From insight to action: Lessons from SXSW London 2026

SXSW proved once again it is a leading forum for understanding how technology, media and telecommunications are converging. Its London edition brought together global leaders, policymakers, creators, and investors to explore the forces shaping the next phase of growth.

Forvis Mazars TMT joined industry leaders at this global gathering with the breadth of the programme offering a wide range of perspectives. The 2026 theme, “Shape the Future”, marked a clear shift from exploring trends to focusing on how organisations translate innovation into competitive advantage.

For leaders across the TMT sector, SXSW provided more than inspiration. It surfaced practical insights into how AI, the creator economy, and international expansion are redefining competitive advantage.

AI as a strategic and organisational imperative

One of the key messages from SXSW was that AI has moved beyond the realm of innovation into the core of business strategy.

The conversation is no longer centred on capability or potential. Instead, the focus has shifted to how organisations govern, operationalise and scale AI effectively. As discussions highlighted, AI is increasingly acting as a power structure, influencing not just productivity, but decision-making, value creation and competitive positioning.

However, despite the scale of opportunity, adoption remains in its early stages. As one speaker noted, using AI today is often “like having a smartphone and only using it to make calls”.

There was a strong consensus that:

• AI will augment, not replace, the workforce, enhancing roles and creating new opportunities over time.
• The real barrier is organisational readiness, not technical capability.
• Future advantage will be defined by those building beyond current paradigms, rather than simply deploying existing tools.

This is especially relevant as TMT businesses begin to move beyond large language models (LLMs) towards more integrated, domain-specific AI solutions, such as autonomous networks, AI-driven content pipelines, and intelligent customer platforms.

For TMT leaders, AI is a critical part of a broader strategic transformation. Competitive advantage will come from how effectively AI is embedded into products, services, and operating models.

The creator economy as a core business model

SXSW reinforced the extent to which content has evolved into a core driver of value creation, particularly within media, entertainment, and platform-led businesses.

The rise of the creator economy is fundamentally reshaping how audiences engage and how revenue is generated. For TMT organisations, this translates directly into changing business models, where:

• Content is increasingly owned, distributed and monetised across multiple platforms.
• Communities, not just audiences, are becoming the foundation of engagement.
• Revenue models are diversifying across advertising, subscription, commerce, and IP.

Sessions featuring entrepreneurs such as Jamie Laing as well as “Ant & Dec,” highlighted how businesses can now be built as content-first platforms, often starting with audience engagement before scaling into broader ecosystems. At the same time, the structure of creative industries is shifting. Media organisations, agencies, and content platforms will increasingly need technologists at their core, as AI, data and production converge.

For TMT leaders, this creates several strategic priorities:

• Integrating content strategy into core commercial strategy, rather than treating it as a marketing function.
• Redefining the role of platforms, balancing owned versus third-party distribution.
• Investing in technology-enabled content creation, including AI-assisted production and personalisation.

In this context, the boundary between technology and media companies continues to blur, requiring TMT organisations to operate across both disciplines simultaneously.

Globalisation, fragmentation, and the UK / European opportunity

SXSW highlighted a more nuanced view of globalisation, with increasing opportunity driven by geopolitics, regulation, and regional approaches.

For TMT businesses, many of which operate across borders, this complexity is particularly pronounced. Issues such as data sovereignty, regulatory divergence and infrastructure control are reshaping how businesses scale internationally.

We are entering what many described as a fifth era of technology, in which the UK and Europe have the potential to play a more prominent role, particularly in areas where computing intersects with the physical world. There is also a growing sense that the UK and Europe are becoming more confident and scalable, with increased collaboration across markets.

For TMT, this creates a specific opportunity to:

• Lead in infrastructure-led innovation, including AI-enabled networks and edge computing.
• Leverage regulatory positioning as a competitive advantage, particularly in trust, privacy and governance.
• Scale platforms and services globally from a UK / European base, rather than defaulting to US-led models.

However, realising this potential will require deliberate strategy, particularly in navigating regulatory complexity and accessing growth capital at scale.

Leadership, trust, and differentiation in an AI-driven world

While much of SXSW focused on TMT, some of the most impactful insights centred on leadership. High-profile sessions, including those featuring Michelle Obama and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, emphasised the importance of resilience, discipline, and trust in navigating an increasingly complex and uncertain environment.

For TMT leaders, this is especially critical. The sector plays a central role in shaping how information is created, distributed, and consumed, placing it at the heart of broader societal and regulatory debates.

Two shifts were particularly relevant:

• Trust is becoming a core competitive differentiator, particularly for platforms, telecom providers and digital services businesses managing data and content.
• Human capability remains critical, even as AI becomes embedded, particularly in areas such as content creation, decision-making, and governance.

There was also a strong message that the most successful organisations will be frontier-breakers. Those willing to challenge existing models, whether through new platforms, new monetisation approaches, or new applications of AI.

For organisations in the sector, this requires balancing innovation with responsibility, and ensuring that growth is supported by strong governance, ethical decision-making, and stakeholder trust.

Conclusion

SXSW London 2026 made one point clear: the opportunity is no longer in recognising change, but in acting on it. AI, content-led business models, and the global landscape are already reshaping how value is created. Organisations that move fastest, from experimentation to execution, from adoption to optimisation, will define the next phase of growth. Those that hesitate risk falling behind. The priority for TMT leaders should be to embed AI at scale, rethink business models around platforms and content, and position strategically within an increasingly fragmented global market.

The future of TMT will not be shaped by those who wait - it will be defined by those who act.

Key takeaways

• AI adoption remains in its initial stages, creating a significant opportunity for TMT organisations that can scale usage effectively.
• Competitive advantage will be defined by execution, particularly for those building beyond current AI models and use cases.
• Content, community, and technology are converging to redefine TMT business models.
• The UK & Europe are well positioned to lead in areas where digital capability meets physical infrastructure and industry.
• Organisations that act quickly and decisively will define the next phase of growth.