A global survey of nearly 3,000 business and IT leaders reveals a stark disconnect: while AI, security and modernization dominate the boardroom agenda, half of enterprises still lack a roadmap to get there.
Nearly half of global business and IT leaders admit they are struggling to keep pace with technological disruption, and half lack a clear roadmap to align their AI, security and infrastructure strategies, according to new research commissioned by Dell Technologies.
The Modern Enterprise Readiness Study 2026, conducted by independent research firm Vanson Bourne on behalf of Dell Technologies, surveyed 2,950 business and IT decision-makers across 35 countries in June 2026. The findings paint a picture of an enterprise landscape caught between urgency and inertia: leaders recognize the scale of transformation required, but many have yet to build the operational foundation to achieve it.
Disruption Outpacing Planning
According to the study, 49 percent of respondents say they are struggling to keep up with the current pace of change, a concern that spans industries from financial services to manufacturing and the public sector. More striking still, 54 percent say they lack a clear picture of what their industry will look like in three to five years. Combined with macroeconomic pressure — cited by 82 percent as a reason for more selective, outcome-driven technology spending — the result is a climate in which 45 percent of leaders are not confident their organization will outperform competitors in the years ahead.
AI Adoption Matures, But a Roadmap Gap Persists
Generative AI adoption continues to advance: 43 percent of organizations remain in the early-to-mid stage of their AI journey, down from 51 percent in 2025. Establishing and scaling AI capabilities ranks among the top three strategic priorities for 53 percent of respondents over the next 24 months. Yet half of all respondents say they lack a clear, actionable roadmap connecting AI, data and security initiatives — a gap the report identifies as one of its most consequential findings.
The barriers to scaling AI are concrete: security, compliance and privacy concerns (41 percent), data quality and governance challenges (32 percent), and a shortage of internal skills (31 percent). Sixty percent say security concerns have directly slowed or paused AI adoption within their organization. The study also documents widespread “shadow AI” activity — 62 percent report employees using unapproved AI tools on company devices, and 79 percent report use of personal devices to access AI tools for work, often without IT oversight.
Security as the Foundation
Cybersecurity emerges as the single highest-ranked strategic priority in the study, cited by 54 percent of respondents — ahead of AI capability building itself. Security capability is also the leading factor in elevating a technology vendor from a transactional supplier to a strategic partner, named by 46 percent of respondents, ahead of pricing, product breadth or customer service.
Aging Devices, Fragmented Infrastructure
The study finds that enterprise device fleets remain a structural constraint: 23 percent of devices are four years old or more, and only 41 percent are both modern and AI-capable. Eighty-one percent of leaders say outdated devices limit their ability to adopt new tools and AI applications, while 78 percent report that aging hardware visibly frustrates employees and managers.
A similar fragmentation appears at the infrastructure level. Sixty-seven percent of respondents describe their hybrid or multicloud environment as not fully unified, a condition the report links directly to AI readiness, since AI workloads depend on consistent, reliable access to data across environments.
Consolidation Around Fewer, Stronger Partners
Faced with this complexity, enterprises are rethinking vendor relationships. Only 26 percent report having a clearly defined, small set of strategic partners, while 82 percent say they would prefer to consolidate technology needs with a single strategic partner where possible. Eighty-five percent agree their current partners could do more to support transformation goals — a signal, the report suggests, that expectations of technology vendors have risen substantially.
Conclusion
The study’s authors frame the findings as a call to action rather than a verdict. Organizations that build an integrated roadmap across AI, cybersecurity, devices, infrastructure and workforce skills, the report argues, are best positioned to close the readiness gap before competitors do. As one conclusion in the report puts it: the readiness gap is real — but so is the opportunity to close it.
Carolina Heyder is a business analyst and moderator with extensive experience in the German and international IT market. She has worked for many years at renowned European trade publishers such as WEKA Fachmedien, Vogel IT Medien, Springer, and Aspencore. She creates content for both web and print media and is an expert in front of the microphone and camera. Thanks to her fluency in German, English, and Spanish, as well as her Chilean roots, she brings a global and intercultural perspective to topics such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, sustainability, and other key areas of the IT sector.