BOSTON, Oct. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global consulting firm Valiantys, in partnership with Atlassian, today released new Omdia research revealing that AI adoption is moving faster than organizations’ ability to scale it effectively. Fragmented systems, data, and workflows can erode business value: siloed AI initiatives may accelerate individual tasks while simply moving bottlenecks elsewhere. Unlocking meaningful gains requires an end-to-end view of the value chain, spanning service delivery, software development, and portfolio decision-making.
The report, Why Enterprises Won Cloud Adoption but Risk Losing AI, surveyed 400 global technology leaders about the barriers preventing organizations from scaling AI and delivering successful technology transformation.
The findings reveal a significant readiness gap: while 98% of respondents have at least one AI initiative underway, only 3% consider their organizations fully ready for AI. At the same time, just 28% report that more than half of their technology transformation initiatives deliver the expected outcomes.
“Enterprises have moved quickly to adopt AI, but adoption alone is not transformation,” said Israel Forst, CEO of Valiantys. “The organizations that create lasting value will be those that connect AI to the fundamentals: trusted data, modern systems, clear governance and an operating model that can turn strategy into execution.”
Organizations combining cloud maturity with AI ambition are 2.4 times more likely to succeed, underscoring the importance of strong technology and operating foundations.
Cloud Migration Has Not Eliminated Fragmentation
Seventy-four percent of businesses adopted cloud through partial modernization, using either a hybrid approach or a pure lift-and-shift migration. Only 11% now describe their organizations as predominantly or fully cloud-based.
That incomplete modernization continues to create barriers to transformation. Forty-four percent of respondents identify data quality and accessibility as their single biggest transformation barrier, while 39% cite legacy systems and technical debt as a leading challenge.
Fragmentation also extends into employees’ day-to-day work. Fifty-six percent of organizations say the average employee relies on seven or more tools each week, while only 27% agree their technology environment is largely integrated with minimal fragmentation.
“Roughly three-quarters of organizations moved to the cloud tactically, and in doing so they relocated technology fragmentation rather than removing it,” said Adam Holtby, principal analyst at Omdia. “AI is now exposing many of those unresolved issues.”
AI Adoption Is Outpacing AI Readiness
Although AI activity is nearly universal, most organizations have yet to move from experimentation to scale. Thirty-five percent remain in pilot or proof-of-concept phases, while only 7% have reached a scaling phase and just 2% describe AI as mature and integrated across the organization.
“AI is creating enormous opportunity for enterprises, but realizing that potential requires more than adopting new technology,” said Itai Njanji, Global Head Partner Solutions Success at Atlassian. “Organizations need connected teams, trusted data and ways of working that make it easier to turn AI investment into measurable outcomes. This research gives leaders a clearer view of where the gaps are today and where they need to focus to move from experimentation to impact.”
The research identifies five foundations organizations need to strengthen to move securely from pilot to production: data, infrastructure, measurement, governance and skills.
The findings also expose a gap between AI activity and the ability to demonstrate business value. Fifty-two percent of technology leaders say formal return on investment is how they would ideally measure AI value, yet only 21% currently use formal ROI calculations.
Enterprises Are Prioritizing Cloud and AI Together
Organizations increasingly recognize that AI and cloud strategy cannot be separated. One-third of respondents name cloud optimization with AI integration as their leading strategic focus for the next two to three years, ahead of operational excellence at 18% and innovation at 15%.
Most also expect outside expertise to play a role. Sixty-four percent prefer a collaborative transformation model in which internal teams work with external experts, while just 2% want to keep transformation fully internal. Respondents rank industry expertise, proven experience, cloud and AI skills and knowledge transfer among the most important capabilities they seek from transformation partners.
The full report, Why Enterprises Won Cloud Adoption but Risk Losing AI, provides an executive roadmap for assessing readiness, optimizing cloud environments, strengthening governance, measuring value and scaling AI across the business.
To download the full report, visit https://hubs.la/Q04B6VCF0.
About Omdia
Omdia is a market-leading data, research and consulting business serving technology companies, digital service providers and enterprise decision makers. Through its global analyst base, Omdia offers analysis and strategic insight across IT, telecoms and media. Omdia is part of Informa TechTarget. For more information, visit https://www.omdia.com.
About Valiantys
Valiantys helps organizations transform how work gets done across the enterprise, leading with transformation consulting, enterprise service management and engineering productivity. By combining deep process expertise with modern collaboration, automation and value stream practices, Valiantys enables business, IT and product teams to design connected, efficient and human-centered ways of working. With a strong focus on the modern workforce, the company helps customers reimagine service delivery beyond IT, streamline cross-functional workflows, and improve flow and throughput for engineering teams. For more information, visit https://valiantys.com.
About Atlassian
Atlassian unleashes the potential of every team. A recognized leader in software development, work management, and enterprise service management software, Atlassian enables enterprises to connect their business and technology teams with an AI-powered system of work that unlocks productivity at scale. Atlassian’s collaboration software powers over 85% of the Fortune 500 and 350,000+ customers worldwide - including NASA, Rivian, Deutsche Bank, United Airlines, and Bosch - who rely on our solutions to drive work forward.
Media Contact
Cailey Henderson for Valiantys
valiantys@launchsquad.com
