NEEDHAM, Mass., October 24, 2025 — International Data Corporation (IDC), the trusted technology intelligence leader, announced the release of its FutureScape 2026 research, a comprehensive outlook on the next five years in enterprise technology.
Spanning more than 35 worldwide reports, IDC’s FutureScape 2026 details how Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) will evolve from isolated pilots to enterprise-wide orchestration—transforming decision-making, operations, and competitiveness across every sector of the global economy.
“Organizations today are managing through economic and geopolitical uncertainty. Amid it all, agentic AI is emerging as a strategic inflection point,” said Meredith Whalen, chief product, research & delivery officer at IDC. “Our research shows that this new class of AI isn’t just speeding up innovation. It’s reshaping how work gets done, how people contribute, and how industries will grow in the years ahead.”
Charting the Agentic Future
IDC’s FutureScape 2026 research identifies the crosscurrents shaping enterprise strategy: economic volatility, geopolitical shifts, regulatory change, workforce disruption, changing customer engagement, and rising expectations for trust and transparency.
These pressures converge as AI accelerates, creating a pivotal moment for leadership. IDC forecasts that by 2030, 45% of organizations will orchestrate AI agents at scale, embedding them across business functions.
“Leaders can’t control the geopolitical and technology crosscurrents shaping today’s economy,” said Rick Villars, group vice president, Worldwide Research at IDC. “But with a clear AI transformation strategy, strong data and infrastructure, and a skilled AI-ready workforce, they can turn disruption into advantage and steer their organizations toward sustainable growth in the AI era.”
FutureScape 2026 delivers actionable insight to help organizations:
Build AI-ready strategies aligned with business value.
Develop a skilled, adaptive workforce for AI collaboration.
Modernize technology stacks to support scalable agentic architectures.
Embed trust, ethics, and resilience as competitive advantages.
Understand how Agentic AI alters the business personas that interact with technology suppliers.
Top Highlights from IDC FutureScape 2026:
Job Role Shift: By 2026, 40% of all G2000 job roles will involve working with AI agents, redefining long-held traditional entry, mid and senior level positions.
Data Readiness: By 2027, companies that do not prioritize high-quality, AI-ready data will struggle scaling GenAI and agentic solutions, resulting in a 15% productivity loss.
AI Business Disruption Impact: By 2030, up to 20% of G1000 organizations will have faced lawsuits, substantial fines, and CIO dismissals due to high-profile disruptions stemming from inadequate controls and governance of AI agents.
Managing Cloud Risk: By 2028, due to geopolitical uncertainties, 60% of organizations with digital sovereignty requirements will migrate sensitive workloads to new cloud environments to reduce risk and increase autonomy.
Pricing: By 2028, pure seat-based pricing will be obsolete as AI agents rapidly replace manual repetitive tasks with digital labor, forcing 70% of vendors to refactor their value proposition into new models.
ROI on AI Investment: By 2026, 70% of G2000 CEOs will focus AI ROI on growth, driving C-suite efforts to boost revenue and reinvent business models without growing headcount.
Review IDC’s Top IT Industry Predictions on the IDC blog.
FutureScape 2026 Webinars and Global Events
The release of FutureScape 2026 is accompanied by a series of worldwide webinars and regional events that bring IDC’s predictions to life:
Oct 28 – Building an AI-Fueled Business Strategy (webinar)
Oct 30 – The Tech Industry’s Agentic Pivot (webinar)
Nov 13 – Top 10 Predictions for the Agentic Future (webinar)
Nov 14 –Top Predictions for Asia’s Agentic Future
Dec 2 – Top Tech & AI Predictions for China vs. Global
Dec 9 – The CIO Agenda for the Agentic Era (webinar)
Dec 9 – Top IT Predictions for Japan (webinar)
Each session will explore how organizations can move from experimentation to orchestration, with IDC analysts offering practical guidance for business leaders worldwide. Webinar registration is open now.