You can’t spell artificial intelligence (AI) without IT.

During the 2026 Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, analysts Gene Alvarez and Tori Paulman highlighted the necessity of using emerging AI, emphasizing the technology can no longer be regarded as merely an optional assistant.

Rather, recent innovations in strategic technology should be considered integral to the work of chief information officers and IT leaders. Indeed, they are quickly becoming instrumental in an increasingly AI-powered world.

Gartner’s top 2026 tech trends showcase what leading organizations are using in order keep up with the complexity and opportunity of the new AI frontier. These shifts represent new abilities for CIOs seeking to align digital strategy with enterprise goals, navigate geopolitical and regulatory complexity, as well as scale AI securely and responsibly.

Gartner categorizes this year’s trends in three distinct groups, focusing on infrastructure, orchestration, and security.

The Architect: Infrastructure and AI Platforms

Three trends share a theme of digital transformation and secure, scalable foundations for AI:

• AI Native Development Platforms: Provides a quick, adaptive approach empowering small teams to create software using generative AI.
• AI Supercomputing Platforms: Offers careful oversight and cost control, but also accelerating progress in model training and analytics.
• Confidential Computing: Enables secure AI and analytics across untrusted infrastructure and guards sensitive data.

The Synthesist: Orchestration and AI Application

Trends for creating value by integrating specialized models, agents, and physical-digital systems.

• Multiagent Systems: Increase automation and scale by unlocking the ability for modular AI agents to collaborate on complex tasks.
• Domain-specific Language Models: Improves compliance and accuracy for industry specific use cases.
• Physical AI: Robots, drones, and smart equipment, bringing the power of AI to real-world operations.

The Sentinel: Trust and Security

As AI’s capabilities increase, so too does the need for risk management. These trends ensure compliance, sustain stakeholder confidence, and safeguard reputation.

• Preemptive Cybersecurity: A proactive tool utilizing AI to help identify and neutralize cybersecurity threats before they attack.
• Digital Provenance: Ensures essential trust and compliance when verifying software, data, and AI-generated content.
• AI Security Platforms: Maintains control and visibility when working with third-party and custom AI tools.
• Geopatriation: Shifts workloads to regional or sovereign cloud providers to aid organizations in decreasing geopolitical risk.

Gartner’s top 2026 tech trends will play a pivotal role in the work of CIOs and IT leaders in the coming year, the analysts concluded. AI disruption is only accelerating, and these strategic technologies will have an essential impact on the innovations to come.