Thank you for taking the time to write this. Unfortunately, there are still people on this forum who argue that a turtles-all-the-way-down approach will somehow work out in the end and that the best way to verify LLM work is to add another layer of AI agents, whereas the only way to stop it is to ensure that the entire thing is built on some human verified last line of defense. Unfortunately, the higher up you go the more insecure people get when you ask for their supporting sources. They'll try to hand wave it saying they researched it or got others to research it for them instead of owning up to deferring the decision to AI. You know whats even scarier? When a C-suite doesn't try to hide the fact that they had the AI make the decision. Then it's just time to leave, or alternatively time to turn your brain off and collect your pay check until the music stops.

>Perhaps reflecting on the state of the market, I thought, could indicate who was actually in control. Where do investor and customer expectations come from in 2026?

This looks like ill-fated Gartner driven development on crack. Where does customer expectations come from in 2026? How about from your customers?

If you're doing enterprise software and talk to your users, you'll end up learning that the actual users of your software don't use 80% of your features. You might even learn they don't use your software at all, and that the software was mandated top-down from the C-suites or that the execs in charge forgot what purpose your software served but are too insecure to question it, unless and until there is a sudden pressure to cut costs.