By 2026, 60% of Asia/Pacific Enterprises Will Require Professional Services for Readiness and Health Checks on Applications and Infrastructure. - IDC

According to the IDC report, IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Services 2025 Predictions – Asia Pacific (APEJ) Implications, by 2026, to move beyond proof of concept for AI-driven business models, 60% of Asia-based Top 1000 (A1000) enterprises will require professional services for readiness and health checks on applications and infrastructure.

The AI race is the new cloud race, and digital infrastructure is the foundation necessary to win the race. IDC research shows that enterprises are investing in building the foundation to scale new AI initiatives. Agile, secure, resilient, and scalable digital infrastructure is the foundational enabler for an enterprise’s data and analytics architecture, which in turn supports effective, high-quality decision-making through enterprise intelligence and decisioning mechanisms.

Rijo George Thomas, Senior Research Manager at IDC

According to IDC Asia/Pacific Enterprises Services Sourcing Survey, 2024, modernizing core IT infrastructure is the number one IT modernization initiative Asia/Pacific enterprises are planning to undertake in the next 18 months. Additionally, application modernization also continues to rise in priority with 67% of enterprises indicating modernizing legacy applications as a top priority. IDC expects enterprises in Asia/Pacific to seek professional help to assess and make road maps for modernizing core IT investments before scaling new AI initiatives.

This year's services predictions for APEJ are once again dominated by the influence of AI and generative AI (GenAI), but with more of a focus on driving adoption into production rather than the experimentation observed last year, especially in areas such as skilling, environmental, social, and governance (ESG), data, and application modernization. Below are some of the other key services predictions for the region:

GCCs Expanding from Back Office to Core Client Functions: By 2028, 40% of the A1000 will outsource up to 30% of their engineering, AI, cloud, and other complex technology functions to Global Capability Centers as they deliver an improved CX.

GenAI-Enabled Platforms Accelerating IT Training: Amid widening global IT skills gaps, by 2027 more than 40% of A1000 enterprises will rely on GenAI-enabled training platforms to automate, accelerate, and optimize IT training and skilling outcomes.

ESG Implementation Will Take Longer Than Initially Thought: With an increase in regulation in APEJ, by 2028 more than 50% of A1000 organizations with carbon neutrality goals will seek the help of professional services to meet them due to a lack of internal capabilities.

GenAI Adoption Success Factors: By 2027, without strategic and organizational pivots, frustration with low ROI due to poor planning and misallocated spending will cause 30% of A1000 organizations to reduce GenAI investments.

“Enterprises in Asia Pacific are taking a matured approach to GenAI as they realized that to capitalize on the benefits of AI, there needs to be considerable effort to prepare the organizations from an IT architecture perspective. Consequently, IDC research has indicated a strong preference to work with IT consulting and systems integration service providers to tackle architecture challenges of data, integration, change management, and IT dependencies, says Rijo George Thomas, senior research manager, IT and Business Services Program, IDC Asia/Pacific. “This is positive news for the industry, as enterprises will continue to gravitate towards business and IT service providers with deep focus on driving AI adoption into production rather than the experimentation.”

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