Preparing for 2026: What can partners and customers get more from vendors?
Tech leaders from the region share what partners and customers can expect from them in 2026.
Tech innovation is not slowing down and 2026 is expected to see vendors unveil more efficient solutions to help organizations enhance their productivity and efficiency. With AI expected to dominate investments and conversations in 2026, the opportunities for the channel ecosystem are also immense.
According to Gartner, worldwide IT spending is expected to total US$6.08 trillion in 2026, an increase of 9.8% from 2025. Software and IT services are expected to see the highest spending in 2026 as well.
IDC forecasts that by 2030, 50% of new economic value generated by digital businesses in Asia Pacific will come from organizations investing in and scaling their AI capabilities today, as enterprises embed autonomy, data intelligence, and responsible governance into strategy to deliver measurable business impact.
Be it cybersecurity, data management or cloud services, for organizations, the goal in 2026 will be to make the most of existing technology and investing carefully in expansion as well as closing down to skills gap.
Ensuring this will be the partner ecosystem. Vendors will want to ensure their partners are well prepared and be able to be solve customer pain points the best way possible. In 2026, tech partners can look forward to more opportunities to improve their offerings to customers as well as enhance their capabilities as well as vendors to enhance their partner programs.
CRN Asia reached out to several vendors in the region to understand more about their plans for 2026 as well as what partners and customers in the region can get from them.
Sumir Bhatia, President, Asia Pacific, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Lenovo
In 2025, many enterprises proved that AI can work; 2026 is about proving that it can be trusted. At Lenovo ISG, the question we seek to answer is how to scale AI responsibly, efficiently, and with clear business outcomes.
Organizations that lead will be those that treat AI not as a single project or model, but as a trusted, human‑centric system embedded into their operations. What this means is hybrid architectures that balance cloud, edge, and on‑premises, sustainable design that addresses power constraints, and governance frameworks that ensure AI is fair, secure, and explainable – and that is a key focus for us moving into 2026.
Customers and partners can expect Lenovo to help them move beyond pilots into a trusted, human‑centric AI system embedded across their operations.
Beni Sia, General Manager & Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan
Today companies are faced with an AI conundrum: move fast and increase organizational risk, or play it stay safe and fall behind. Most AI projects fail not because of the technology itself, but because they can’t trust the data feeding those models. In 2026, Veeam will build on our trusted data resilience capabilities to help customers gain a comprehensive understanding of their full data estate, while delivering security, recovery, and rollback solutions to unlock the value of their data for AI initiatives.
In 2026, Veeam customers and partners can expect Veeam to maintain our position as the #1 market leader in data resilience. We will remain focused on cloud-native, AI-driven, and automated recovery solutions, with Securiti AI becoming an even more integral part of our strategy.
We’ve already built strong collaboration with our channel partners, alliance partners and the hyperscalers, and that will extend to more regional providers as well. What this means for customers is a more simplified and even more automated recovery experience, along with more proactive threat detection while we open the value of all their data, both structured and unstructured, with the right privacy and governance controls.
Remus Lim, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan, Cloudera
In 2026, we are focused on helping our customers build the data foundations necessary to scale AI safely and effectively. As enterprises confront the reality that early AI excitement fades in production, we will remain focused on enabling unified, governed, and secure data strategies.
Customers can also expect support in operationalizing AI agents at scale. With more enterprises transitioning from experimentation to full-scale adoption, we will help them connect AI agents to real-time, governed data, integrate them into business workflows, and ensure that automation remains context-aware, traceable, and secure.
Additionally, as Private AI becomes a top enterprise priority, especially in regulated sectors, partners and customers can anticipate guidance in deploying AI within controlled environments that uphold data sovereignty, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance. We will also continue to support organizations in upskilling talent and embedding responsible AI governance so teams can innovate confidently and sustainably.
Erich Kron, CISO Advisor at KnowBe4
AI agents will reduce mean time to respond (MTTR) by at least 30%. While attackers weaponize AI, defenders are positioned to gain a decisive advantage as agentic AI systems mature. Most popular software and services will not only be rebuilt as agentic AI but will also show positive returns on reducing cybersecurity risk compared to their pre-agentic AI counterparts.
