AI Archives

7 Mistakes Leaders Should Avoid in 2026

Staying on top means staying self-aware. As we enter 2026, the challenges facing leaders—especially those in tech and consulting—are evolving fast. AI is reshaping how we deliver value, hybrid work is no longer novel, and clients are expecting more transparency and results than ever.

Below are seven leadership missteps to watch out for this year—along with a few ideas on how to avoid them.

1. Relying on Gut Over Data

In 2026, instinct is no longer enough. With AI-driven insights, customer analytics, and data-rich environments, leaders who continue to make key decisions based on hunches risk falling behind. The leaders who win will be the ones who blend their experience with real-time insights.

Tip: Tools like Intertech’s UnifiAI can help make sense of project data, customer behavior, and risk signals across your ecosystem.

2. Ignoring AI Literacy

AI is no longer optional. Leaders don’t need to be engineers, but they must understand how AI works, where it fits, and how it impacts both their team’s output and their customers’ expectations.

Tip: Invest in AI training for yourself and your team. Even a 60-minute session on prompt engineering can pay off fast.

3. Micromanaging a Hybrid Workforce

The days of “management by walking around” are over. In 2026, micromanaging remote or hybrid teams erodes trust, kills morale, and signals that you don’t trust your people.

What to do instead: Set clear goals, track outcomes, and check in with curiosity, not control.

4. Saying Yes to Everything

This one hasn’t changed in decades, but it’s even more dangerous today. Saying yes to every meeting, project, or proposal spreads your team thin and leads to burnout—or worse, underdelivery.

Smart leaders in 2026 are ruthless about priorities. If it doesn’t move a key needle, it’s a no.

5. Skipping Structured Communication

In the age of Slack and “quick Zooms,” communication can become reactive and chaotic. That’s why structured communication—like daily huddles, monthly all-hands, and weekly project updates—is more valuable than ever.

At Intertech, our daily huddle keeps everyone aligned and accountable in under 15 minutes. It’s a staple of how we operate and scale clarity.

6. Overlooking Culture During Growth

Growth is exciting—but it also hides cultural cracks. When the pipeline is full and the team is growing fast, it’s easy to forget the things that made your culture great in the first place.

Remember: Culture doesn’t scale on autopilot. Protect it, promote it, and hire people who fit and elevate it.

7. Failing to Communicate the “Why”

Teams want more than tasks—they want meaning. Leaders who don’t tie projects to purpose will lose the hearts and minds of their best people.

Tie each initiative back to how it serves the customer, supports the team, or moves the mission forward. Especially with younger team members, the “why” matters more than ever.

Final Thought

Leadership in 2026 isn’t about being perfect—it’s about being present, intentional, and adaptable. The mistakes above aren’t new, but the stakes are higher. If you can spot them early and course-correct, you’ll set your team—and yourself—up for a strong year.

What CIOs Are Prioritizing in 2026: A Forecast from the Trenches

2026 is the year enterprise tech strategies go from experimental to essential. CIOs are setting clearer expectations, cutting through buzzwords, and demanding solutions that actually move the business forward. It’s not about trying everything—it’s about doing the right things well. Here’s what we’re seeing CIOs prioritize this year, based on what they’re asking for in our conversations at Intertech.

1. AI That Actually Delivers Value

The GenAI gold rush has matured. In 2026, CIOs aren’t exploring—they’re implementing. They want AI models that connect to their data, automate real tasks, and create measurable outcomes. At Intertech, we’ve seen demand surge for integrating AI directly into software development workflows—not as a bolt-on, but as a core capability. That’s exactly why we created UnifiAI—to help teams embed generative AI into the dev process itself, from architecture and design to deployment and optimization.

2. Legacy Tech: Simplify or Sunset

CIOs are done paying for bloated, redundant systems. The mandate this year is clean architecture, consolidated tooling, and platforms that scale without dragging down innovation. We’re working with several clients to rationalize their software ecosystems—sunsetting old apps and refactoring others—because leaner tech stacks aren’t just cheaper. They’re more resilient, more secure, and easier to evolve.

