For years, our annual State of Digital Operations report has been the industry benchmark for understanding how organizations manage incidents, build resilience, and evolve their operational practices. Each year, we survey hundreds of business and operations leaders worldwide to capture the challenges, priorities, and emerging practices shaping digital operations.

This year, we’re releasing the report under a new name: the State of AI-First Operations. The change reflects a fundamental shift we’re seeing across the industry. AI is no longer an experimental add-on to digital operations; it’s becoming the foundation of how leading organizations detect, respond to, and learn from incidents. With 59% of global organizations now actively incorporating AI into operational workflows, we felt it was time for our report’s name to reflect this new reality.

But our 2026 research reveals something even more significant than widespread AI adoption: The gap between operationally resilient organizations and everyone else is widening, and AI is accelerating the divide.

Revenue Growth Follows Operational Excellence

This year, our survey of 1,000 business and IT leaders and developers across seven global markets reveals stark performance differences between organizations reporting revenue growth—what we call “Revenue Risers”—and those with flat or declining performance, or “Revenue Underperformers.”

The execution-level gaps are measurable and significant:

• 82% of Revenue Risers are increasing operational resilience budgets vs. 62% of Revenue Underperformers—a 20-point investment gap
• 74% report improved operational resilience over the past year vs. 64% of underperformers
• 61% actively use AI in digital operations vs. 55% of Revenue Underperformers
• 52% have improved resilience through platform consolidation vs. 48% of underperformers

The pattern is unmistakable: Companies reporting revenue growth view operational resilience as a competitive advantage that drives that growth, not just a cost center to manage.

IT Incidents Have Become Board-Level Financial Risks

The urgency driving this transformation is real. More than two-thirds of organizations now lose more than $300,000 per hour during major incidents, with 34% losing at least $500,000 per hour and 8% losing $1 million or more.

But the financial impact extends far beyond immediate revenue loss. When we asked leaders where outages hurt most, 52% identified brand and reputation damage as the greatest impact, followed by recovery costs (50%), lost productivity (48%), and developer morale/burnout (42%).

These financial realities have elevated operational resilience to the C-suite, with 95% of top leadership now recognizing that faster incident recovery creates competitive advantage. As a result, 77% of organizations plan to increase resilience investments over the next 12 months—but Revenue Risers are investing at higher rates than Revenue Underperformers.

AI Adoption Follows Performance

AI has moved from experimental to essential, with 59% of organizations actively incorporating AI into operational workflows and another 34% in planning stages. But adoption patterns reveal a clear performance correlation:

• 63% of organizations more resilient than a year ago actively use AI vs. 53% of those less resilient
• 61% of Revenue Risers actively use AI vs. 55% of Revenue Underperformers
• Only 6% of Revenue Risers aren’t using or planning to use AI, compared with 10% of underperformers

The organizations leading AI adoption aren’t just responding to incidents faster—they’re measuring success differently. AI Pioneers—those respondents actively incorporating AI into operations today—are more likely to track business impact measures (47%) compared with organizations not yet using AI (37%)—a 10-point gap that underscores a strategic shift from purely technical metrics to business outcomes.

Humans Remain in Control of Critical Decisions

Despite aggressive AI adoption, organizations aren’t pursuing full automation. Instead, they’re designing systems that strategically preserve human oversight for high-stakes decisions:

• 44% require human involvement when AI remediates customer-facing systems
• 43% insist on human involvement when coordinating cross-functional incident response
• 42% require human involvement when  communicating incident status to stakeholders and customers

Looking ahead, 62% of organizations expect an even mix of human and AI work over the next three years, with 51% planning to hire or reskill specifically for AI-driven incident detection and response. This reflects a push to use AI to ease operational strain while maintaining human judgment where it matters most.

Platform Consolidation Drives Measurable Gains

Organizations achieving the strongest resilience improvements share a common approach: they’re consolidating fragmented tool stacks and building integrated workflows.

More than half (51%) report felt that consolidating multiple tools into a single platform improved operational resilience as compared to other strategies. Revenue Risers believe in this consolidation strategy more than Revenue Underperformers (52% vs. 48%), while Revenue Underperformers remain the most focused on tighter integration of existing fragmented tools.

The most successful organizations also turn incidents into learning opportunities. While 100% of respondents agree that post-incident learning must be strengthened, only 48% currently turn incidents into structured improvement cycles—revealing a significant execution gap between recognizing the need and implementing systematic learning.

The Path Forward

The 2026 State of AI-First Operations report makes one thing clear: Companies that combine aggressive investment in AI-driven operations with strategic human oversight and continuous learning are pulling measurably ahead of competitors.

The financial stakes of incidents have reached board-level urgency. Leadership alignment is nearly universal. But execution separates winners from everyone else.

Download the full 2026 State of AI-First Operations report to explore:

• Detailed industry and regional breakdowns
• How AI Pioneers measure and execute differently
• The specific workflows and platforms driving resilience gains
• Workforce planning strategies for the AI era

The resilience gap is widening. The question isn’t whether to invest—it’s whether your current approach enables the execution patterns that drive competitive advantage.

To read the full report, including survey findings and methodology, please visit here.