Global security spending is projected to reach $308 billion in 2026 and $430 billion by 2029, according to the latest forecast from the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Security Spending Guide. The global security market is forecast to grow 11.8% in 2026, driven by increasing investments into unified, AI-driven security platforms and related services.

Rising Identity Threats and Regulatory Requirements Elevate Identity First Security on Executive Agendas. End-user spending on information security in India is projected to total $3.4 billion in 2026, an increase of 11.7% from 2025, according to Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company.

Global TV shipments remained flat year-on-year at 61.5 million units in 4Q25, despite a sharp decline in China, according to data from Omdia’s latest TV Sets (Emerging Technologies) Market Tracker: History – 4Q25. Shipments in China fell by 25.3% year-on-year, as government subsidies ended and many consumers brought forward upgrades over the past year. However, strong demand in other regions helped offset the decline, keeping the global market broadly stable for the quarter.

The server market reached a record $125.3 billion dollars in revenue during the fourth quarter of 2025, fueled by the accelerated AI Infrastructure investment path that keep outpacing any geopolitical tensions, according to the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker.

Now weeks into active U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran, Iranian unmanned aerial systems (UAS) continue striking U.S. military bases and civilian infrastructure across the Middle East.

American defense and intelligence organizations are consequently exploring new ways to disrupt the global supply networks that keep Iranian drone production running.

A Gartner survey of 353 D&A and AI leaders from November through December 2025 found that this has led to only 44% of organizations adopting financial guardrails or AI FinOPs practices.

Sales Enablement Must Shift From Static Content to AI-Powered Buyer Support. Buyers want to engage on their own terms as 67% of B2B buyers state that they prefer a rep‑free experience, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company.

Global spending on public cloud services is forecast to surpass $1 trillion in 2026—growing over 21%—and is expected to double by 2029, according to the latest update of International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Software and Public Cloud Services Spending Guide. Growth is driven by enterprise-wide application modernization, accelerating adoption of AI-enabled platforms, and rising demand for secure, scalable digital infrastructure across industries.

As travelers increasingly rely on AI-based digital assistants to plan and book trips, hotel discovery is moving from search and scroll to ask and book. In this shift, hotels will compete for inclusion in a traveler's short list of AI recommendations—requiring a stronger digital footprint, more integrated data, and AI-native commercial and operational capabilities, according to a new analysis developed by NYU School of Professional Studies (NYU SPS) Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality and Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report, titled AI-First Hotels: Faster to Build, Leaner to Operate, and Richer in Customer Experience.

The current conflict with Iran has been building, relationship by relationship, across four decades and multiple continents, placing new urgency on tracking the diffuse and often hidden connections between Iranian proxy networks and drug cartels in Latin America, whose interactions carry increasingly unpredictable and far-reaching consequences. 

So says Cormac Meiners, a retired Green Beret and i2 Group's federal lead for the Department of War and the intelligence community (IC), whose firm has spent more than 30 years developing software to map exactly these kinds of complex, shifting networks.

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.

India’s traditional PC market—including desktops, notebooks, and workstations—recorded its strongest year ever in 2025, shipping 15.9 million units, growing 10.2% year over year (YoY), according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker.

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.