IT Budgets Grow in 2026 as AI Spending Takes Priority

BCG's annual IT-budget survey (published Sept 17, 2026) finds 2026 is the strongest IT-spending outlook the survey has recorded, with 'IT leaders now expect overall spending to grow 5.8% in 2026 compared with 2025 — the strongest outlook the survey has recorded and, as of mid-2025, a full 2.2' percentage points above prior expectations. It reports '66% of respondents expect to increase spending on AI and machine learning (ML), including GenAI and AI agents — more than any other category and up 21 points' year-over-year, and that 'weighted-average ROI measured to date on GenAI and AI agent deployments has risen to 13.8%, up 2.6 points from 11.2% in our mid-2025 survey.' The survey argues GenAI adoption is narrowing toward a smaller set of high-impact use cases — analytics, customer service, security and risk prevention, and internal communications — as buyers shift 'from promise to payoff.'

Provides the benchmark numbers (spending growth, AI budget priority, GenAI ROI) an executive needs to sanity-check their own 2026/2027 IT budget against peers and justify AI investment to the board.

Benchmark your AI/GenAI budget share and realized ROI against the 66% spending-growth and 13.8% ROI figures when preparing next budget cycle.