cavendish

Crystal ball · the outlook

The order it arrives in is the argument.

Capabilities arrive on dates. Outcomes accumulate. Walk the year forward to see the world you are planning for, drag anything you disagree with, and take the position with you.

Your exposure

24shifts open before 2032

12 of them have no validated lab position behind them.

In 2027: 0 arrived · 12 underway · 14 still ahead

2027today
Intelligence
Physical world
Discovery
Energy & compute
Rules & trust
What it does to usoutcomes
Capability — arrivesOutcome — accumulates requires / accelerates may enableBars fade toward the far end of their window · thickness is how far the consequences reach · drag one to move it

38 of 40 lab fields stand behind this outlook · 12 of 26 arguments have nothing published behind them · 2 fields the outlook has never accounted for

Intelligence · a capability

Work we can delegate

2028–2032 · Contested · reach 7

When systems can remember, plan and act reliably, the unit of automation expands from a task to a workflow. Human work shifts towards objectives, exceptions and accountability.

The hinge

Does the cost of supervision fall faster than the amount of useful work agents perform grows?

Disagree here rather than on a percentage. This is the question that decides the window.

The strongest countercase

Supervision, messy inputs and organisational resistance could absorb the apparent savings. Capable agents do not automatically create autonomous organisations.

What could go wrong, and who decides

Misuse, cascading errors and loss of control become more consequential as permissions and autonomy expand.

How it connects

6 things have to happen first · 3 follow from it.

Keep your view moving

Three questions worth coming back to.

Editorial watchpoints · September 2026

From a view to a decision

Take a position. Keep the receipts.

Save your timing, your reasoning and what would change your mind, or take a dated, sourced brief into the next planning conversation.

An interactive outlook prototype. Research links are real; windows, connections, breakthrough statuses and readings of other people's scenarios are ours and are illustrative. Personal outlooks stay in this browser — no live monitoring is connected.