The 2026-27 Championship season has begun as unpredictable as ever, with the top spot in the division frequently changing hands in the first few months of the season.

West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers were relegated from the Premier League last season, joining Burnley, and all three are expected to compete for the crown this season.

Instead, Burnley is in the bottom three and relegation zone, having recently fired Nicky Hayen. Scott Parker has replaced Nuno Espírito Santo at West Ham, putting pressure on Wolves manager Cesar Peixoto to retain the Molineux club at the top of the table.

Middlesbrough, last season’s play-off finalists, spent lavishly in the summer and performed well, but they were knocked out of first place after a 2-0 loss to Wrexham and a goalless draw with struggling Watford.

New league leaders Birmingham City, Stoke City, Swansea City, and West Bromwich Albion have all had strong starts to the season, and it is expected to be a close race throughout, with ten points separating the top half of the table and eighth place, now a play-off spot, just three wins behind 21st and just outside the danger zone.

With the competition as tight and difficult to forecast as ever, we consulted AI chatbot ChatGPT to identify who it believes will be the three teams promoted at the end of the campaign.

West Ham United

Despite finishing ninth in the second tier, AI believes West Ham United is the most likely to secure automatic promotion back to the Premier League this season.

Nuno’s resignation after a peculiar start to the season in which the Hammers were generally underwhelming but yet scored two 6-0 victory, as well as back-to-back defeats against Southampton and West Brom at the London Stadium.

Scott Parker, a three-time Championship promotion winner, has been drafted in, with the former West Ham captain claiming to have a squad with ‘too much quality for the division’, which could have been said about AFC Bournemouth, Fulham, and Burnley.

After a stirring comeback from 3-0 down to earn a point at Cardiff City in his debut, Parker identified his team’s strengths and weaknesses within the first 90 minutes of his reign, and finding some cohesion and consistency, which he has been adept at doing below the Premier League, will be critical to their chances. They did, however, lose to Blackburn before the international break.

West Ham appear to have reached their ceiling this season, yet they are still just outside of the extended play-off slots, so the possibility of an improvement catapulting them back to the top two remains strong.

Middlesbrough

Following a busy summer of expenditure, which included the signing of Will Lankshear, who has been widely linked with an England call-up by Thomas Tuchel, AI puts Middlesbrough as the second most likely to get promoted.

Middlesbrough reached the play-off final last season thanks to a slick style of football under Kim Hellberg, and the Swede, like Vincent Kompany and Enzo Maresca, appears to be another Championship manager on the rise.

For much of the first few weeks of the season, results outperformed performances, but the Smoggies regained some fluency and form in recent weeks, most notably a statement 5-1 victory over Bolton Wanderers in October.

Without Lankshear against Wrexham in their recent defeat and then Watford in the toothless draw, some flaws remain and wrinkles must be ironed out, but, as many predicted and Borough planned for this summer, a return to the top flight of English football appears more likely than not at this stage.

Southampton

The third team that AI predicts will be promoted is Southampton, with ChatGPT stating that the Saints will win the play-offs.

Tonda Eckert’s remarkable run of form in the second part of last season saw Southampton reach the play-offs and defeat Middlesbrough in the semi-finals before ‘Spygate’ had the club removed from the final and handed a four-point deduction to begin this season.

Eckert, on the other hand, has escaped with only a suspended ban, and the German remains their highly regarded and impressive coach as Saints mount yet another promotion challenge.

Despite their four-point deduction, Saints are seventh in the second tier after 15 games – and they would be just a point behind league leaders Birmingham, Borough, and Stoke if not for the deduction – but they were frustrated by a 1-0 loss to rock-bottom Preston North End before the international break.

Impressive in attack, suffocating their opponents, and tight at the back, with only Birmingham surrendering fewer, Southampton may be contentious ascenders for the rest of the division, but they are in a very good position to return to the Premier League.