3. Security Is the New Differentiator

Cybersecurity isn’t just IT’s problem anymore. Boards and regulators are watching closely, and smart CIOs are investing in “secure by design” practices from day one. For Intertech clients in healthcare, finance, and other regulated industries, this has meant proactively baking compliance and threat mitigation into every project. Trust is now a feature—and it better be included at launch.

4. Outcomes Over Output

The days of measuring value by hours worked are fading. What clients really want is impact. Did we help users move faster? Did support calls drop? Did we help unlock new revenue? These are the metrics that matter. That’s why we always define success metrics early in every engagement—and revisit them constantly. It keeps us and our clients aligned on what actually moves the needle.

5. No Room for B-Teams

CIOs are being blunt in 2026: they don’t want to pay for learning curves, fluff, or consultants who can’t handle ambiguity. They want talent that’s smart, experienced, and collaborative. At Intertech, we hire for technical strength, yes—but also for emotional intelligence, curiosity, and the ability to operate as a true consulting partner. That’s what makes our teams different—and why so many clients keep coming back.

If You’re Not Learning, You’re Falling Behind

Why Lifelong Learning Is a Must in a World of AI, Agile, and Rapid Tech Shifts

In technology, the only constant is change—and it’s moving faster than ever. From AI breakthroughs to the rise of low-code/no-code platforms and the continual evolution of cloud-native development, the software world reinvents itself at lightning speed. If your team—or your consulting partner—isn’t learning, it’s not just treading water. It’s falling behind.

At Intertech, we believe staying current isn’t a luxury—it’s a responsibility. That’s why we’ve embedded continuous learning into the fabric of our culture.

1. The Ground Is Always Shifting

Think back just a couple of years. LLMs weren’t part of mainstream development. Now, platforms like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and dozens of API-integrated AI tools are changing how we write, debug, and even conceptualize code.

It’s no longer enough to be great at one stack. Developers—and the firms they work with—must be nimble, curious, and ready to evolve.

2. Internal Training: Built-In, Not Bolted On

At Intertech, we’ve institutionalized growth. Our internal training programs ensure developers stay sharp with new languages, frameworks, security protocols, and architecture patterns. It’s not just about attending a one-off workshop. It’s about building a learning mindset.

From live classes to asynchronous resources, we empower team members to explore new tech on their own schedule—without sacrificing project delivery.

3. AI Isn’t a Threat. It’s a Tool.

A lot of developers worry AI is coming for their jobs. We see it differently.

AI is the new assistant in your IDE. It helps accelerate routine work, improve accuracy, and reduce the mental load of boilerplate tasks. But to truly benefit from it, developers need to know how to work with AI—and when not to.

That’s why we offer hands-on AI workshops, use prompt engineering internally, and bake AI capabilities into our project lifecycle through our UnifiAI offering. We’re not just learning AI. We’re teaching our clients how to wield it wisely.

4. Learning Is the Ultimate Competitive Edge

Whether it’s working with clients in new industries, migrating systems to the cloud, or building mobile-first experiences, learning fuels innovation. It allows us to anticipate challenges, guide our clients proactively, and avoid the stagnation that kills great companies.

Final Thought

There are no finish lines in technology. There’s only forward. At Intertech, we’ve made the choice to lean into the future—through training, tools, and talent development.

Because if you’re not learning, you’re not just falling behind… you’re making room for someone else who is.

AI Isn’t the Strategy. It’s the Accelerator

We’ve all heard it: “We need an AI strategy.” And sure, if you’re in the business of building AI itself, that might be the right call. But for most organizations—especially in software development—AI shouldn’t be the strategy. It should be the accelerator that powers the strategies you already have.

The Misstep: Treating AI Like a Standalone Initiative

Too many companies are setting up AI task forces, launching moonshot projects, or buying tools without a clear connection to real business needs. That’s like buying a Ferrari before you’ve figured out where you’re going.

