Gartner forecasts that global IT spending will surpass USD 6 trillion in 2026, marking nearly 10% year-on-year growth driven primarily by artificial intelligence. According to analysts, AI is becoming a default component of business software, signaling the most significant technological shift since the rise of smartphones. Organizations are moving from experimentation to full-scale AI deployment, with success now determined less by computing power and more by the speed at which AI is integrated into existing processes.

Polcom experts note that companies increasingly view AI as the foundation of business architecture, not an optional module. Firms are adopting open models, tailoring them to their needs, and embedding them into mission-critical operations such as customer service, production, and risk management.

Growth, however, varies across IT segments. Investments in devices have rebounded strongly after pandemic delays, while data center spending continues to rise due to AI’s infrastructure demands. Industry-specific software is expanding more cautiously because of regulatory pressure and macroeconomic uncertainty.

AI is also accelerating cloud adoption and driving high demand for modern data centers capable of supporting energy-intensive workloads. Gartner predicts that 2026 will usher in the “AI-first Enterprise” era, where software without AI becomes rare and cloud and cybersecurity dominate corporate technology budgets.

(WBJ)