The Enterprise Reality Check for AI Adoption: Moving Beyond Experimentation to Sustainable Scale

This IDC Perspective draws on insights from in-depth conversations with CIOs, CTOs, and senior technology and business leaders across Europe. These discussions took place during IDC executive dinners and industry events in 2Q26, spanning a diverse range of sectors from financial services, manufacturing, and utilities to automotive, retail, and technology services. These conversations uncovered what is genuinely holding organizations back: data readiness, legacy systems, governance friction, and the human dimension of change. It also offers a practical framework for evaluating professional services partners as organizations look to move from pilot to production."Technology is no longer the barrier. Enterprise leaders across Europe highlight that AI ambition is high, but data foundations, governance structures, and organizational alignment have not kept pace. That gap is holding most organizations back, and closing it requires a very different kind of focus than most AI programs currently have," said Jennifer Thomson, AVP, IDC Global Services Insights