Mid-market manufacturers are entering the AI era with less patience for experimentation and more exposure to consequences. The sector is being pushed to invest by cost pressure and competitive urgency, but it is also being forced to confront an uncomfortable reality. A large share of AI initiatives still stall in pilots, fail to operationalize, or produce unclear returns, even as budgets keep rising.

According to the latest display industry research from Omdia, the depreciation of flat panel display (FPD) manufacturing equipment is accelerating, easing cost pressures on OLED and LCD panel manufacturers. Omdia forecasts that depreciation will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3% between 2021 and 2028, with the amount of fully depreciated global FPD manufacturing capacity nearly doubling over that period from approximately 160 million square meters to almost 300 million.

Mid-market manufacturers are entering the AI era with less patience for experimentation and more exposure to consequences. The sector is being pushed to invest by cost pressure and competitive urgency, but it is also being forced to confront an uncomfortable reality. A large share of AI initiatives still stall in pilots, fail to operationalize, or produce unclear returns, even as budgets keep rising.

Worldwide IT spending is expected to reach $6.15 trillion in 2026, up 10.8% from 2025, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company.

“AI infrastructure growth remains rapid despite concerns about an AI bubble, with spending rising across AI‑related hardware and software,” said John-David Lovelock, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “Demand from hyperscale cloud providers continues to drive investment in servers optimized for AI workloads.”

The global tablet market continued its recovery in 2025, with shipments rising 9.8% year on year to 162 million units according to the latest research from Omdia. Momentum was strongest in the holiday quarter, with Q4 2025 shipments reaching 44 million units, up 9.8% year on year.

Forrester projects that global technology spend will grow by 7.8% in 2026 to reach $5.6 trillion — up from $5.2 trillion in 2025. According to Forrester’s Global Tech Market Forecast, 2025 To 2030, despite US tariffs, in 2026, most countries will see similar economic growth compared to 2025. This momentum reflects continued AI investment and adoption across key industries, including the defense, financial services, healthcare, industry, and retail sectors globally.

Worldwide sovereign cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) spending is forecast to total $80 billion in 2026, a 35.6% increase from 2025, according to Gartner, Inc. a business and technology insights company.

“As geopolitical tensions rise, organizations outside the U.S. and China are investing more in sovereign cloud IaaS to gain digital and technological independence,” said Rene Buest, Sr Director Analyst at Gartner. “The goal is to keep wealth generation within their own borders to strengthen the local economy.”

 After two years of heavy investment in artificial intelligence, corporate technology budgets are hitting a moment of truth, with executives facing mounting pressure to show that early AI commitments are generating measurable returns rather than accumulating as sunk costs.

That market reality framed nearly every conversation at the CIO 100 Leadership Live conference held March 5 at the Westin Buckhead Atlanta.

As companies accelerate investments in artificial intelligence, enterprise technology leaders are placing renewed attention on knowledge management. Executives say the way organizations capture, structure, and apply operational knowledge will play a decisive role in determining how effectively AI systems function inside the enterprise.

This was a theme that emerged during a roundtable discussion among technology executives at CIO 100 Leadership Live in Atlanta.

According to the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, India’s smartphone market closed 2025 on a flat note, growing marginally by 0.5% year-over-year to reach 152 million units. Following a subdued start to the year, shipments rebounded during the mid-year quarters before easing again in the final quarter. Shipments declined 5% YoY to 34 million units in the fourth quarter of 2025, as post-festive inventory normalization and cautious consumer spending weighed on demand.

As enterprises accelerate investments in artificial intelligence, many are discovering that the hardest part of the transition is not deploying algorithms or modernizing infrastructure. The greater challenge is reshaping how organizations manage data, develop software, and prepare their workforce for a world in which humans and AI systems operate together.

That was the message delivered by Anjali Arora, chief technology officer of Perforce Software, during the CIO 100 Leadership Live in Atlanta.

Sales through the IT distribution channel increased 6% year over year to $24.3 billion in Q4 2025, marking the strongest quarter on record for North American distribution, according to the IDC North America Distribution Tracker (NADT), powered by GTDC.

The record Q4 performance capped a solid year for distribution, with full-year 2025 revenues rising 6.2%, following flat growth in 2024 and a market contraction in 2023. The results highlight the growing role of distributors as enterprises modernize infrastructure, adopt AI-ready technologies, and rebalance IT spending priorities.

Artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, robotics, and sustainability are converging to reshape the professional AV market at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) Barcelona 2026, according to new analysis from Omdia. The event, scheduled for February 3 to 6, 2026, in Barcelona, will highlight how these technologies are expanding the role of professional AV beyond traditional use cases.

The second edition of Boston Consulting Group's European Competitiveness Barometer, released today, signals widespread concern across the private sector, with 93% of executives warning of potential dire consequences for Europe's competitiveness, innovation, and job retention.

The report, survey of 850 C-level executives and over 6,400 European citizens, finds that 96% of business leaders believe the EU must take immediate steps to protect its commercial interests to avoid severe long-term consequences. That view is echoed by 85% of European citizens.

According to Forrester’s, The State Of Business Buying, 2026, generative AI is fundamentally reshaping how business buyers discover, evaluate, and purchase products and services. While genAI searches are the starting point for B2B buyers, leaders are increasingly relying on their internal and external buying networks — comprising colleagues and external influencers, respectively — to justify and de-risk purchasing decisions. The typical buying decision now includes 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers, with that number rising for more complex or strategic purchases.

According to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, global smartphone shipments increased 2.3% year-over-year (YoY) to 336.3 million units in the fourth quarter of 2025 (4Q25). Despite the memory shortage crisis in Q4 2025, the market was supported by sustained premium growth, strong momentum in foldables and accelerated pull-in demand as consumers anticipated upcoming price hikes. The total number of smartphones shipped reached 1.26 billion units in 2025.

The 2025 ISG Provider Lens global Multi Public Cloud Solutions report finds that enterprises are modernizing legacy environments while building cloud-native architectures to support AI-enabled applications. This has sharpened their focus on cloud infrastructure strength, operational governance and cost management.

The latest research from Omdia reveals that global smartphone shipments grew by 2% in 2025 to 1.25 billion units, marking the highest annual level since 2021. All regions grew compared to 2024, except for Greater China, which marginally declined amid the fading effect of the national subsidy scheme that boosted its performance in early 2025. Strong demand from both upgraders and replacement-buyers continued to boost the market, as several vendors broke records despite uncertainty reigning in the business environment throughout the year.

Worldwide spending on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure reached a record $86 billion in Q3 2025, marking a sustained investment cycle as platform providers scale capacity for training and inference workloads, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Tracker.

As GenAI rapidly reshapes work, especially for less experienced employees, Gartner predicts that by 2030, 30% of enterprises will face declining decision-making quality due to an overreliance on AI.

CHROs must accelerate learning and experience development in these early career roles to sustain performance and maintain talent pipelines.