Another year brings even more potential for breakthroughs in AI.
Four partners at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz discussed what 2026 will bring to the world of AI on an episode of the firm's podcast aired on December 29, 2025. They focused on some of the biggest consumer LLMs. Includes ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Cursor, Perplexity, and Grok.
What they think this year could bring to the AI race.
Video and images can give Gemini an edge
Investment partner Justin Moore said Gemini 3's video and image model could give it a significant advantage over ChatGPT, as there is “consistently almost limitless demand” for these features among both professional and everyday users.
“So many new viral trends are being created around new features of best-in-class image and video models,” she said.
That could drive users to new products, Moore added. If Gemini can maintain this momentum, it may be able to overcome ChatGPT's visibility challenge.
Multimodality is the key
Images and video are the same thing, but multimodality—the ability for AI models to process text, images, and audio simultaneously—could be the real differentiator in 2026. Almost “everything” is becoming multimodal, Moore said.
“What if you could input a video and pull out the images that are relevant to the next iteration of the video? Or, what if you could input a video, type a text prompt about what you want to edit, and then pull out the edited video?” she said.
This change can also have a big impact on the world of design, including combining text and images in creative ways.
Push to app
The success of ChatGPT's internal version of the app store could be the company's “defining question for next year,” said Olivia Moore, one of its partners. App partners at launch included Spotify and Zillow.
Another partner, Anish Acharya, said a model software development kit that allows developers to build their own apps for ChatGPT could be important for both consumer and enterprise use. Together, these features allow ChatGPT to behave more like an app store.
Startups require creativity
If a startup wants to succeed, it may want to avoid the text-in, text-out model because the existing model is so dominant.
“You have to get creative. What angles can you steal from?” partner Brian Kim said.
“Winner takes all”
Olivia Moore said there are early signs that the LLM assistant world may be trending toward “winner-take-all, or at least winner-take-most.”
When it comes to the number of users, ChatGPT has a significant lead over its competitors, with 800 million to 900 million weekly active users. Google's Gemini has reached about 35% of its size on the web and about 40% on mobile devices, Moore said. Other models say it's 8-10%.
Later in the episode, Moore also said that ChatGPT Enterprise, available to enterprises, could help drive growth. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT Enterprise's weekly messages will increase approximately eight times in 2025.
“If we're coming to a world where people have to use ChatGPT for their companies or as part of their jobs, that could actually lead to consumer use,” she said.
But if the past few months are any indication, “things are changing very quickly,” Moore said, noting that Gemini is adding desktop users at a faster pace than ChatGPT. Other LLMs, such as Claude, offer capabilities that cater to specialized consumers, such as uber-technical.
