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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

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: 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.

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

Operationalizing Agentic AI: Governance, Scale and Competitive Differentiation in Software Product and Platform Engineering

Abhishek Mukherjee, Mukesh Dialani — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation highlights the results of IDC’s 2025 Worldwide Software Product and Platform Engineering Services Survey.

Agentic AI is transforming software product engineering through its capacity for autonomous planning, coding, and operational execution; however, its widespread adoption is constrained by governance issues, privacy concerns, skill gaps, and the intricate orchestration required for responsible enterprise-scale scaling. This presentation will analyze the current landscape of agentic AI integration within software product and platform engineering services workflows, the primary drivers behind its adoption, and challenges that necessitate careful consideration. IDC’s survey reflects perspectives from current users and prospective buyers — enterprises with more than 500 employees — across North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific (including Japan).

Publicis Prepares for Another Year of Outperforming Its Peers as It Posts 5.6% Organic Growth in 2025

Douglas Hayward — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note examines the progress of Publicis Groupe in 2025. Publicis Groupe continued its strong performance in 2025, achieving 5.6% organic net revenue growth and maintaining its strong margins. The company's platform-based model and strategic acquisitions have driven collaboration and synergies across the company's core business units of Connected Media, Intelligent Creativity, and Publicis Sapient. While Publicis has significant influence with CMOs and CIOs, its technology and business transformation arm, Publicis Sapient, has struggled to grow for the past two years despite having significant strengths.

AI Model Providers Accelerate Ecosystem, Alliance, and Partner Investment: Implications Across the Digital Economy

Stuart Wilson — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note examines AI model providers' shift from research-centric organizations to ecosystem orchestrators in 2026, indicated by accelerated investment in partner programs to drive enterprise adoption. Partners supply the industry depth, workflow integration, governance, and operational capabilities required for outcomes. Vendors that align platforms to model partnerships, strengthen execution-focused partner frameworks, and support sovereignty-ready deployment will capture the largest share of AI-driven value.

Beyond Customer Data: The Context Foundation AI Agents in CX Are Missing

Tapan Patel — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective examines why AI agents deployed across customer experience (CX) functions like marketing, sales, advertising, digital commerce, customer support, and field service systems require dedicated context foundation beyond unified customer data. It defines the three architectural foundations — knowledge graphs, semantic definitions, and context management — that enable agents to reason over shared context, coordinate actions across functions, and make autonomous decisions. The document provides guidance for both business and technology buyers evaluating context readiness for AI agents in CX.

“Customer data platforms gave us unified profiles, but that foundation alone is not sufficient for AI agents to make autonomous decisions,” said Tapan Patel, research director, AI-Enabled Customer Data and Analytics, IDC. “AI agents need a next layer — one that provides detailed understanding into CX relationships, shared business logic across functions, and runtime context that reflects customer intent, life-cycle stage, and prior actions to deliver real value.”