What’s Keeping IT Leaders Up at Night in the Age of AI? 5 Pressures Reshaping Enterprise Tech in 2026

 As we move further into the AI technology adoption curve, IT leaders no longer debate whether to modernize. Now they lose sleep over where to focus first.  

To gain deeper insight into their priorities and concerns during modernization, Rocket Software surveyed global IT leaders from companies with over 1,000 employees and aimed to reveal the current challenges enterprises face.  

These leaders discussed their current stressors, strategies for modernizing infrastructure, and plans to enhance efficiency and optimization in the coming years.

Below are the five main macro-pressures shaping these leaders’ decision-making today.

Pressure 1: Strengthening Security, Risk, and Compliance 

More than two-thirds (69%) of respondents said that data security is their biggest concern right now. This signals that threats are outpacing traditional defenses. Breaches can lead to a host of consequences, from disrupted operations and eroded customer trust to stalled transformation initiatives.

Security now serves as the key foundation influencing how confidently organizations can pursue modernization and growth. As digital footprints expand, senior technology decision-makers must protect more data than ever while also managing evolving external regulations, such as 23 NYCRR 500 and DORA, as well as a complex internal governance structure.

Pressure 2: Driving Reliable Performance

IT leaders are also under constant pressure to improve performance, and 61% of respondents cite this unceasing drive for continuous improvement as a top concern.

This is an enduring concern. In 2023, when we last asked this question, essentially the same number (60%) identified improving overall IT performance as a critical priority. AI has evolved rapidly over the past two years, and today, those who manage AI-driven analytics, automation, and decision support do so across already complex hybrid and multi-cloud environments.  

What hasn’t evolved at the same pace is the baseline expectation for IT performance. As AI raises the ceiling on what technology can do, it also raises the floor on what the business expects. The result is a paradox: even as AI improves tooling and insight, it adds layers of complexity that keep performance pressure consistently high rather than alleviating it.

Pressure 3: Modernizing Through Emerging Technologies

New technologies promise increased efficiency and competitive advantage, but separating genuine value from hype remains a challenge, particularly as 58% of respondents say the adoption of technologies like hybrid cloud and AI is accelerating rapidly, driving a new wave of change.

The best way to harness the constantly evolving technological advancements is to integrate their data across the ecosystem. With connected core systems, new tools can easily access and work with pre-existing organizational data. This way, teams can gain better visibility and operational insight as new technology continues to scale up—and hopefully a bit of extra shut-eye as a bonus.

Pressure 4: Balancing Cost Control with Value Delivery

IT budgets are under scrutiny even as technology demands continue to grow. 42% of IT leaders are kept up at night by concerns about controlling costs, as they are expected to optimize expenses while still funding innovation that delivers measurable business impact.  

Cutting costs and reducing budgets isn’t always the best solution, or at least a feasible one. Instead, IT leadership needs to focus on making smarter tradeoffs that support innovation and clearly show business value.  

Accelerating the path to IT modernization is an effective way to gain agility and address cultural resistance, but it requires coordinated planning and investment management to balance costs. This might involve cost-containment strategies or modernization approaches that reduce spending.

Pressure 5: Sustaining Agility and Critical Skills

When asked where they felt their organization should prioritize investment, the top three priorities were modern development tools and infrastructure, staff training and skills development, and process automation. These priorities reflect a clear focus on improving IT personnel’s agility.

This begins by addressing critical skills gaps; when asked to evaluate how effectively their organization integrates DevOps practices with core systems such as mainframe and IBM i, fewer than one-third (28%) reported it to be extremely effective.  

Rapid change has made talent and institutional knowledge harder to both retain and replace. Maintaining agility depends on equipping teams with the right skills and creating processes that can adapt as fast as the business requires. 

Conclusion

The road to modernization doesn’t need to be long and bumpy. With the right tools and strategies, these five macro-pressures can become just another hurdle successfully overcome.  

Take IDC’s Modernization Index to find out how your organization can stay ahead of the curve. And learn more about how Rocket Software can help IT leaders modernize critical IT systems, take advantage of AI, master hybrid environments, and, most importantly, get a good night’s sleep. You can download the full IT Leaders survey report here.