AI's next leap: expect more enterprise integration with purpose and ROI

Over the past two years, AI has shifted from buzzword to business enabler. Industries from finance to government have experimented with agentic workflows and automation to boost productivity. But 2026 marks a new phase: industrialisation.

Gartner predicts Australian IT spending will surpass $172 billion, with software investment up 13%. As pilots become production, organisations are embedding AI into core processes, scaling automation and demanding real ROI.

This shift brings complexity. The question is no longer “can we use AI?” but “can we deploy it responsibly, at scale, and with impact?” It’s a maturity moment; one that will divide the innovators from the cautious observers.

Below are my predictions for how 2026 will accelerate the industrialisation and business impact of AI in Australia and New Zealand.

1. AI goes industrial: taking centre stage to deliver measurable business outcomes

AI adoption will mature beyond chatbots and coding assistants. The next wave will focus on process optimisation, workforce efficiency, and automation — helping to offset skills shortages and improve productivity in ANZ’s tight labour market.

Organisations will reuse proven AI capabilities, apply agentic workflows to complex processes, and start measuring success in business outcomes and ROI, not model accuracy. Governments, too, will invest in hybrid and sovereign cloud infrastructure to support top-secret or sensitive AI workloads, signalling a shift towards AI as a national strategic capability.

As this industrialisation accelerates, one truth will stand out: AI must be designed for continuity, not just innovation. The businesses that can sustain AI operations through disruption will be the ones that will succeed.

2. Trusted, private AI will become a true differentiator

Every user conversation today points to a defining issue for tomorrow: trust. As AI becomes embedded in enterprise workflows, the quality, governance, sovereignty and context of data will determine success or exposure.

The convenience of cloud services and pre-built models has accelerated experimentation. But in 2026, that same convenience will become a liability if organisations, particularly in highly regulated markets like Australia, don’t rethink their data strategy. Proprietary models are powerful but closed, costly and hungry for your data. Without control, productivity gains could lead to unintended exposure.

The future belongs to those who productionise models, preserving privacy, sovereignty and governance from end to end. That’s the essence of private AI: deploying models within governed environments, maintaining jurisdictional assurance and using augmentation frameworks like retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to enrich context without compromising sovereignty.

This approach won’t just be best practice; it will be a competitive necessity. Agility and governance won’t be trade-offs. They’ll be the foundation of AI maturity.

3. Hybrid resilience to become the enterprise standard

Following recent high-profile global outages, we can expect to see a decisive shift from cloud-first to hybrid-by-design, not as a retreat from the cloud, but as a strategic move to ensure continuity.

Organisations will demand the flexibility to run critical workloads anywhere without disruption. True resilience will be defined by the ability to operate seamlessly even when providers fail, safeguarding both business operations and customer trust.

Recent outages have exposed a hard truth: continuity cannot be assumed. Many enterprises haven’t fully optimised their existing IT and data investments, leaving cost, complexity, and compliance risks on the table. With boards now scrutinising where data lives and how resilient architectures truly are, we’re entering a renaissance for hybrid infrastructure, a chance to reimagine systems, extract more value and build lasting control.

Hybrid-by-design strategies are no longer optional. They’re essential for uninterrupted operations, regulatory alignment and accelerated innovation.

2026: The year AI moves from hype to hard results

The coming year marks a new phase in AI maturity, one that won’t be defined by flashy AI models or exorbitant budgets but by measurable outcomes. The real winners will be those who scale responsibly, govern rigorously and architect for resilience while delivering impactful value. Because at the end of the day, trusted AI depends on trusted data and trusted data depends on a resilient, responsible foundation.

Image credit: iStock.com/Just_Super