By: Héctor C. Moncada D.
In 2026, one of the most defining shifts across industries is not the creation of something new, but the realization of what already exists. From unused vehicles and overlooked content to untapped biological insights and legally constrained relationships, businesses are increasingly focused on unlocking dormant value, assets, systems, and opportunities that have always been present but underutilized.
This shift reflects a broader economic reality. Growth is no longer driven solely by expansion. Instead, it comes from rethinking inefficiencies, redesigning access, and extracting value from what people already own, know, or are entitled to, but haven’t been able to activate.
Nowhere is this clearer than in charitable giving. Across the U.S., millions of vehicles sit unused, depreciating quietly in driveways and garages. Tolani Ogun, founder of Car Donation Place, saw this not as a logistical problem, but as a value gap.
“Most people don’t think of an old car as an asset anymore,” Ogun explains. “But that vehicle still holds real value for nonprofits and communities.”
CarDonationPlace.com was built to convert that latent value into immediate impact by removing friction, providing free towing, handling tax documentation, and allowing the donor to choose a cause.
“The difference,” he says, “is helping people see what they already have in a new way.”
This idea of latent value extends well beyond physical assets. In the digital economy, vast amounts of content exist that technically rank, publish, and perform, but never convert into real business outcomes. As AI increasingly mediates discovery, that gap is becoming more pronounced.
Andrew Swiler, founder of AnswerManiac, describes this as stranded brand equity.
“A lot of companies have invested heavily in content,” Swiler says. “But AI engines don’t always understand what that content is worth.”
In 2026, AI systems like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity don’t just surface pages; they interpret entities. If a brand’s expertise, authority, or differentiation isn’t clearly structured, its value remains invisible.
“It’s not that the value isn’t there,” Swiler explains. “It’s that the system can’t see it.”
AnswerManiac focuses on converting that invisible equity into recognized authority by aligning content, entities, and signals that AI systems can process. The result is not more content, but better recognition of what already exists.
“We’re not creating value,” Swiler says. “We’re unlocking it.”
A similar reframing is taking place in health and nutrition. For decades, microbiome science generated vast knowledge that struggled to translate into predictable consumer solutions. Dr. Tore Midtvedt, professor emeritus at the Karolinska Institute, spent over 60 years studying the gut ecosystem, work that laid the foundation for modern understanding of the microbiome.
As the scientific mind behind the postbiotic technology used in Biotics™, Midtvedt helped shift the field from exploration to application.
“The gut microbiota always had potential,” he notes. “The challenge was making its effects stable and usable.”
Postbiotics, non-living bioactive compounds, represent a way to harness existing biological processes without the variability of live cultures. In this sense, the value was always present in the microbiome. The breakthrough came from learning how to access it safely and consistently.
“Science doesn’t always need more discovery,” Midtvedt says. “Sometimes it needs better translation.”
That same translation challenge exists in the legal and social realm, particularly for couples constrained by geography or restrictive local laws. In a globally connected world, relationships often outpace legal systems designed for national boundaries.
Daniel Oz, CEO and founder of Marry From Home, saw that the right to marry existed, but access did not.
“These couples weren’t asking for something new,” Oz explains. “They were asking for a way to exercise a right they already had.”
Marry From Home enables couples to be legally married by a U.S. county over Zoom, regardless of where they live. The innovation was not marriage itself, but the service model that made it accessible across borders.
“The value was there,” Oz says. “The system just hadn’t caught up.”
Across these domains, philanthropy, digital visibility, health science, and legal services, the same pattern emerges. Progress in 2026 is increasingly about conversion rather than creation. The most effective organizations are those that identify friction, misalignment, or opacity that prevent existing value from being realized.
This shift has broader implications for how businesses think about growth. Instead of asking, “What can we build next?” leaders are asking, “What are we sitting on that isn’t working hard enough?” Unused assets, underinterpreted expertise, dormant scientific insights, and inaccessible rights all represent opportunities hiding in plain sight.
In 2026, the competitive advantage increasingly belongs to organizations that can recognize dormant value and design pathways to activate it. Not by adding complexity, but by removing barriers. Not by inventing demand, but by revealing possibility.
As economic conditions remain uncertain and attention becomes scarcer, unlocking what already exists may be the most sustainable form of innovation we have.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical, legal, or financial advice. The postbiotic product mentioned is not FDA-approved as a drug or therapeutic treatment, and claims regarding its benefits have not been evaluated by the FDA. Consult a professional for tailored advice.
