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A Year After Tariffs. How Agile Are We Now?

Eric Thompson — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective provides summarized views of 10 key lessons or developments in the “year of tariffs.” Over the past year, tariffs and geopolitical tensions have reinforced an important reality for supply chain leaders: Volatility is becoming a persistent feature of the global operating environment and no longer an exception. Organizations are responding by diversifying suppliers, investing in network flexibility, strengthening procurement capabilities, and adopting more advanced planning technologies. Ultimately, the strongest supply chains appear to be those that are not simply reacting to disruption, but actively designing operating models capable of adapting to it.

“Considering the fact that we are near a full decade of persistent disruptions, acceptance of this as a pattern, and not an exception, seems prudent. Supply chain leaders are increasingly aware of the need to implement steps toward the resilient supply chain, whether through organizational or technical changes.” — Eric Thompson, research director, Worldwide Supply Chain Planning, IDC

Agents as Apps: Oracle’s Fusion Agentic Applications & Agentic Application’s Builder and Tools

Mickey North Rizza — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

On March 24, 2026 Oracle made several announcements:

Oracle announced a new class of enterprise applications powered by coordinated teams of specialized AI agents that are outcome-driven, proactive and reasoning based, and engineered for enterprise execution. These new agents are built on Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications and called Fusion Agentic Applications.

Oracle also announced its expansion of AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications with Agentic Applications Builder and new Intelligent Workflow Tools. This latest release includes a new agentic applications builder as well as new capabilities that support workflow orchestration, content intelligence, contextual memory, and ROI measurement.

Building an AI-Ready Data Architecture Series: The Data Control Plane

Marlanna Harrington, Stewart Bond — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC presentation is part of a four-part series, with each installment examining one of the four critical planes of the enterprise intelligence architecture that work together to enable AI-ready data and drive business outcomes. These planes support continuous learning, delivery of insights at scale, and a strong data culture across your organization.

This report will provide a deep dive into the Data Control Plane, detailing how to take control of data through data intelligence, governance policies, and engineering practices. It addresses data cataloging, lineage tracking, quality management, and stewardship frameworks that ensure data products are trustworthy, accessible, and compliant.

Circles of Value: A Framework for IT Service Management and Enterprise Service Management Market Intersection Across Technology and Business Contexts

Snow Tempest — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Perspective supplements IDC Market Presentation: A Framework for ITSM Market Intersections: How IT Service Management Connects Functions to Deliver Value (IDC #US54415526, March 2026). In a market evolving to include AI and other transformations, vendors can differentiate and help customers by linking disciplines.

"Connecting functions can create new opportunities for ITSM and ESM practitioners and vendors," says Snow Tempest, research manager, IDC.

From Promise to Impact: Scaling Enterprise AI for Measurable Business Outcomes in the Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa

Melih Murat — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

IDC Directions Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa 2026 took place February 10 in Dubai. Technology suppliers were convened to discuss the key technology trends and predictions that will shape 2026 and beyond.

The event provided perspective on how organizations in the Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa (META) can move beyond experimentation toward enterprise-wide value creation. AI is widely recognized as strategic, but many organizations struggle with unrealistic expectations, siloed operations, fragmented tools, and limited skills. Critically, 60% of META organizations are not measuring the success of their AI initiatives, limiting their ability to scale effectively.

The session positioned agentic AI as the next phase of transformation, enabled by process automation, AI assistants, copilots, advisors, and intelligent agents. It emphasized that achieving meaningful ROI requires a platform-led approach to managing agent life cycle, governance, and interoperability at scale. The presentation concluded with practical guidance on prioritizing high-impact use cases and aligning AI investments with measurable business outcomes.

IDC Market Glance: AI-Enabled Contact Center and Customer Service, 1Q26

Michelle Morgan, Lou Reinemann — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Glance provides a concise current-state view of the AI-enabled contact center and customer service market ecosystem. The market is shifting toward agentic AI and autonomous service models, deeper data-centric integration across enterprise platforms, and higher expectations for trustworthy, secure, and human-optimized experiences as AI scales across customer operations.

IDC Market Glance: Aftermarket Services, 1Q26

Aly Pinder — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Glance discusses the importance of aftermarket services. Service life-cycle management (SLM) is evolving from a set of disconnected tools into an end-to-end aftermarket operating function that connects customer engagement, field service execution, service parts, and asset life-cycle visibility. In 2026, buyers are prioritizing workflows that reduce the cost to serve while protecting service promises, especially through AI agent–enabled support and tighter integration across parts planning, inventory execution, and margin growth. The market’s direction favors providers that can orchestrate data flowing across aftermarket service teams, engineering, installed base, telematics/IoT systems, supply chain, sales, and service history to improve resolution rates, parts availability, life-cycle outcomes, and the customer experience, including sustainability targets.

IDC Market Glance: Asia/Pacific Supply Chain Planning Applications, 2Q26

Abhishek Kumar — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

In June 2026, Asia/Pacific supply chains are treating volatility as structural, not episodic, and are shifting planning priorities from better forecasts to faster, cross-functional decisions that can be executed with fewer handoffs. Buyers are focusing investments on rapid scenario and exception management, tighter alignment across demand, supply, inventory, and capacity decisions across planning horizons, and decision intelligence that links planning outcomes to execution workflows and partner coordination.

IDC Market Glance: Patient Engagement and Enablement, 1Q26

Jennifer Eaton — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study provides an overview of key healthcare patient and/or member experience segments for 2026.

"Patient engagement and experience technology is not about getting more clicks in a portal, it's about putting agency back in patients' hands, so every interaction is personalized, proactive, and clinically meaningful in real time." — Jennifer Eaton, research director, value-based healthcare digital strategies, IDC

Industry Analysis Perspective: Worldwide Electric Utilities, 2026

John Villali, Heriberto Roman, Nigel Wallis — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Industry Analysis Perspective provides technology vendors — including sales, marketing, product, and channel managers — with essential insights into the electric utilities sector worldwide for 2025. It clarifies how the industry functions, enabling readers to identify specific areas in which their technology solutions add real value.

This document offers a comprehensive view of the electric utilities landscape, detailing business dynamics, key players, and future directions on both regional and country levels, along with the implications for IT strategies in the sector.

“Worldwide, the electric utilities sector enters 2026 in a state of transformation: rising demand due to AI-driven datacenter growth alongside diverging regional energy trajectories. Vendors must develop a comprehensive understanding of how these organizations operate across their value chains and their regional dynamics. Only then can they make the most of engaging with this financially stable, asset-intensive industry.” — IDC Energy Insights team