FIVE AI TRENDS FOR 2026

This report highlights five key AI trends in emerging and leading-edge technologies and practices, offering actionable insights that can help guide your organization toward its strategic goals.

• Foundational AI principles will rewrite organizational DNA

  AI strategies will be informed by an emerging set of principles.

• From copilots to vibe coding: AI will continue to reinvent IT

  The ecosystem of AI solutions for IT will grow with the introduction of new categories.

• Agentic AI will come of age and power the exponential enterprise

  Agentic AI will increase in adoption and enable outcomes across the organization, powering exponential growth and change.

• Risk management will be the price of admission for AI

  Adoption of AI risk management programs will be driven by the potential new risks that AI applications can introduce.

• AI will hang in the balance between freedom and control

  AI sovereignty will become top of mind for regulators.

Over 700 survey responses from IT leaders

The Future of IT 2025 survey

The AI Trends 2026 report is based on the Future of IT 2026 survey conducted in May and June 2025.

Most respondents were in North America, but countries around the globe were represented.

Over half of respondents held director-level or more senior positions.

Industries represented include (Industries representing less than 1% of survey respondents not listed here.):

• Government/Public Sector
• Financial Services & Insurance
• Education
• Manufacturing
• Professional & Technology Services
• Utilities
• Healthcare
• Professional Associations & Nonprofits
• Transportation & Logistics
• Oil & Gas Operations
• Retail
• Casinos, Gambling & Lottery

AI strategy is driven by organizational strategy and value drivers

A business-driven AI strategy is aligned with the organizational strategy of the firm. Key components of the AI strategy include:

• AI Vision: The AI vision statement is usually forward-looking and aspirational and reflects the organization’s commitment to leveraging AI to deliver positive and responsible outcomes.
• Value Drivers: These drivers represent the ways value is recognized by the organization and are used to ensure candidate AI initiatives are aligned to the goals and objectives of the organization.
• Strategic AI Principles: Strategic guiding principles align the business strategy with the AI strategy and reflect the organization’s overall approach to the use of AI.
• Foundational AI Principles: Foundational principles govern the development, deployment, and maintenance of AI applications to mitigate the possible risks from deploying AI-based applications.

Foundational AI principles address the risks associated with AI and are aligned with the organization’s guiding principles

Foundational AI principles are selected and customized to reflect the organization’s guiding principles.

• Foundational AI principles should be core to the organization’s AI governance program.
• Foundational AI principles are used to identify risk categories for the organization’s AI risk management program.

Foundational AI principles continue to evolve as organizations’ enterprise governance requirements evolve

Candidate foundational AI principles to consider

• Sustainability

  Design AI systems to be more energy efficient.

• Human Agency and Autonomy

  Use AI systems that augment human performance and enable independent actions.

• Environmental

  Design AI systems to have positive environmental outcomes.

• Contestability

  Enable individuals to challenge and seek redress for AI decisions that have impacted them.

• Intellectual Property

  Ensure AI systems recognize intellectual property rights.

• Other

  Additional principles that address compliance or are customized for the organization/industry.

While developing a formal AI strategy is the growing trend, the majority have not established a formal organization-wide AI strategy

What best describes your organization’s approach to AI strategy?

(Source: Info-Tech Future of IT Survey, 2025; n=260)

INSIGHT

Although most organizations have or are developing an AI strategy, this is still relatively new for most.

• 23% of respondents said they have a corporate-wide AI strategy in place today (an increase of 15 percentage points compared to last year’s survey result).
• 26% said there is an AI strategy in place for some business areas (an increase of seven percentage points).
• 34% replied that their AI strategy is being developed or will soon be developed (a decrease of six percentage points).

Organizations understand the need for foundational AI principles to address AI risks

What best describes your organization’s adoption of foundational AI principles (safety and security, data privacy, explainability and transparency, validity and reliability, fairness and bias detection, accountability)?

(Source: Info-Tech Future of IT Survey, 2025; n=258)

INSIGHT

Over half of respondents have implemented or are in the process of implementing foundational AI principles in their organization to address the possible risks associated with the introduction of AI applications.

No respondents viewed AI safeguards as an impairment to innovating with AI.

• 23% of respondents said they have a corporate-wide AI strategy in place today (an increase of 15 percentage points compared to last year’s survey result).
• 26% said there is an AI strategy in place for some business areas (an increase of seven percentage points).
• 34% replied that their AI strategy is being developed or will soon be developed (a decrease of six percentage points).

A majority of organizations feel that they are prepared to put their AI principles into practice

How prepared is your organization to put your foundational AI guiding principles into practice?

INSIGHT

Establishing foundational AI principles is a priority for the majority of respondents.

70% of respondents feel prepared (3) to fully prepared (5) to operationalize their foundational AI principles.

AI strategy is driving transformative opportunities and introducing new potential risks

Opportunities

• Accelerated AI deployments
• Improved customer experience
• Talent attraction and retention
• Innovation and growth
• Increased employee productivity and effectiveness

Risks

• Possible job displacement
• Overreliance on AI systems
• Creation of deepfakes for identity theft or fraud
• Misalignment with foundational AI principles
• Possible privacy breaches with the use and sharing of data