Tech Trends 2026
Make the leap from now to next!
The Situation
Disruption deepens. Opportunity widens.
The world is hurtling toward an era of autonomous super-intelligence, against a backdrop of global volatility and AI-driven uncertainty. As organizations stand at the threshold of this emerging future, IT can help navigate the space in between – connecting tomorrow’s next steps to what’s coming further down the road. Resilience and opportunity will be the watchwords as organizations navigate disruption and position for growth.
Eight tech trends to watch in 2026.
In this report, we explore eight trends that reveal the path for organizations to adapt to geopolitical shifts, adopt human-centric AI, and elevate IT’s role as an exponential enabler of value creation.
From global market to multi-polar uncertainty
Trend #1
Resilient Supply Chain Sourcing – Low-friction global sourcing shifts to an adaptable, diversified, and reliable supply chain for materials and technology.
Trend #2
Integrated Organizational Resilience – IT risk management moves to an integrated enterprise approach that proactively responds to risk.
From digital tools to guided intelligent autonomy
Trend #3
Multi-Agent Orchestration – Individual task-based agents evolve to coordinated ecosystems of agents in pursuit of a shared goal.
Trend #4
Smart Sensing Networks – IoT becomes more sophisticated with the convergence of advanced sensors and edge AI, enabling real-time autonomy.
Trend #5
AI as Adversary and Ally– As AI escalates the cyber arms race between criminals and organizations, augmenting both offense and defense, organizations must keep the existential threat of AI in their sights.
From back-office operator to exponential IT
Trend #6
Federated Data Governance – Data issues are resolved with a domain-based decentralized ownership architecture that can be automated.
Trend #7
Purpose-Built Platforms – Modern infrastructure is explicitly tailored for specific goals, rather than relying on commodity solutions.
Trend #8
Service as Software – Instead of paying for access to cloud-delivered software, enterprises pay for software that delivers outcomes through AI automation and integration.
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About Info-Tech Research Group
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
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