The State of AI in February 2026: A World Fragmented, Accelerated, and Agentic
The first six weeks of 2026 have dismantled the idea of a "unipolar" AI moment. For years, the industry looked to a single leader—usually OpenAI or Google—to set the pace. But the global search data from January and February 2026 reveals a radically different reality. We are no longer living in the era of a single chatbot; we have entered the era of the Fragmented Ecosystem.
By analyzing the "Top" and "Rising" search queries across multiple global datasets, a complex picture emerges. In the corporate towers of New York and London, professionals are searching for Claude 4.6 and Agent Teams to automate their workflows. In the developer hubs of Hangzhou and open-source forums, the "Breakout" stars are Qwen3-Coder-Next and OpenClaw. In the consumer streets, people are putting on Oakley Meta Glasses and worrying about privacy resets. And spanning the entire globe—from Tehran to Moscow—is the meteoric rise of DeepSeek, which has captured the "monthly breakout" title with its Engram and OCR2 technologies.
This article synthesizes the top queries of early 2026 to provide a comprehensive "State of the Union" for Artificial Intelligence.
The Global Challenger: DeepSeek's Dominance
If one trend defines the monthly view (January 7 to February 7), it is the undeniable ascendancy of DeepSeek. While Western media focuses on Silicon Valley, the search data shows a massive, grassroots adoption of this Chinese-origin model across the "Rest of World" (ROW) markets.
The query "DeepSeek Engram" achieved "Breakout" status, signaling a shift in what users expect from AI. They no longer want a blank slate; they want an "Engram"—a persistent memory that learns and adapts. Coupled with the staggering 3,950% increase in "DeepSeek OCR2", it is clear that DeepSeek has built the ultimate "Paper Killer." This isn't just about chatting; it's about digitizing the world's bureaucracy. The specific interest in OCR2 suggests a model capable of reading messy, handwritten, or complex multilingual documents better than any existing enterprise tool.
Furthermore, the linguistic diversity of the queries—"دیپ سیک" (Persian), "депсик" (Russian), and the myriad typos like "deepsick"—proves that DeepSeek has become the "People's AI." In regions like Iran and Russia, where access to US models is often restricted or monitored, DeepSeek serves as a critical infrastructure layer. It is the uncensored, accessible, and high-performance engine for the non-Western internet.
The Corporate Standard: Claude 4.6 and the "Team" Workflow
While DeepSeek wins on global volume and growth, Claude remains the "Top Query" by raw search index (100) in the premium/professional segment. The release of Claude 4.6 Opus and Sonnet 5 has solidified Anthropic's position as the choice for "Serious Work."
The defining trend here is the 1,550% rise in "Claude Code Agent Teams". This query represents the single biggest shift in white-collar labor. Professionals are not asking "How do I write this code?" They are asking "How do I manage a team of agents to write it for me?" The concept of "Agent Teams"—where one AI writes, another tests, and a third documents—is the realization of the "AI Employee" promise. The high search volume for "Claude Legal Plugin" further illustrates this verticalization. Corporations are adopting Claude because it can be molded into a lawyer, a coder, or a data analyst with high reliability.
However, this reliance has a downside. The spikes in "Is Claude Down" and "Claude Status" remind us that the global economy is now tethered to the uptime of a few server farms in California. When Claude crashes, the modern office grinds to a halt.
The Open Rebellion: Qwen, OpenClaw, and Local Sovereign AI
Parallel to the corporate world exists the "Agent Internet"—a chaotic, rapidly expanding domain of autonomous software. This sector is driven by two "Breakout" forces: Qwen3-Coder-Next and OpenClaw.
Qwen3-Coder-Next (up 3,150%) represents the triumph of Open Weights. Developers are downloading this model to run locally, bypassing the APIs of OpenAI and Anthropic. Why? Because of OpenClaw (up 4,700%). OpenClaw is the autonomous agent that uses the computer. It browses the web, manages files, and executes tasks. To run OpenClaw effectively and cheaply, you need a powerful local brain—and Qwen provides that.
The rise of "Ollama" (up 40%) and "vLLM" (up 30%) confirms this trend. We are seeing a "Local AI Stack" emerge: Qwen as the brain, Ollama as the runtime, and OpenClaw as the hands. This stack is free, private, and uncensorable. It is the preferred toolkit of the "Hacker Class" and is driving the massive traffic that eventually crashed Qwen’s servers ("千 问 崩 了").
The Physical Reality: Meta, Glasses, and the Stock Market
While developers fight over model weights, the mainstream consumer is experiencing AI through hardware. Meta has successfully pivoted the conversation from "Chatbots" to "Wearables." The 40% rise in "Oakley Meta AI Glasses" is the most significant hardware trend of early 2026. It suggests that the "Always-On" assistant is finally socially acceptable.
This success is reflected in the financial markets, with Palantir stock (up 50%) and Meta stock (up 30%) rallying. Investors see the loop closing: Hardware (Glasses) collects data, Software (Meta AI) processes it, and Enterprise (Palantir) analyzes it.
But this physical integration brings physical anxiety. The viral 100% spike in the "AI Reset" query—users desperately trying to delete their conversation history from Meta servers—shows the friction. As AI moves from a browser tab to our faces, the need for a "Kill Switch" or a "Memory Wipe" becomes a primary psychological demand.
The Synthetic Society: Moltbook
Perhaps the strangest trend of 2026 is the "Breakout" of Moltbook. In a world of serious tools, Moltbook stands out as a "Social Network for Agents." It is a platform where AIs interact, trade, and communicate, often with minimal human oversight. The fascination with "Moltbook AI" suggests that humans are becoming voyeurs to a synthetic culture. It is the "Wild West" of the AI landscape, a place where the "Agent Internet" goes to hang out.
Conclusion: The Great Fragmentation
To summarize the "Top Queries" of early 2026 is to describe a world that is breaking apart into specialized fiefdoms.
- The Global Public chooses DeepSeek for its accessibility, memory (Engram), and document powers (OCR2).
- The Enterprise chooses Claude 4.6 for its safety, reasoning depth (Opus), and team orchestration capabilities.
- The Developer chooses Qwen and OpenClaw for autonomy, privacy, and local control.
- The Consumer chooses Meta for convenience and hardware integration.
- The Investor bets on Palantir and Nvidia to power it all.
We are no longer looking for "The Best AI." We are looking for the right intelligence for the right domain. 2026 is not the year AI takes over; it is the year AI diversifies, embedding itself into every specific crevice of our lives, from the glasses on our nose to the code on our servers.