Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2026 APAC: Day 3 Highlights

We are bringing you news and highlights from Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, taking place this week on the Gold Coast, Australia. Below is a collection of the key announcements and insights coming out of the conference. You can read the highlights from Day 2 here.

On Day 3 of the conference, we are covering sessions on why being resilient is no longer enough for optimizing cybersecurity outcomes; how to get value from AI in IT; why AI's free speed isn't free; and what an AI program really costs in 2026.

• Gartner Forecasts IT Spending in Australia to Exceed $192 Billion in 2027
• Gartner Unveils Top Strategic Predictions for 2027 and Beyond
• Gartner Reveals Top Technology Trends in Government

Presented by Richard Addiscott, VP Analyst, Gartner 

Cyber resilience is a mindset, an outcome and a capability. As the world continues to move at pace, maintaining the status quo is now just table stakes. In this session, Richard Addiscott, VP Analyst at Gartner, discussed how to move beyond basic cyber resilience and achieve stronger business outcomes through cybersecurity. 

• “In today’s rapidly changing, volatile environment, maintaining the status quo is no longer enough – standing still means falling behind. Organizations must rethink cyber resilience to stay ahead of the curve.” 
• “A prevention-centric cybersecurity program is no longer viable as AI accelerates technology and continually transforms the threat landscape. Adopting an adaptive resilience posture is essential to keep pace and protect business value.”
• “Stop cutting corners with cybersecurity incident response. Complete every stage, from preparation, detection, containment, eradication, recovery and post-incident activity, to ensure all insights and lessons are integrated into the program.” 
• “Leverage chaos engineering to uncover vulnerabilities and evaluate system behavior under adverse conditions. While not always feasible for legacy systems, introducing chaos engineering into new system development initiatives can significantly improve service restoration and site reliability.” 
• “Experiment with AI-driven approaches like feeding security log data into retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, building AI SOC agents for threat hunting, and using GenAI to simulate real-world attacks. These innovations expand visibility, uncover vulnerabilities and strengthen adaptive cyber resilience.” 

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with Richard Addiscott by contacting Emma Keen at emma.keen@gartner.com.