AI is powerful, no doubt. But it’s not a magic wand, and it won’t fix disjointed processes or poor communication. If your workflows are inefficient or your teams aren’t aligned, adding AI will only make the chaos happen faster.

The Shift: Start with the Problem, Not the Tech

At Intertech, we’ve learned to lead with the why before jumping into the how. When clients come to us for AI support, our first question is always:
“What are you trying to achieve?”

Maybe it’s faster code delivery. Maybe it’s better user experiences. Maybe it’s reducing rework or eliminating manual handoffs. Once we understand the goal, then—and only then—do we talk about how AI can help.

UnifiAI: Helping Teams Work Smarter, Not Harder

That’s the thinking behind our UnifiAI offering. It’s not a single tool or tech stack—it’s a framework we’ve built to infuse AI into every phase of application development, including:

AI-assisted proposal writing that cuts time and increases accuracy
Smart requirements gathering that surfaces gaps before code is written
Automated code generation and testing to increase velocity
Deployment insights powered by predictive analytics

And importantly, UnifiAI is built to fit within your existing development process—not replace it.

AI as a Force Multiplier

Done right, AI boosts the performance of your best people. It doesn’t replace them.

Junior devs get up to speed faster.
Senior devs spend less time on boilerplate.
PMs get clearer status updates.
QA teams test smarter, not harder.

It’s about helping your team deliver value faster—and that’s what clients and end users really care about.

Final Thought

Don’t get distracted by the hype. If you’re not clear on your business goals, AI will just move you in the wrong direction faster. But when used strategically, it’s the nitrous boost your existing engine needs.

AI isn’t the strategy. It’s the accelerator. Make sure you’re pointing it at the right destination.

From Billable Hours to Business Impact: What Clients Really Want

When you ask consulting firms how they measure success, they usually answer: “We bill by the hour.” Fair enough—it’s traditional and transparent.

But ask enterprise clients what they really care about, and you’ll hear something very different:
Business outcomes. Real results. Improved performance.

Large organizations don’t pay for hours. They pay for impact.

Why the “Hours Model” Falls Short

Billable hours track effort—not outcomes. You can clock 100 hours on code that never ships, or on meetings that don’t move the needle. Meanwhile, the client paid—but didn’t win.

Clients don’t hire us to be busy. They hire us to move the needle.

What Clients Actually Want

They want to:

Launch faster, more reliable products
Reduce technical debt or risk
Achieve automation or scale
Save operational costs
Deliver measurable ROI

That requires strategy, alignment, and efficiency—not just hours.

How We Shift from Time to Impact

Here’s how Intertech turns that shift into reality—and why it works:

1. Start with clarity

Before writing a line of code, we define what success looks like. Not scope. Not estimated hours. Real outcomes tied to business goals.

2. Ask the right questions

What metric matters most? Where’s the friction? What happens if we’re wrong?

3. Communicate in value, not time

Instead of “X hours spent,” we report on what’s delivered—and how it aligns with business goals.

4. Amplify impact with UnifiAI™

UnifiAI™ is our proprietary system of intelligent AI agents, tailored to fit your platform and team, designed to unlock real efficiency across planning, coding, documentation, testing, QA, and integration. It’s built on agentic AI “but led by humans,” cutting development time by up to 50%

That’s not about doing more—it’s about doing more that matters. More speed, more accuracy, more capacity—for the same or less investment.

Why This Matters to Clients and Teams

Faster to market, reliably
With UnifiAI™ trimming repetitive work, delivery cycles shrink—without sacrificing quality.
Greater ROI
Less time in the weeds means more value delivered per dollar spent.
Stronger relationships
When clients see consistent value—not just effort—they stick around. And they recommend.

A Different Way Forward

If you’re running a services firm—or choosing one—here’s the path to real impact:

Don’t sell time. Sell clarity.
Anchor on outcomes. Measure by value.
Use smart tools like UnifiAI™ to amplify your team’s impact.

Clients don’t want consultants to keep them busy. They want partners who move them forward.

That’s what real impact looks like.