For SOC teams, tier-one triage, enrichment and containment actions will be policy-guardrailed and executed by agentic systems, cutting MTTR by 30 to 50 percent in mature teams. These AI security agents will also be able to maintain immutable audit trails of every action and generate regulator‑ready incident summaries, reducing the compliance burden and speeding post‑incident reviews.
However, cyber attackers will also use AI-enabled tools to deliver more pervasive and successful hacking as compared to traditional attack tools. Attacks will continue to be targeted and focused more on quality versus quantity as AI, automation and generative AI features become commonly used, making attacks more realistic and harder to spot.
Nathan Cheng, Southeast Asia, Data & AI Lead, Rackspace
Customers and partners should expect Rackspace to double down on operationalizing AI within hybrid and multi-cloud environments, moving decisively from experimentation to enterprise-grade deployment. With IDC forecasting APJ IT spending to grow by 7% to reach $1.123 trillion in 2026 and declaring "2026 marks the dawn of the Agentic Era", Rackspace's AI-enabled Cloud Management Platform and FAIR initiative position the company to help organizations embed AI into core operations with proper governance, security, and measurable ROI.
The focus will be on bridging the gap that IDC predicts will cause 45% of AI-fueled digital use cases in APJ to fail ROI targets due to unclear gains and poor data foundations—meaning Rackspace will lean heavily into data modernization, application optimization, and infrastructure readiness as preconditions for AI success.
Critically, as our CEO outlined, the real differentiator in 2026 won't be access to AI models—it will be which organizations can redesign their operating models so humans and agents work together effectively. Rackspace is positioning to guide customers through that operating model transformation: helping them treat coding agents as teammates, stand up agent-first squads, and benchmark AI against their own repositories rather than public charts. For partners, this means co-developing solutions around agentic automation, hybrid cloud orchestration, and managed services that fill the talent gap—since over 54% of APJ enterprises consider talent shortage the top hindrance to AI adoption.
Ananth Nag, Vice President, APAC, Rubrik
In 2026, Rubrik will sharpen its focus on securing identity as the foundation of cyber resilience. As AI accelerates attack speed and expands attack surfaces, the proliferation of agentic AI and non-human credentials has created unprecedented risk. Credentials are fast becoming the new perimeter and protecting them will define who thrives in the next era of cybersecurity.
From there, recovery and resilience remain essential. Our latest Zero Labs report reveals that 91% of organizations in Asia-Pacific (APAC) experienced at least one cyberattack in the past year – a figure I do not anticipate dipping as threats become increasingly sophisticated, and AI introduces new layers of risk.
As such, organizations must prioritize enhancing visibility, governance, and recovery capabilities across all critical fronts – whether for sensitive data, backups, or AI agents – to orchestrate workflows securely. Organizations must move beyond basic recovery by focusing on data integrity and enabling rapid restoration to a verified, clean slate after a compromise, especially as threat actors can leverage AI to generate sophisticated malware and exploit known vulnerabilities.
To help organizations, Rubrik will continue reinforcing capabilities that strengthen cyber, identity, and AI resilience, including proactive threat monitoring and data remediation. Organizations will then be able to efficiently manage and monitor data no matter where it resides. We will also deepen our partnership network with leading software and cloud providers to improve interoperability and ensure Rubrik’s features integrate smoothly with our customers’ existing business stacks.
Andrew Amos, Vice President of APAC, Diligent
In 2026, Diligent is transforming AI ambition into a securely governed, decision-ready practice for our customers and partners. Our research shows that boards in Asia are prioritising digital transformation in 2026, but many still face gaps in the essential training, processes and visibility needed to oversee AI with confidence. Helping close this governance gap is one of our key areas of focus.
We continue to deliver seamlessly integrated insights across risk, audit, compliance, and AI governance, enabling leaders to see how issues link together and move beyond reactive, siloed responses. Simultaneously, we are supporting boards and executives with the skills and structures needed to drive more informed oversight of their data, systems, and teams. In my conversations with regional leaders – from listed companies in Singapore to conglomerates in Malaysia and the Philippines – the priority has been consistent.
Organizations want to innovate with AI but there’s apprehension to trust the process. Diligent is enabling companies to turn ambition into operational clarity and real-time accountability.
