At the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo™, one message came back again and again: AI is no longer optional.
What began as a wave of experiments with generative AI will have become a structural factor for competitiveness, security and trust by 2026. CIOs and technology leaders are on the eve of a new era in which technology must not only be smarter, but also more accountable.
At the symposium, Gartner presented the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2026, an annual roadmap for those who want to know where the digital world is moving. And that direction is clear: AI, governance and trust are the pillars of the next five years.
Source: Gartner IT Symposium 2025
A year of acceleration and maturation
2026 will be a defining year. After years of experimenting with generative AI, now begins the phase of responsible scaling up. Organizations want to create value, not just prototypes. At the same time, pressure is mounting from tighter regulations (such as the EU AI Act) and geopolitical tensions affecting our digital infrastructure.
The question is no longer “whether” AI will be integrated into business strategy, but “how securely, transparently and controlled” it will be.
That’s why Gartner groups the trends into three overarching themes:
The Architect, The Synthesist and The Sentinel or, as we at Pegamento would call them: build, connect and protect.
1. The Architect: building an AI-ready foundation
To innovate faster, organizations need to overhaul their digital foundations. Gartner sees three technologies shaping this foundation:
AI-Native Development Platforms
Software is no longer written, but generated. AI-native development platforms allow small, agile teams to build complete applications with the help of generative AI. According to Gartner, as much as 40% of all enterprise applications will be created this way by 2030. For CIOs, this means: faster delivery, lower costs and more focus on quality and governance.
AI Supercomputing Platforms
Next-generation AI requires unprecedented computing power. AI supercomputers combine powerful processors, GPUs and even quantum technology to train the largest models. Gartner expects that by 2028, 40 percent of companies will move to hybrid architectures that merge supercomputing and cloud.
The challenge? Balancing cost and governance.
Confidential Computing
Privacy rules and data sovereignty make security during processing crucial. Confidential computing protects data even as it is being used, a breakthrough for sectors such as healthcare, government and financial services. Gartner predicts that three-quarters of all processing in untrusted infrastructures will be done through this technology by 2029.
The key word: trust by design.
2. The Synthesist: orchestrating intelligent ecosystems
Here it is about connecting systems, models and agents into a new kind of intelligence, collaboration between human, machine and domain knowledge.
Multiagent Systems
The days of the “one smart AI” are over. Multiagent systems consist of multiple AIs working together on complex tasks. Consider an “AI team” that automatically classifies emails, resolves customer queries and performs data analysis.
This trend aligns closely with Pegamento’s vision of AI-driven process automation: scalable, collaborative systems that augment rather than replace human workers.
Domain-Specific Language Models (DSLMs).
Generic language models are giving way to domain-specific variants, for example, for healthcare, education or legal applications. They deliver higher accuracy and better regulatory compliance. Within the context of the EU AI Act, this represents a major step toward AI that is explainable, auditable and compliant.
Physical AI
AI is leaving the screen. Robots, drones and smart devices are bringing intelligence to the physical world. From autonomous warehouses to maintenance robots, the line between digital and physical processes is blurring. Organizations that respond to this can dramatically increase operational agility.
3. The Sentinel: protecting trust and reputation
In a world where AI touches everything, trust is the ultimate value. Gartner’s latest four trends revolve around protection, transparency and digital sovereignty.
Pre-emptive Cybersecurity
Security is shifting from reactive to proactive. With AI-driven detection and prediction, threats are intercepted before they can do damage. According to Gartner, by 2030, half of the security budget will be spent on this.
Digital Provenance
The origin of data, code and AI content is becoming verifiable through digital watermarks and attestation databases. A necessity in an era of deepfakes and synthetic content and a direct requirement within European regulations.
Pegamento sees a key role in this for transparent AI chains, in which provenance, ownership and permission are demonstrable.
AI Security Platforms
AI itself must be protected. These platforms secure against prompt injections, data breaches and unauthorized use of AI models. It is becoming a core part of the digital governance architecture.
Geopatriation
Finally, the return of data to home. Organizations are moving critical workloads back from global clouds to sovereign or local infrastructures to mitigate geopolitical risks. Gartner expects three-quarters of companies to do this by 2030. For Europe, this is a wake-up call: digital autonomy is not a luxury but a necessity.
What this means for Dutch organizations
Gartner’s message in Orlando resonates strongly with the reality in the Netherlands. Government agencies, healthcare organizations and financial service providers are balancing between innovation and regulation. Meanwhile, the need for control, security and European autonomy is growing.
Pegamento sees in these trends a confirmation of its course:
- AI within governance frameworks, not as hype, but as a strategic building block.
- Human-centric automation, where AI supports employees in their work.
- Trustworthy infrastructure built on European values of privacy and transparency.
Conclusion: from experiment to responsibility
The Gartner IT Symposium 2025 made one thing clear: 2026 will be the year when organizations no longer ask what AI can do, but how to deploy AI responsibly. Those who get the architecture right, orchestrate systems smartly and secure trust will build a future-proof organization.
Or, as Gartner analyst Gene Alvarez summed it up:
“The CIOs who invest in trust today will be the leaders of innovation tomorrow.”
