Global Tech Report 2026

Today, technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in particular have the power to fundamentally change the structures of the economy and society. There are numerous scenarios and forecasts as to what these changes will look like and what they will mean for companies, people and the way we live and work. These range from dystopian visions of a future without jobs and a collapse of the stock market to the rejection of AI as mere hype.

Our English-language publication „Global tech report 2026 - Leading in the Intelligence Age: Excelling today, shaping tomorrow” scrutinises these speculations and places them in the current context.

The report is based on the results of a global survey of 2,500 technology executives in 27 countries and eight industries, and shows that companies are moving beyond the initial phase of AI, in which they experimented and explored. The challenge now is to increase technological maturity and integrate artificial intelligence into workflows and offerings in order to scale investments.

However, this is challenging: technical debt, organisational silos and skills shortages are tough barriers to scaling. For example, 63 per cent of companies surveyed said that the cost of resolving technology debt is hindering their progress with new initiatives. Despite this, the mood among companies is optimistic. Our research shows that half of tech leaders expect to reach the highest level of maturity by the end of 2026. This is a remarkable result, as only eleven per cent of companies have already reached this stage.

In the Global Tech Report 2026, we analyse whether the ambitious targets can keep pace with reality and whether companies can keep an eye on the next wave of technological innovations while implementing the current agenda. For better comparability, we present the results of companies that can be categorised as technologically very powerful separately for some topics.

• 88 per cent of the companies surveyed are already investing in the integration of agentic AI into their systems and 92 per cent expect the management of AI agents to become an important competence within five years.
• The return on investment (ROI) of high-performing organisations is 4.5 times their investment in digital technologies relative to revenue. This is more than twice as much as the ROI for other companies (2 times).
• 53 per cent of companies state that they lack the talent they need to implement their plans for digital transformation.
• 90 per cent of tech leaders plan to expand and strengthen their tech ecosystems and partnerships to gain access to the expertise they need.
• At high-performing companies, 50 per cent of permanent employees are expected to retain their jobs by 2027, compared to 42 per cent at other companies.
• Two per cent of high-performing companies say there are too many disconnected AI projects and teams, compared to 34 per cent of other companies.
• 67 per cent of technology executives say ineffective forecasting hampers their ability to respond to market shocks and technological changes.
• 87 per cent of high-performing companies and 78 per cent overall agree that they need to take more risks with new technologies to stay relevant in their industries.

You can read all the results as well as our analyses and conclusions in the „Global Tech Report 2026“. Our experts will also provide you with specific recommendations for action for your 2026 agenda: from a new talent strategy to an AI-first approach to strategic ecosystem partnerships - you should keep these topics in mind in order to be able to operate successfully in a time characterised by immense technological growth.