From a technological perspective, the year 2026 will not be primarily about the emergence of new technologies.

It is becoming increasingly important for companies to create a stable foundation for the introduction of continuously evolving solutions – both at the level of business processes and existing systems.

In this environment, the pace of technological development is no longer determined only by the available tools, but also by organizational and operational readiness.

Based on this approach, IDBC GO leaders identified the trends that are expected to play a prominent role in 2026:

SAP 2026 – S/4 conversion

In 2026, S/4HANA transformations and upgrades are expected to become the focus of corporate IT strategies. This is not due to a new technological direction, but rather to the fact that the platform has reached a level of maturity where even large companies that had previously waited are starting to schedule their conversion projects.

The focus is increasingly on the “how”. Greenfield, Brownfield and Bluefield approaches are becoming an everyday topic. In parallel, the preparation phase of projects is becoming more valuable: archiving and system preparation steps prior to transformation can reduce the costs and complexity of conversion or migration to the cloud even before the project is launched.

webMethods & integration prospects

In 2026, integration will leave the role of back-end IT and become one of the defining acceleration tracks of corporate operations. AI-based solutions can only scale if the underlying integration is intelligent, manageable, and reliable, providing business context and controlled automation to autonomous systems.

In this environment, webMethods Hybrid Integration supports hybrid and multi-cloud operations by unified management of applications, APIs, files, events, and B2B connections, enabling governance-based, controlled, and scalable growth without a “spaghetti architecture.”

ARIS & Process Management

By 2026, the role of business processes will reach a new level due to the spread of Agentic AI. Autonomous operation only becomes reliable if AI agents operate in an explicitly defined process environment, along with a business logic and rule system.

The repositioning of ARIS is based on this: the platform is not just a process modeling tool, but the basis for the operation of Agentic AI. BPM ensures transparency, auditability and controllable execution, so that AI can operate in a business-understandable and controlled manner.

Alphabet & Enterprise Architecture

In 2026, companies that treat AI as an isolated solution and those that incorporate it as an architectural principle will be increasingly separated. In the latter case, scalable, controllable and commercially measurable operations become possible.

In this approach, Alfabet enables AI agents, intelligent workflows, data and security aspects to be modeled and examined in their contexts similarly to traditional systems. Enterprise Architecture thus becomes a decision-support tool that provides a unified framework for managing AI, security and data quality, as well as for the controlled scaling of AI solutions.

AI in content management

By 2026, the application of AI in the field of content management will become a defining development direction. Both manufacturer roadmaps and customer needs show that artificial intelligence is not emerging as an experimental technology, but as part of everyday business processes, and the emphasis is on operational, scalable use.

This requires the appropriate technical maturity of content management systems, which is why system upgrades that create the basis for the wider application of AI-based solutions, especially in content-intensive business processes, will become more valuable in 2026.

SuccessFactors & SmartRecruiters

We expect an even stronger appearance of AI in the area of ​​SuccessFactors in 2026. One of the latest elements of HR digitalization, SAP-related, is SmartRecruiters, which uses artificial intelligence to make corporate recruitment processes more efficient. We expect AI-driven HR solutions to gain an increasingly prominent focus in 2026, and we are already starting to prepare together with customers how to transform these technologies into measurable business advantages.

For IDBC GO’s 50+ team of experts, it is of utmost importance to continuously follow technological trends and adapt the digital solutions based on them to the specific needs and business goals of our clients. Our goal is to provide support from strategic direction to implementation that creates tangible value in everyday operations.

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