Gartner’s top strategic technology trends for 2026 highlight how data, AI, and automation are reshaping enterprise IT strategies. For engineering, energy, and manufacturing organizations, these advancements point to a single reality: competitive advantage increasingly depends on how effectively software is governed, optimized, and utilized.
Licenses, cloud applications, AI workloads, and simulation tools now run across highly distributed and hybrid environments. Without unified visibility into usage, even well-designed digital transformation initiatives risk spiraling costs, compliance exposure, and avoidable productivity losses.
Software usage intelligence platforms such as Open iT deliver the visibility required to turn complexity into operational control. Every one of Gartner’s 2026 trends underscores the rising urgency of transparent, data-driven software asset management.
DEMO: Experience Real Software Usage Intelligence in Action
Industry Cloud Platforms
Industry-specific cloud platforms now enable large-scale engineering and manufacturing collaboration, but they also disperse license and usage information across multiple vendors and deployment models.
Business impact: Licenses often span on-premise servers, vendor-managed cloud environments, and SaaS platforms, creating fragmented visibility and complicating utilization tracking.
Open iT centralizes visibility across all license sources, allowing enterprises to uncover overlapping subscriptions, understand true consumption patterns, and direct software investments precisely where they generate the greatest value.
Want to see usage analytics in action? Watch our on-demand webinar, “From Data to Decisions: License Usage Analytics for Engineering Teams”, where we show how organizations convert license usage data into smarter planning, better access, and improved ROI. Here’s your invitation to watch the recording.
Open iT | Webinar On-Demand
From Data to Decisions: License Usage Analytics for Engineering Teams
Machine Customers
Gartner forecasts that autonomous systems capable of making purchase decisions will become a growing market force. In engineering, automated systems could soon request simulation licenses or cloud capacity on demand.
Business impact: When systems can trigger purchases independently, cost governance becomes more complex.
Predictive analytics and consumption forecasting from Open iT ensure that automated procurement remains controlled and aligned with real business requirements.
Sustainable Technology
Sustainability has become a quantifiable performance metric. Reducing digital waste and optimizing the energy footprint of software ecosystems are now essential components of environmental responsibility.
Business impact: Over-provisioned or unused licenses contribute to unnecessary infrastructure load, energy consumption, and associated emissions. Open iT’s license usage data enables organizations to identify and retire idle assets, right-size license pools, and integrate real IT efficiency metrics into broader ESG and sustainability reporting frameworks.
AI Trust, Risk, and Security Management (TRiSM)
The rise of AI introduces complex governance, ethical, and compliance obligations. Organizations must ensure that data access, model usage, and software licensing adhere to strict regulatory and security standards.
Business impact: Unmonitored or improperly governed software usage can lead to audit penalties, licensing violations, or exposure of sensitive data.
Open iT enables organizations to establish comprehensive audit trails and entitlement-to-use mappings, creating verifiable links between users, applications, and licensing rights reducing audit risk and reinforcing compliance.
Digital Twin Expansion
Digital twins reshape industries from energy and utilities to construction and manufacturing. These systems rely on simultaneous access to multiple high-value engineering and simulation.
Business impact: License contention can stall critical simulation workflows, delay project timelines, and escalate operational costs. Open iT’s granular monitoring of license utilization and peak demand supports continuous project flow and efficient resource allocation, ensuring essential engineering tools remain available exactly when required.
Confidential Computing
Secure and sovereign cloud environments are increasingly essential for protecting sensitive intellectual property and mission-critical engineering data.
Business impact: Organizations must balance the need for transparent usage of analytics with strict confidentiality and data-sovereignty requirements. Open iT’s secure data-collection architecture delivers full visibility into software utilization while maintaining compliance with stringent security and regulatory standards—even in classified, sovereign, or air-gapped environments.
Augmented Connected Workforce
Global collaboration is now standard across engineering and manufacturing. Distributed teams rely on shared access to specialized software across regions, time zones, and hybrid work environments.
Business impact: License contention and time-based access conflicts can disrupt workflows and reduce productivity.
Open iT’s comprehensive license monitoring and demand forecasting allow proactive allocation of software resources, ensuring uninterrupted collaboration and optimal tool availability.
Where Visibility Becomes Strategy
Gartner’s 2026 trends reflect a global shift toward AI-driven automation, sustainability, and secure cloud ecosystems. For organizations that rely on engineering, simulation, and high-value technical software, success in this new landscape hinges on visibility. Leaders in 2026 will not be defined by how much technology they deploy, but by how effectively they manage, govern, and utilize it.
Connect with Open iT to discover how license usage intelligence can drive smarter decision-making, reduce costs, and empower more efficient and sustainable software management.
Gain complete visibility, eliminate software waste, and ensure data-driven governance.
