It’s fair to say that artificial intelligence andmachine learning—and the process modeling, IPgovernance, and data-center challenges theybring—will continue to occupy significant bandwidthin the coming year, both in the media and in ourtechnical discussions. What we mustn’t do,however, is lose sight of everything else happeningin simulation and design. Here are a few of thetopics I’m most often asked about, and what I seehappening as we enter 2026.

This article appeared in the January 2026 Issue of BENCHMARK.