Tatsuya Suzuki, Regional VP APJ Channel Sales, Akamai
In 2026, customers and partners can expect continued transformation in how AI operates and impacts businesses. Organizations will increasingly shift their AI workloads closer to users and operational systems, away from the purely centralized cloud models. Sovereignty requirements across APAC will push multi-cloud and portability from a ‘nice-to-have' to strategic imperatives, ensuring workloads can shift seamlessly across providers and markets.
Secondly, security expectations will transform dramatically following the recent fully AI-orchestrated cyber incident. Organizations will need to recognize that in 2026, real-time detection, API governance, and automated containment will become baseline requirements.
When it comes to partners, we continue to build on the momentum of our recently revamped Akamai Partner Connect programme. In 2026, partners can expect clearer pathways to grow with us, with support to strengthen their expertise around Akamai’s cloud, security, and edge capabilities.
Mark Weaser, Vice President, APAC at OutSystems
The primarily bullish and speculative approach to AI up until now will shift in 2026, as organizations move from chasing the hype to generating real, tangible business gains. While 73% of Asia-Pacific (APAC) organizations plan to increase their AI investments by 11% or more in the coming year, we will see the conversation shifting to customised AI deployments that enhance productivity for specific business functions, spanning customer support and operations to supply chain management. Orchestration will be critical, especially in enabling complex, multi-agent workflows to operate seamlessly across databases as enterprises work towards an agentic future.
Consequently, AI-powered low-code will remain instrumental in powering business transformation across APAC by simplifying the creation and management of AI-driven workloads and agents, especially as organisations increasingly capitalise on AI for competitive advantage. This is where OutSystems will double down on in 2026, following the recent general availability launch of Agent Workbench, which enables organisations to build and orchestrate intelligent AI agents across datasets and systems. Our goal is to empower customers in any industry to move past experimentation and securely deploy AI at scale to unlock unprecedented business value.
To further extend OutSystems’ reach across the region, one essential ingredient is a robust partner ecosystem. We will continue to deepen investments in our partner network to scale AI-powered low-code adoption, propelling organizations to deliver rapid innovation with enterprise-grade control that will future-proof their businesses amid today’s fast-evolving digital landscape.
Yuval Fernbach, VP & CTO of MLOPs, JFrog
In 2026, customers and partners can expect JFrog to double down on helping organizations operationalize AI safely, securely, and at scale. As enterprises realise AI adoption is less a modeling challenge than an operational one, JFrog will expand AI governance as the new “DevOps” for the enterprise – providing the guardrails, lifecycle controls, and system-of-record capabilities needed to standardize how AI is discovered, approved, secured, and monitored. AI governance will mature into a core enterprise discipline, enabling companies that treat AI as a governed supply chain to scale faster and avoid compliance and security pitfalls, much like DevOps did a decade ago.
The shift from standalone, generic LLM pilots toward integrated, context-enriched systems will accelerate. Real value will come from how tightly AI connects to internal assets — data sources, business workflows, APIs, and governance layers. Models and agents will increasingly use MCP-like connectors to enrich prompts with internal context, retrieve real-time data, and perform actions across enterprise systems, turning AI from a static generator into an operational participant that queries, validates, updates, and orchestrates tasks.
This will reduce drift, improve reliability, and unlock faster time-to-value. Instead of isolated experiments, enterprises will deploy integrated, governed, production-ready AI systems that understand their business, operate within their environment, and stay aligned with internal truth. Together, these shifts make governed, secure, deeply integrated AI the enterprise default – and a major growth catalyst for customers and partners across the region.
Zoe Nicholson, VP partner sales APAC at Qualtrics
2025 was a milestone year for Qualtrics and our partners - and next year we’ll continue to build on that. We’re planning to expand beyond consulting services in the new Qualtrics Partner Network to extend the support we offer partners and enable them to deliver greater value to customers; accelerate local investments to help partners go to market, and launch new product capabilities spanning AI and synthetic data to help companies drive greater value with Qualtrics.
By 2026, we'll see a clear divide, not between companies that use AI and those that don't, but between those treating AI as a cost-cutting exercise and those strategically redesigning their customer experience around AI. The best organizations will not use AI to cut costs - they’ll use it to deliver greater value to customers by better understanding their needs at every single moment and touchpoint.
