The State Of Enterprise IT Leadership 2026

What enterprise IT leaders are prioritizing for content, sessions, and strategic investment heading into 2026.

Key findings:

• Al / Machine Learning dominates at 74.5% selection rate - nearly 3x the next closest topic. Cybersecurity and Data Analytics round out the top three, reflecting the operational priorities of a security-conscious, data-driven leadership cohort.
   
• Leaders want new insights they haven't heard before (18.4%) and real-world case studies (14.3%) above all else. Live demos and interactive workshops dominate preferred formats - passive presentations rank last.
   
• 55% of IT Directors report 11 timeline uncertain," making them the largest group of fence-sitters. CIOs/CTOs lead active budgeting at 55% of their cohort -the clearest sign a I of near-term spend.
   
• CIOs/CTOs are overwhelmingly final decision-makers (59%), while IT Directors skew heavily toward key influencer status (69%). Security leaders are split across influencer and evaluation committee roles.

Download to read the full report.

Download