Artificial intelligence will continue to both captivate and concern technology professionals heading into 2026, ISACA’s 2026 Tech Trends and Priorities Global Pulse Poll shows.
Asked about top technology trends or priorities likely to impact their work in 2026, the nearly 3,000 global digital trust professionals surveyed identified artificial intelligence and machine learning (62%), and generative AI and large language models (59%), as commanding the most mindshare, with a series of other priorities, including cloud security (40%) and data privacy and sovereignty (30%), trailing the AI categories.
Keeping pace with AI-driven change also was the biggest professional concern for respondents going into 2026, finishing 14 points ahead of the next closest concern (increasing complexity of threats).
As much as AI will remain a focal point, it’s a murky outlook for how prepared respondents consider their organizations to be to manage the risks associated with generative AI, with half of respondents saying they will be somewhat prepared and nearly twice as many (25%) saying “not very prepared” compared to “very prepared” (13%).
Sizing Up the Evolving Cyber Threat Landscape
The ISACA research also brought into focus forward-looking views on cybersecurity and cyberrisk landscapes that continue to grow more complex.
Among the key findings:
- Less than half of respondents (44%) are extremely or very confident their organization could successfully navigate a ransomware attack.
- AI-driven social engineering (63%) and ransomware/extortion attacks (54%) are viewed as the most significant cyber threats facing organizations in 2026.
- Cyber-related options topped the list of what respondents expect to keep them up at night most in 2026, led by AI-driven cyber threats and deepfakes (59%), a failure to detect/respond to a breach (36%) and insider threats/human error (35%).
Organizations Expected to Prioritize Compliance, Business Continuity
Regulatory compliance (66%) and business continuity and resilience (62%) rated the highest percentages for areas that will be viewed as “very important” by their organizations in 2026.
The compliance environment is evolving quickly in recent years, with the introduction of several major regulatory changes. Acclimating to those changes remains very much a work in progress, with fewer than 1 in 5 of European respondents feeling “fully ready” for high-profile regional regulations like NIS2 (18%), DORA (18%) and the EU AI Act (11%).
Still, there is optimism that regulation changes could yield positive results. A combined 62% of respondents agree or strongly agree that cyber-related regulations will help drive business growth, while 78% anticipate the regulations will advance digital trust.
Developing a more proactive compliance/risk culture was the top answer (17%) respondents chose for which aspect of their organization’s approach to digital trust they would like to improve in 2026, just ahead of updating or modernizing legacy systems and infrastructure (14%), enhancing workforce training and awareness, and increasing investment in emerging tech risk management (both at 13%).
Digital Trust Hiring Pipeline a Point of Concern
While most organizations expect to hire for digital trust roles such as audit, risk and cybersecurity, only 18% say their organizations will hire and have a strong talent pipeline, compared to 44% who expect their organizations to hire but have difficulty filling roles with qualified candidates.
There is optimism for how in-demand digital trust roles will remain, with 39% of respondents anticipating their organizations will hire for more roles in 2026 while 26% expect hiring for fewer roles.
Turning the Data Points into Action
ISACA’s 2026 Tech Trends and Priorities Global Pulse Poll highlights several areas in which professionals could benefit from creating action plans going into the new year. Here are five steps professionals should consider, aligning with key themes from the data:
- Establish robust AI governance and risk frameworks.
- Accelerate workforce upskilling and talent pipeline development, and invest in continuous learning, certifications and internal mobility.
- Modernize legacy systems and infrastructure to reduce vulnerabilities and improve agility.
- Strengthen cyber resilience and business continuity planning by developing and regularly testing incident response plans, ransomware recovery strategies and cross-functional crisis management protocols.
- Prepare for regulatory complexity and international compliance requirements; monitor regulatory changes, engage with expert communities, and invest in compliance tools and frameworks.
Learn more about anticipated tech trends and priorities for 2026 at www.isaca.org/tech-trends-and-priorities.
