Enterprises across Asia Pacific are rapidly shifting from AI experimentation to production, with 96 percent planning to increase AI investment by an average of 15 percent in 2026, according to the Lenovo CIO Playbook 2026, commissioned by Lenovo with insights from IDC. Lenovo said the findings mark a decisive move beyond pilots toward outcomes-led AI that is embedded across core business operations.
The shift is mirrored in ASEAN+, where 96 percent of organizations also plan to boost AI spending, underscoring AI’s growing role as a strategic driver of revenue, profitability, and customer experience. Lenovo noted that while confidence in AI returns remains high—88 percent of organizations expect positive ROI—scaling AI into production is now the critical challenge, elevating the importance of governance, security, and lifecycle management.
AI adoption is expanding beyond IT, with two-thirds of organizations already piloting or systematically adopting AI across functions such as customer service, marketing, operations, and finance. Lenovo highlighted that non-IT teams are increasingly funding AI initiatives, reinforcing the CIO’s role in orchestrating enterprise-wide transformation.
Lenovo also pointed to rising interest in Agentic AI and the normalization of hybrid AI architectures—now preferred by over 80 percent of ASEAN+ enterprises—as businesses prepare to operationalize AI at scale while balancing performance, security, and regulatory needs. Overall, Lenovo said 2026 will be defined not by AI ambition, but by enterprises’ ability to convert pilots into production-grade deployments that deliver sustained business impact.