By late 2026, I hope we'll see the emergence of a new customer experience operating model, one where AI will allow organizations to better serve customers by handling transactional tasks so that teams can focus on more complex interactions. These organizations will be able to scale premium service experiences, without scaling costs. But this won’t happen overnight, and it won’t happen without trust. Organizations that empower and trust their employees to use AI ethically will get the best results. They will have a workforce that is confident and ready to tackle high-stake interactions.
Chris Kelly, President, Delinea
In 2026, customers and partners can expect Delinea to keep its focus on simplifying identity security as organizations accelerate cloud-first strategies, hybrid work, SaaS growth, and rapidly increasing machine and AI identities. The priority is helping teams maintain clear visibility and least-privilege controls across all identities, especially in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, without adding extra layers of work.
A consistent message we’re hearing across the region is that organizations don’t want solutions that require large teams of specialists to operate. They want technology that’s turnkey, reliable, and more automated day-to-day, so security teams can stay ahead of identity sprawl and AI-enabled threats. Asia remains a key focus for Delinea, with continued investment and sales driven 100% through the channel.
Troy Nyi Nyi, SVP & GM, APAC, SEON
Continuous innovation, not “set and forget.” Fraud is a moving target, and so are we. The moment you think a product is “done,” it starts becoming legacy. SEON deliberately designs for adaptability: modular, API-first components that fit into existing stacks; explainable AI that learns from fresh identity, device, network, and behavioral signals; and rapid iteration guided by real-world feedback – so decisions stay fast, fair and defensible with clear approve/step-up/hold outcomes.
More collaboration and shared signal, done responsibly. We’re prioritizing deeper work with FIs , payment providers and cloud platforms, while building deeper integrations with processors and orchestration/case-management providers so risk controls act like foundational architecture rather than bolt-ons – cutting time-to-value and delivering standardized, explainable outcomes across screening, monitoring, investigations and casework in a single operational path.
Coordinated investigations without unnecessary data exposure. Network Graph and Movement of Funds reveal relationships, layering and structuring across accounts so teams can act together in real time, while a human in the loop approach keeps automation at scale and analysts on judgement – maintaining protection that adapts yet remains explainable and audit-ready.
Mark Micallef, Managing Director, Southeast Asia, Google Cloud
The shift from experimentation to execution. 2026 will be defined by Agentic AI — systems that don’t just chat, but reason, plan, and act. We will see customers move to AI-native operating models where autonomous agents handle end-to-end workflows, from clinical documentation to supply chain optimization. With the evolution of Gemini 3 and Vertex AI, we are giving enterprises the tools to build agents that are production-grade, verifiable, and secure. For our partners, this unlocks massive opportunities to build differentiated solutions that solve complex business problems, rather than just implementing tools.
Prabhuraj Patil, Senior Director, Physical Access Control Solutions, Asean & India Subcontinent, HID
As organizations look toward 2026, physical access is rapidly evolving with the growing adoption of biometrics, mobile credentials and hybrid authentication models. Across the region, we are seeing demand shift toward solutions that are secure, seamless and easy to integrate within existing infrastructures.
HID Amico exemplifies this shift. Designed for speed, accuracy and simplicity, it combines biometric facial recognition with support for multiple credential types, offering a contactless and efficient access experience suited for both mid-sized organisations and high-traffic environments. The 3.5-inch model is already available in ASEAN countries and India, while the 7-inch version is expected in early 2026.
The future of physical access lies in achieving a balance between security, convenience, and operational intelligence. Across our portfolio, we remain focused on strengthening trusted identity through advanced biometric technologies and interoperability across devices and platforms, helping organisations operate smarter, scale faster and meet rising security expectations with confidence.
Johan Fantenberg, Director at Ping Identity
In 2026, identity becomes the defining control plane for the digital world as organizations confront a hybrid workforce of humans and intelligent agents, rising quantum-era threats, and a surge in AI-driven fraud. Verification shifts from a perimeter activity to a continuous discipline, proving not just who is acting but why, as enterprises adopt reverification programs, runtime identity assurance, and new governance models for non-human identities.
AI agents will transform commerce, customer journeys, and workplace operations, while simultaneously creating new risks—deepfakes, agent-in-the-middle attacks, and sophisticated social engineering—that demand transparent, adaptive, and zero-trust-based defences. Trust becomes a measurable market asset: the organizations that can verify identity, intent, and accountability across humans, agents, and machines will earn consumer confidence, secure their ecosystems, and lead the next era of digital business.
