One of the clearest shifts in 2026 is how organisations are differentiating themselves through artificial intelligence.

Access to AI is no longer the constraint. Most organisations now have AI-enabled tools available through enterprise platforms, cloud services or embedded software. ² Yet the performance gap between organisations continues to widen.

The difference lies in how effectively AI is adopted and how well people are supported to use it.
Organisations gaining momentum are investing in practical enablement — training teams to apply AI confidently in everyday decision-making, analysis and operational workflows. Rather than positioning AI as a specialist or experimental capability, they are embedding it into the flow of work.

This helps explain why many digitally native firms and fast-growing technology businesses continue to outperform. They move quickly from experimentation to execution, build confidence through use, and treat AI as a tool to augment work rather than replace it.

Research reinforces this shift. In 2026, executive teams face growing pressure to demonstrate tangible business value from AI investments, with increased scrutiny around governance, transparency and performance. ³ As a result, AI initiatives are increasingly assessed on their ability to improve decision quality, reduce manual effort and support consistent outcomes.

Trust is central to adoption. Where people understand how AI outputs are generated, trust the data behind them, and feel confident applying insights, adoption accelerates. ⁴ Where that trust is absent, AI remains under-utilised.

Executive implication:

AI advantage in 2026 is no longer created by deployment alone. It is earned through practical adoption, workforce confidence and disciplined execution.

If 2025 was defined by modernisation, 2026 is about operational resilience.

Australian organisations continue to operate under sustained pressure — from skills shortages and cost constraints to regulatory complexity and rising service expectations. In this environment, automation is increasingly viewed as a mechanism for maintaining continuity and control, not just improving productivity.

What has changed is the scope and intent of automation. Rather than automating isolated tasks, organisations are focusing on end-to-end processes across finance, operations, service delivery and compliance. The objective is consistency, transparency and reduced reliance on manual intervention. ²

This approach also improves agility. Automated processes provide clearer operational visibility, reduce bottlenecks and enable faster responses when conditions change. In uncertain environments, this ability to adapt without disruption has become a strategic advantage.
Research shows organisations embedding intelligent automation into core workflows are better positioned to absorb disruption and scale sustainably. ³ By reducing operational friction, they create capacity for higher-value work while strengthening governance and oversight.

Executive implication:

Operational resilience in 2026 is built through well-designed, well-governed processes that can run reliably, even as conditions continue to change. ⁴

One of the most significant shifts from 2025 to 2026 has been in how cyber security is viewed.

What was once seen largely as a technical concern is now firmly a leadership responsibility, with boards and executive teams increasingly accountable for cyber risk, regulatory compliance and organisational readiness. As digital environments expand, the attack surface continues to grow — spanning cloud platforms, supply chains, connected devices and AI-enabled systems. ¹

In response, many organisations are moving away from perimeter-based security models towards an assumed-breach mindset, where trust is never implicit and access is continuously verified. Zero trust principles are becoming central to modern security strategies, reflecting the reality that users, devices and data now sit well beyond traditional boundaries. ²

This shift is also shaping infrastructure decisions. Australian organisations are reassessing where critical systems and sensitive data reside, balancing public cloud flexibility with greater control over data residency, performance and compliance. ³  Increasingly, organisations are using hybrid and sovereign approaches — deliberately separating sensitive data and workloads into locally governed environments, while leveraging public cloud for less critical services — to align cyber risk with business priorities.

At the same time, cyber security strategies are becoming more holistic. Prevention remains essential, but it is no longer sufficient on its own. Organisations are investing in governance, incident response planning and workforce awareness, recognising that resilience depends on people and processes as much as technology. ⁴

Executive implication:

Cyber security in 2026 requires ongoing leadership attention, strong governance and security architectures designed for a zero-trust, highly connected world. ²

As technology becomes more embedded across organisations, governance has taken on a more strategic role in 2026.

Rather than constraining innovation, effective governance is increasingly what enables it — providing clarity around decision-making, accountability and risk. This is evident in the closer alignment between business and technology leadership, as organisations seek greater transparency around investment, outcomes and long-term value. ³

Technology decisions are no longer confined to individual functions. Investments in platforms, automation and security now demand shared ownership across executive teams, with leaders expected to balance innovatoion with financial discipline and risk management.

What is changing in 2026 is the quality of these conversations. Executives are moving beyond approval checkpoints and into more continuous, collaborative decision-making – where CIOs, CFOs and operational leaders work together to acess trade-offs. This shift reflects a growing recognition from governance maturity. 

Executive implication:

For executives, the implication is clear: technology outcomes in 2026 are shaped less by individual ownership and more by collective leadership alignment. Organisations that establish clear governance frameworks and shared accountability will be better positioned to move decisively, without sacrificing control or trust.²

In 2026, experience has emerged as a defining measure of technology performance.

Organisations are increasingly assessing success through the lens of employee and customer experience, rather than delivery milestones alone. Systems that are difficult to use, poorly integrated or unreliable directly undermine productivity, confidence and engagement.

This focus reflects a broader understanding that experience is not separate from performance. In many cases, it is the mechanism through which value is realised. Technology that simplifies work, reduces friction and supports how people operate day to day delivers stronger outcomes over time. ⁴

In 2026, experience is also becoming a signal of organisational maturity. Where systems feel intuitive and well supported, it is often because the underlying architecture, data quality and process design have been thoughtfully addressed. Conversely, poor experience is increasingly recognised as a symptom of deeper issues — fragmented platforms, unmanaged technical debt or misaligned priorities. 

Executive implication:

For business leaders, the implication is straightforward: technology investments must be evaluated not only on capability, but on how effectively they enable people to do their work. In 2026, experience has become a proxy for quality, trust and long term value.