology to extend our physical capabilities beyond natural limits. This entails a broad range of products to help us move faster or longer, control mobility devices with thought, slow aging and improve intelligence and experience augmented realities through wearables. Many of these technologies are already being used and rapidly innovating.
Webb’s take was that if she could use a motorized exoskeleton to walk for longer and identify people more accurately with web-connected glasses, she could meet more people at conferences, earn more business cards and be quicker to follow up on new opportunities.
Sounds like an advantage in real estate.
Unlimited Labor
Agentic AI, robotics and fully automated factories, or “lights-out industrialism,” are removing humans from the loop entirely, Webb said.
Many in real estate are already deploying multiagent teams to tackle marketing, lead capture and cold calling, among other critical business functions. Document automation and analysis is another fast-moving example of how this convergence impacts real estate, helping transaction coordinators and agents identify key contract terms, correct mistakes and get sales completed in much less time.
A wave of next-generation brokerage operating systems is emerging, many powered by AI capabilities, and MLSs are now working with OpenAI to integrate search and CMA creation into their prompt workflows. Robots are already used in a number of home building use cases, such as assembling modular home systems, cutting lumber and 3D printing with concrete. Perhaps it won’t be long before Lennar or Pulte are investing in ways to build homes faster as a result of “unlimited labor.”
Perhaps Webb’s most salient takeaway for this convergence? “The next internet isn’t being made for you, it’s being remade for [AI] agents.”
Emotional Outsourcing
Webb’s slide on this convergence stated, “Emotional outsourcing is the shift of comfort, validation, and companionship from people to machines.”
Sounds a bit eerie.
“Emotional outsourcing has created a fast-growing multibillion-dollar market made up of products and services designed to stand in for and monetize real human connections,” Webb said. She warned that what starts as simple substitution—turning to chatbots, AI companions or therapeutic apps for a little extra support—can quickly progress into dependency and then into invisible infrastructure, where emotional AI becomes a baked-in part of everyday life rather than a fringe behavior.
In that world, whoever controls the platforms that mediate our feelings effectively controls the upstream of how we relate, decide, vote and even trust, raising uncomfortable questions about manipulation, loneliness as a business model and what parts of being human we are willing to outsource at scale.
Applying Convergences
“Here’s what successful companies are doing right now. They are using convergences and strategic foresight to define their strategy,” Webb said. “For individuals, what habit are you doing that is already obsolete, what skill are you not building because it’s hard?”
For real estate agents looking to make change in 2026 and beyond, Webb’s Convergence Outlook is a must-read. The skills to cope with tomorrow’s storms need to be built today.
Author
Dan Weisman is Director, Innovation Strategy within the Strategic Business, Innovation & Technology group at the National Association of REALTORS®.
