Top Trends Transforming the Information-Technology Industry in 2026

We are living in historic times. Powerful technologies are converging to transform not just business but industries and even humanity. At its core is Information Technology, a catalyst of the change, going through transformation itself.

This article talks about how organizations worldwide are re-architecting IT to capture value from these defining trends.

On one side they are exploring generative and agentic AI, migrating workloads to cloud-and-edge hybrids. On the other, they are adopting distributed ledger solutions. Let's talk about these trends and what experts say about them.



Artificial Intelligence (AI): Pilot Development to Scaled Deployment

Nothing can be as disruptive as the trend of AI. This is the technological trend with the deepest and widest impact on par with the invention of electricity.

AI moved from a niche, research-led technology to a near-universal business and even personal capability. The adoption accelerated sharply since the generative AI "breakthrough" around 2022-23. And now by the end of 2025 almost all large organizations use AI in one or the other way.

As per McKinsey's 2025 State of AI, the adoption has expanded across functions moving from pilots to scaled deployments. Additionally, broader use and rising value capture from AI investments is expected in the coming times.

While 2024 was dominated by Gen AI developments, 2025 and above will be the years of AI agents or Agentic AI. Analysts from leading researchers identify agentic AI as a top strategic technology trend. As the terms suggest, "agentic" AI systems possess the capability to autonomously operate every step to meet their defined goal. They plan multi‐step workflows and take actions.

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Unsurprisingly, this trend will impact the other trends as well.

Impact on IT

To start with, AI will revolutionize software engineering itself. Developers will act more as "conductors" guiding AI systems rather than writing every line of code. AI agents will interpret user stories, generate code snippets, write unit tests, and integrate features into larger codebases autonomously.

Additionally, organizations will modernize tech stacks by breaking free from rigid legacy systems and building integrated workflows with AI at the centre and not bolted over it.

Lastly, the consensus is of AI augmenting IT workers rather than replacing them altogether.

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Cloud: Complication and Dissatisfaction to Deployment and Growth

Over the next few years, cloud will be shaped by many trends, here are the prominent ones:

Rising cloud dissatisfaction: Gartner expects about 25% of organizations to experience significant dissatisfaction with cloud by 2028. Reason being unrealistic expectations, poor implementation, and uncontrolled costs.

Surging AI/ML demand: Gartner also predicts in the same article that around half of all cloud compute will be used for AI workloads by 2029 (nearly 5X of what it is now).

Multicloud complications: Due to interoperability and connectivity challenges, over 50% of organizations will not get expected results from multicloud by 2029.

Growth of industry clouds: Over half of organizations will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate business initiatives by 2029.



Impact on IT

To overcome dissatisfaction IT team will need to focus significantly on architecture, FinOps, and governance. They will face pressure to show measurable value from cloud beyond "lift-and-shift" migrations.

For the growing demand of AI, IT teams will need to design infrastructure, moving AI closer to where data lives. They will need to manage GPU capacity and handle the operational complexity and costs of AI-heavy environments.

They will need to invest in cross-cloud architectures, distributed apps and data management, and common governance layers to make workloads collaborate across clouds, on‐prem, and colocation data centers.

These forces will shape IT to be more strategic, architecture-driven, and regulated while, at the same time stay agile and efficient.



Internet of Things (IoT) & Ubiquitous Connected Devices

Development in IoT will see increased emphasis on AI integration, edge computing, 5G enhancements and much more. The key trend will be as follows:

With AI-Driven IoT, real-time data analysis will enable predictive maintenance and automation in relevant sectors. AI will optimize resource usage across 41 billion devices by 2027.

Further, with 5G-powered connectivity, problems like low-latency and bandwidth will be a thing of the past and will support advancement in smart cities and vehicles. Nearly 5 billion subscriptions are expected by 2026.

Impact on IT

IoT will drive IT infrastructure demands to accommodate the above-mentioned trends and manage resulting massive data volumes.

IT teams will face challenges in securing billions of endpoints while integrating AI.

Overall, advanced IoT solutions will accelerate digital transformation but will demand robust data governance to mitigate risks like breaches.

Web3 and Blockchain Solutions need IT Capability Building

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First, hype and later disappointment in decentralized technologies like web3 and blockchain is giving way to focused, pragmatic enterprise adoption. This is especially for trust-heavy, multi‐party use cases like finance, supply chain, and data sharing.

At the same time, the adoption is still in its nascent stage and is even getting slowed by factors like regulations, talent gaps, UX complexity, and confusion with crypto.

However, interest is strong and technology has matured enough for targeted projects.

Impact on IT

IT teams will need to design and run blockchain-based systems alongside traditional stacks. This will include the following:

Selecting required protocols

Managing smart‐contract security

Integrating with legacy apps,

Enforcing data/privacy controls,

Supporting tokenized assets and new revenue models.

IT leaders will need skills in blockchain architecture, security, interoperability, and compliance. They must build governance and controls into Web3 and blockchain solutions from day one to scale safely when business and regulatory conditions allow.

"Enterprises that design with AI, security, and interoperability at their core will unlock competitive advantage - from agentic automation to quantum-ready cryptography - over the next five years. As analysts note, the interplay between AI, cloud evolution and next-gen compute is forcing a re-think of technology strategy, talent and governance." - Vinit Choudhary, CEO, orangemantra

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orangemantra is a globally renowned AI transformation company helping businesses adopt emerging technologies. Over 24 years of its existence it has helped clients ranging from Fortune 500s to startups. The company has a strong presence in eCommerce and retail, automotive, manufacturing, BFSI and legal sector, with business across 30 countries.

This release was published on openPR.