Research Report

ARLINGTON, Va. – October 28, 2026 -- Infotech's annual report, Tech Trends 2027: Bring Clarity Amid Chaos, identifies 14 trends across four themes that will change the cost, security and viability of enterprise technology investments next year. The research and advisory firm finds that as AI model capabilities converge, architecture, tooling and governance will increasingly determine enterprise AI outcomes.

The report draws on expert interviews and primary and secondary research. It covers financial services, healthcare, legal services, manufacturing and government, and tracks policy and procurement developments in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and the European Union. Each trend is rated for market readiness and enterprise traction.

Berlin – October 28, 2026 -- Germany's tax administration employs 13.2 full-time staff per 10,000 residents, against an EU average of 9.3, yet its local tax offices left 6,869 positions unfilled in 2024. The figures come from a joint analysis of all 27 EU states by accounting software provider BuchhaltungsButler and data studio DataPulse Research.

Germany ranks seventh in the EU for tax staff per resident

EU tax administrations counted 416,274 full-time positions in 2024, of which 110,024 were in Germany. Per 10,000 inhabitants, the range runs from 4.3 in Spain to 21.6 in Luxembourg. Germany has one full-time post per roughly 760 residents; Italy has one per 1,850 and Spain one per 2,330.

St. Louis – October 28, 2026 -- Forty-four percent of U.S. consumers who use AI tools for customer service say the AI has contradicted a company representative or its policies, according to a new survey of 1,000 consumers from support automation vendor Capacity.

The Agentic Consumer Report finds that 55% of respondents have used an AI tool, such as an agent or large language model, to help with a service request. Consumers are equally likely to trust the AI or the company representative when the two give conflicting information.

Gen Z and Millennials drive adoption of personal AI agents

Overall, 35% of respondents have used an AI agent to handle a customer service request at least once. Among Gen Z and Millennials, the figure is 49%.

Household makeup also matters. Among respondents with children aged 25 or younger at home, 46% have used a personal AI agent, against 29% of those without children at home.

New York – October 28, 2026 -- More than 90% of procurement leaders say skills shortfalls are already limiting their ability to deliver on business objectives, and 66% say their training budget is insufficient, according to new Procurious research.

Almost 60% of procurement teams have no formal skills framework

The report, The Procurement Skills and Training Gap, finds that almost 60% of respondents have no formal procurement capability or skills framework. More than half lack either the budget or the time and resources to develop and maintain training programs.

Where development opportunities exist, 52% of respondents say they do not actively participate because of workload.

Forty percent of teams have no defined per-employee training budget

Nine percent of respondents invest nothing per employee in training. Asked what the right spend would be, 36% say $2,000 or more, and a further 21% say between $1,500 and $2,000.

Vienna, Va. – October 25, 2026 -- Permuta Technologies has published a white paper arguing that token- and consumption-based AI pricing can turn AI from a predictable line item into a variable operating cost for government agencies.

The paper, titled "You Can't Consume Your Way Out of AI Cost Opacity," is the second in the company's series of white papers on AI and government. It examines how the shift in AI pricing models affects government acquisition, budgeting and long-term contract control.

Palantir case study identifies five contract risks for agencies

Using Palantir as a case study, the paper says tokenization mechanics can create budget unpredictability and reduced cost transparency. It also lists ceiling pressure, source-selection complexity and lock-in risk. These risks grow as AI becomes embedded in mission workflows, according to the paper.

SEATTLE – October 24, 2026 -- Only 20% of enterprise AI initiatives meet their intended KPIs, and 65% of CISOs lack confidence in their data security controls, according to new research from data security vendor MIND and the CISO Executive Network.

The report, "The Impact of Data Trust on AI Initiative Success," finds that 90% of organizations already run enterprise GenAI at scale. Security governance has not kept pace with that deployment.

Survey of 124 CISOs finds policies without machine-speed enforcement

The study combines a survey of 124 CISOs with twenty in-depth interviews drawn from the same group. Organizations have AI policies but struggle to enforce them at machine speed, the report says. Data estates remain unclassified and ungoverned, and security frameworks were built for human behavior rather than autonomous systems.

London – October 19, 2026 -- Transfers under $100 made up 77.4% of stablecoin transfers on BNB Chain in Q3 2026, while transfers of $10,000 or more carried 66.2% of total transfer value, according to a joint report from payments platform Mercuryo and BNB Chain.

The report, Stablecoins on BNB Chain: Fiat to Crypto and Back, combines Mercuryo's fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat transaction data with BNB Chain's on-chain data for the quarter. The median network fee for a stablecoin transfer on BNB Chain was $0.0068. Additional fees for purchasing, selling or converting into stablecoins may apply.

Non-US currencies fund 70% of dollar-stablecoin purchases through Mercuryo

Of the value used to buy dollar-denominated stablecoins on BNB Chain through Mercuryo, 70% was paid in non-US dollar currencies. The US accounted for 9.8% of purchase value. Asia was the largest regional market at 39.3%, followed by Europe at 33.4%.

Charlotte – October 19, 2026 -- The economy fell to #6 on the American Transportation Research Institute's (ATRI) 22nd annual Top Industry Issues list after three consecutive years at #1, as fuel prices, lawsuit abuse reform, CSA and insurance cost and availability moved to the forefront of trucking concerns.

Diesel above $6.50 per gallon squeezes smaller fleets

Ben Banks, TCW President, said diesel topping $6.50 per gallon arrived just as the freight economy showed positive signs. He called the spike "particularly painful" for small- to mid-size fleets, given that overall operating costs keep climbing.

Workforce issues return to the top 10

Driver Shortage ranked #5 and Driver Retention #10. Driver Compensation held its top 10 position at #9. Artificial Intelligence in Trucking and Diesel Emissions Regulations, both new to the list in 2025, remain top 10 concerns.

Global – October 18, 2026 -- Coalition Incident Response (CIR) has documented rival Business Email Compromise (BEC) attackers using the names of inbox rules as a chat channel inside the same compromised mailbox, and says the exchanges expose gaps in default email platform security.

Two intruders negotiate and fight through rule names

Abusing inbox rules to evade detection (MITRE ATT&CK T1564.008) is a widespread tactic. Attackers use it to hide, redirect or forward emails containing keywords such as "invoice" or "confidential." In one CIR investigation, an attacker aware of a second intruder appeared willing to cooperate so that neither ruined the payout. In another incident, two actors fought over an inbox in a prolonged argument recorded as a sequence of rule names.

United States – October 18, 2026 -- Newsweek and Plant-A Insights Group built the America's Greatest Workplaces 2026 ranking on more than 2.7 million company reviews from more than 179,000 employees, making it one of the largest independent employee studies in the country.

Survey covers companies with more than 1,000 employees across 10 dimensions

The study evaluates employers with more than 1,000 staff on 10 key dimensions of worker satisfaction. It combines a national survey, desk research and third-party data. The survey ran from April 2025 to October 2025.

Results from three earlier studies, conducted between 2022 and 2024, are included at reduced weight. Those studies encompassed more than 4.9 million company reviews and more than 400,000 interviews.