Quick thoughts on Scott Galloway’s predictions for 2026

My favorite podcast by a ton is Pivot. I think I would be friends in real life with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, although I’m also not sure they wouldn’t hate me.

I kind of fear them both. They’re among the smartest people I don’t actually know, and yet I respect everything they have to say. Each Tuesday and Friday, I want to know their opinions on all things media and tech, not to form my own, but to get silent validation for any of mine that happen to align with theirs.

When I heard that Scott Galloway would be giving his 2026 predictions as part of a Zoom livestream hosted by Section AI, I set my alarm.

But I came away both totally overwhelmed and a little underwhelmed.

First, Scott comes at you with so many slides and so much information that you have to be ready to keep up mentally. Daddy is a racehorse, not a tortoise.

Overwhelmed.

Second, much of this livestream was about Scott’s thoughts on business, as in investing, and not only do I not know much about it, but I also don’t have much money to invest. I’ve been self-employed and am effectively poor. Ha!

I’m super lucky, however, so let’s not get it twisted.

Where my ears stood up listening to Scott was when he talked about media and tech, and I’ll start with the latter. Scott said the American economy “has become one big bet on AI.”

To me, that’s scary because I believe it to be a giant bubble the likes of which we haven’t seen since the dotcom era of the late 90s and early 2000s. Scott added that the question isn’t if a downfall will happen, it’s when. He added that the data center bubble is already starting to burst.

So, these are the good times, you’re telling me?

Well, Scott had some good news on that front. He predicted a great tech bailout in 2026, keeping the economy from collapsing.

In terms of the industry of 2026, he predicted it would be space, not space tourism, but “space connectivity” and “space defense.” Last year, Scott predicted that 2025 would be the year of nuclear and that 2024 would be the year of GLP-1 drugs.

He didn’t talk much about media, aside from saying that TikTok US is the investment none of us can access because it’s in the hands of an oligarchical few. However, Scott did say that podcasting was continuing to develop into much lower-cost TV — something I see within my own world as a digital and news consultant.

In that sense, I came away a little underwhelmed. There wasn’t anything there that I hadn’t heard from Scott before. (Meaning that if you listen to the podcast, you’ll be ahead of the curve.)

This live session isn’t something that will get shared publicly, so I don’t have a link for you.

However, Scott talks about his predictions often on the podcast, and the next one comes out Friday (every Tuesday and Friday)! There’s always some gold in those episodes, gold and the occasional dick jokes.

Who is Ryan Welton? Ryan is the founder of Doable Digital Media, helping newsrooms ‘activate’ better on digital and businesses showcase themselves like a ‘newsroom.’ Together, it’s called “Activate Like A Newsroom.” Email: ryan AT doabledigitalmedia.com.

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