AI Adoption in Software Market: What Buyers Want, What Vendors Must Deliver

2. Practical AI use cases dominate buyer priorities

Buyers are focused on proven AI applications that deliver immediate, measurable business outcomes, with a clear top three emerging. Generative AI (GenAI) leads the way, followed by predictive analytics and automated planning or scheduling.

Industry patterns reveal clear concentrations. IT and finance show the strongest appetite for GenAI at 60% and 59% respectively; significantly above the 53% baseline. Retail businesses focus more on automated planning at 47% vs. 38% overall, likely driven by supply chain and inventory management pressures. 

This signals a fundamental reorganization of how businesses operate. Companies are using AI tools to produce content at scale, make data-backed decisions in real-time, and eliminate operational bottlenecks that once required entire teams. 

3. Implementation concerns outpace pricing

As buyers embrace AI, their biggest concern is how to make it work. Leveraging AI effectively is the top challenge for 43%, followed by security concerns at 38% and system compatibility at 37%. Meanwhile, funding ranks much lower at just 22%.

Buyers have a budget and interest in AI. What they lack is confidence that they can deploy it effectively and securely. 

For vendors, this means prioritizing simplified AI onboarding and making security a visible part of your value proposition.

4. Aggressive AI adoption correlates with buyer disappointment

Buyers who report disappointment with their software investments are nearly twice as likely to have adopted AI aggressively (33% vs. 17% among successful adopters). This aggressive stance translates into specific technology choices.

Disappointed buyers overindex on advanced AI capabilities like autonomous systems, recommendation engines, and robotic process automation technologies that can be harder to implement and justify ROI.

Successful adopters take a different path. They are more likely to invest in proven, high-demand applications like GenAI, predictive analytics, and automated planning. These capabilities have clearer use cases and faster time-to-value.

5. Successful adopters trust review sites over AI search

Successful software adopters are more likely to use expert insights and software review platforms when conducting research and developing shortlists. Disappointed buyers, on the other hand, often rely on GenAI tools and online communities like Reddit. 

While it can be tempting to outsource product research entirely to GenAI tools, such as ChatGPT, they may provide less reliable or relevant information and lead to hallucinations. 

For vendors, this underlines the importance of being visible on trusted software review and comparison sites and the role of social proof in shaping software buyers’ confidence.

Adapt to AI-driven software market in 2026

Software buyers in 2026 are pragmatic about AI adoption. They want proven capabilities that solve real problems, not just emerging AI features that promise more than they deliver. They've moved past the hype cycle and now evaluate AI tools with the same rigor they apply to any software investment: does it work, is it secure, and can we actually use it?

Those who can anticipate these needs and address them will not only navigate but excel in a competitive and AI-driven software market. Watch our on-demand webinar to learn how successful software buyers build shortlists and what that means for positioning AI capabilities in 2026.

*Survey methodology:

Gartner Digital Market’s 2026 Software Buying Trends survey was conducted online in August 2025 among 3,385 respondents in Australia (n=281), Brazil (n=278), Canada (n=293), France (n=283), Germany (n=279), India (n=260), Italy (n=263), Mexico (n=288), Spain (n=273), the U.K. (n=299), and the U.S. (n=588), at businesses across multiple industries, ages (1 year in business or longer), and sizes (5 or more employees). Business sizes represented in the survey include: 1,676 small (5-249 full-time employees), 822 midsize (250-999), and 887 enterprise (1,000+). The goal of this study was to understand the timelines, organizational challenges, research behaviors, and adoption processes of business software buyers. Respondents were screened to ensure their involvement in business software purchasing decisions.