Kenneth Lee Wee Ching, CEO, Global TechSolutions
As GTS has a wide market presence across Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the U.S., we will continue to strategically enable deeper, more resilient supply chains across these key markets as one of the few SMEs that provide a full suite of semiconductor equipment services and solutions.
For customers, that means a consistent focus on keeping critical 300 mm equipment running at, or above, OEM-equivalent performance – through structured, cleanroom-based refurbishment, modification and process changes, backed by transparent test data and familiar fab metrics such as MTBF, chamber uniformity and vacuum stability.
For partners, it means having a nimble, regionally present specialist who can plug into existing programs, respect IP and export-control requirements, and help turn capacity and cost-optimization plans into reliable outcomes on the fab floor.
Kunal Jha, Regional Director for Netskope Asia
Our focus for 2026 is squarely on being the security and networking leader that both enables and secures AI-driven, hybrid enterprises. This will translate in increased partner support, and the continued expansion of our Netskope One platform to deliver more value to our customers and help organizations drive AI adoption and innovation while keeping their systems, users, and data secure.
We have continued to add or enhance key capabilities within our platform this year, including Enterprise Browser, Data Security Posture Management, DLP On Demand, and Universal ZTNA, and continue to drive deep security and AI integrations with key technology players such as AWS and Microsoft. R&D has always been a major priority for us, and will remain so in 2026 and beyond.
From a channel perspective, we will be continuing to evolve our partner program, with new partner enablement and training content focused on developing cloud, data, and AI security expertise within our ecosystem. We will also expand specializations within our program, such as Service Delivery, to recognize and reward partners who are skilled at architecting, deploying, and optimizing the Netskope One platform for maximum customer success.
Increasing our collaboration with MSPs, especially those with the capabilities to deliver managed Security Access Service Edge (SASE) services, is also a priority, and our MSP programs will continue to grow. We regularly refresh all of our programs to reflect our partners’ expectations and priorities.
From a business perspective, we continue to expand our team in the region, creating even more support for local channel partners and growing our awareness in the market. Finally, we continue to expand our NewEdge network, the private infrastructure underlying our security and networking platform, with new data centers across the region. NewEdge is critical to ensuring the delivery of low-latency security services regardless of where organizations and their users are based or travelling, preserving user experience and helping meet data localization and sovereignty requirements.
Dominic Forrest, Chief Technology Officer at iProov
In 2026, we’re not just going to see identity management evolve but we’re going to see it transform its role entirely. It will shift from being a behind-the-scenes IT function to the frontline central driver of commercial innovation and national security. Navigating this new landscape will be essential for leaders across government, finance, borders, and those managing critical functions like enterprise security and HR.
Our focus will remain simple and unyielding: resilient biometric verification that can withstand a threat landscape now defined by AI, automation, and increasingly sophisticated synthetic identities. For our customers and partners, this means two key things: unrivalled compliance and future-proof security.
iProov is the first and only biometrics vendor to meet the updated NIST SP 800-63-4 guidelines, which now explicitly require controls against deepfakes and injection attacks. This successful conformance offers immediate enhanced compliance and enables high-assurance identity verification for critical sectors. Our status as an essential partner trusted by governments worldwide including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the UK Home Office, and the Governments of Singapore and Australia - validates our promise and commitment to be the proven, resilient partner against the next generation of fraud.
In 2026, proving someone is the right person, a real person, and is present at the time of authentication, will become essential in building trust across sectors.
Lawrence Yeo, ASEAN Solutions Director, Hitachi Vantara
In 2026, customers and partners can expect a much more disciplined and architecture-driven approach to AI. Over the past year, it has become clear that the real bottleneck is no longer the model or the hardware, but the ability to move, govern and secure data at scale. Our focus will be on helping organizations build resilient, energy-aware data ecosystems that can support high-throughput training and low-latency inference while staying within the region’s physical and energy constraints.
Customers can expect continued emphasis on modernizing their storage and compute platforms so they can obtain more capability within the same footprint. At the same time, we will help them adopt hybrid and sovereign architectures that maintain local control without compromising secure data mobility; a significant need as governments tighten expectations around residency and assurance. More broadly, we will work closely with partners to strengthen the operational discipline and skills required to run these complex systems reliably. In short, organizations can expect us to enable AI that is sustainable, well-governed and operationally robust.