The massive sell-off in software stocks earlier this month may signal that investors are betting on AI-native alternatives. Not so fast. The enterprise core isn't vanishing — it's transforming.

Service providers remain an integral part of technology delivery, particularly in the AI era, where uncertainty is high and technical debt continues to rise. Your relationships with service providers can be an organizational enabler or a blocker. Read this report to make the right strategic choice for your company by managing partnerships for success.

The cloud era, application modernization, and “AI-first” principles are making existing portfolio models obsolete. Learn how Forrester’s new REAP framework can help IT leaders manage today’s tech portfolios.

Join Forrester experts and your peers for an interactive presentation that will dive deeper into Forrester’s 2026 Predictions for enterprise software.Key takeaways: Understand the changing technology, consumer, and market dynamics in store in 2026. Uncover new insights based on Forrester’s research and expert analysis.Prepare your team and your organization for what’s ahead. Target audience level: all levels

Software can easily cost large enterprises millions of dollars. Technology contract negotiations are therefore often complicated and involve many stakeholders. Naturally, customers want the best deal possible, but they must also be realistic about what vendors will agree to. It can be difficult to walk this fine line, but the good news is that Forrester analysts can help. Forrester has an extensive body of research on contract negotiation best practices, and we’ve compiled the essential reports to help you on your contract negotiation journey.

Tech leaders must negotiate tech contracts that yield value, support business outcomes, and set their organization up for the future. But negotiating with tier-one vendors is an exercise in asymmetric power: They use complex licensing, audit threats, and high switching costs to maximize revenue and secure lock-in. Your goal isn’t merely to secure the best financial deal or discount percentage but to control the total cost of transformation, maintain strategic flexibility, and mitigate risk. To succeed, you must create leverage and control the negotiation timeline and process. Our five-step blueprint helps you master the strategies needed to secure favorable outcomes in high-stakes negotiations.

Application rationalization is the systematic process of assessing, optimizing, and aligning the enterprise’s application landscape to business goals. It aims to reduce redundancy, lower technical debt, improve performance, and create a streamlined, secure, and future-ready technology landscape. This report outlines the end-to-end process for evaluating, prioritizing, and executing application rationalization to help tech leaders ensure strategic alignment, risk mitigation, and maximum return on technology investments.

In 2026, enterprise applications will move beyond the traditional role of enabling employees with digital tools to accommodating a digital workforce of AI agents. Tech leaders will be forced to decide how far to go in digitizing business processes and orchestrating workflows independent of human workers.

The enterprise software landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift, moving from a user-centric design philosophy to a worker- and process-centric one. Until now, generations of software focused on creating intuitive interfaces and experiences for end users, enabling them with functional capabilities to accelerate work. The new paradigm centers on digitizing entire business processes and reimagining entire workflows, not just optimizing individual tasks. This report outlines Forrester’s five most important enterprise software predictions for technology leaders in 2026.

The HIRE Act has dramatic implications on outsourcing strategies and vendor agreements. Understand what you can do now to prepare.