Report reveals critical mistakes blocking AI adoption and highlights key trends shaping enterprise readiness
New York, London, Munich, Dubai – November 24, 2025 — DataArt, a global software engineering firm that delivers breakthrough data, analytics, and AI platforms, today released its 2026 Data & AI Trends Report. Based on comprehensive interviews with senior technology experts across multiple industries, the research highlights the growing gap between AI ambition and execution, identifying where AI delivers measurable value, common implementation failures, and practical priorities for the next 12 months.
Key findings include:
- Data infrastructure investments deliver higher ROI than new AI models for most enterprises
- Organizations are shifting from broad experimentation to specific, high-value use cases like intelligent automation and document processing
- Companies with strong data foundations are moving from pilots to production, while those chasing AI hype face reality checks
- By 2026, leading enterprises will deploy AI agents for business process automation as naturally as they use spreadsheets today
- AI will feel ordinary rather than revolutionary, embedded into everyday workflows as an essential business tool
The report reveals a fundamental gap between AI ambitions and operational reality. Companies announce transformational initiatives while core operations run on legacy systems and manual processes.
The highest-ROI technology investment for enterprises right now is data infrastructure, not the latest AI model. Companies that invested in cloud platforms three to five years ago are seeing those investments pay dividends now at a scale AI cannot yet match. After two years of experimental euphoria, 2026 will be defined by who built the strongest foundations.
The research identifies five critical mistakes holding companies back, six strategic priorities for the next year, and industry-specific predictions for finance, retail, airlines, media, travel and healthcare sectors. It also reveals what widely adopted practices companies should reconsider immediately — from treating technology as separate from business to rushing AI implementation without proper governance.
Download the full report here.
