Top 10 Tech Trends You Need to Know for 2026!

The technology space is changing exponentially as we enter 2026. There's

a lot of trends and chaos and things changing in the market that you need to be aware of. Well, what are those top 10 trends that you should know for 2026?

That's what we'll talk about here today.

My name is Eric Kimberling. I'm the CEO of Third Stage Consulting and we're an independent tech agnostic consulting firm that helps clients throughout the world with their digital transformation journeys. And the enterprise technology

journeys. And the enterprise technology space is changing dramatically. It's

changing exponentially. In fact, this is the most tumultuous time that I've ever seen in my 25 years of being a tech consultant. So, what I want to do today

consultant. So, what I want to do today is talk about what are some of those big trends? what are those big predictions

trends? what are those big predictions that I expect in 2026? And that's what we'll dive into here today. If you'd

like to learn more about some of the trends and predictions we have for the market, be sure to check out our digital transformation report. You can find that

transformation report. You can find that by scanning the QR code or go to the links below. You probably know by now

links below. You probably know by now that I love sharing with our audience different options in the ERP software space. And today, I want to talk to you

space. And today, I want to talk to you about one of the best kept secrets in the ERP space, and that is priority software. And actually, they're not so

software. And actually, they're not so much of a secret anymore. If you've

watched this podcast for any period of time, you've probably seen them on this podcast. You've probably seen me talk

podcast. You've probably seen me talk about them as a vendor you should keep your eyes on. And we've also featured them as one of our top 10 upand cominging ERP solution providers. So

definitely a system we've talked about, but you still may not have heard a lot about them. And they've been noted by

about them. And they've been noted by other leading analyst firms outside of Third Stage Consulting as well. Um,

Gartner ranked priority as one of the magic quadrant leaders in cloud ERP for the last 5 years. IDC's Marketcape has featured them in last year. They were

ranked at the top of technology evaluation cent's SMB ERP report. So

Priority has been around for a long time. They've been the leading ERP

time. They've been the leading ERP vendor in high-tech savvy Israel companies for many years and now they're expanding their footprint here in North America with built-in AI and turning more and more heads because of that. So

like I said, these are guys you need to keep an eye on. Be sure to check them out. If you go to prioritiesoftware.com,

out. If you go to prioritiesoftware.com, you can learn a lot more about them. So

I hope this helps and hope you have a great day.

One of the big changes we see happening right before our eyes in 2026 is that ERP software in general is losing its monopoly on the enterprise tech space. I

think there'll always be a place for ERP, but I think ERP as we knew it in the past is dead. ERP is no longer that big monolithic inflexible model that worked for so long. Now it's becoming

more composable, more flexible, more innovative, and just being able to change quickly. And that's not what old

change quickly. And that's not what old school ERP systems have historically been good at. You add to the fact that there's been so many upstart competitors, upstart platforms and different applications and different

types of technologies that are disrupting the traditional ERP software space. And you can see how that perfect

space. And you can see how that perfect storm is culminating in the erosion of market share amongst the major incumbent ERP vendors. And this is actually a

ERP vendors. And this is actually a trend that started years ago. I would

say it started when Salesforce and Workday entered the marketplace and really disrupted the traditional ERP space by providing a more functionally focused solution that's more flexible and more open. And I think that trend

has just continued and has been exasperated and fueled by AI and other types of technologies. So for that reason, I think the strangle hold that ERP software has had on the enterprise

tech space is becoming less and less relevant here in the late 2020s.

The second trend we see for 2026 is that AI is replacing ERP as the core system in many cases. For a long time, ERP systems were that center of gravity,

that focal point for the entire enterprise systems landscape. But what's

happening now is a lot of organizations have these older ERP technologies and other types of applications. And rather

than replacing them all with new technology, organizations are looking to ways to use AI with what they've got.

And so now AI is providing that integration and that data visibility, that data governance that was once missing in their legacy environments. In

addition, AI is becoming more of the user interface. It's becoming more

user interface. It's becoming more userfriendly than any ERP system can possibly be. If you think about it,

possibly be. If you think about it, conversational AI makes it really easy just to ask a question rather than having to dig out a report or go create a custom report to get the information you need. Now, all you have to do is ask

you need. Now, all you have to do is ask a front-end AI agent to go find the information for you. And it can look through your legacy systems or your more modern systems or wherever that data may reside. And it really doesn't matter

reside. And it really doesn't matter where the data resides. End users just care about how to get that information.

And I think over time AI will replace ERP as that core focal point of what end users see and touch throughout an organization.

I mentioned a moment ago that AI is eroding ERP's market share. But in

addition to AI taking chunks of market share from the ERP software space, we also see the composable ERP is becoming more common within that ERP space. So,

in other words, the old monolithic one-sizefits-all model is slowly dying, and you're seeing a lot of resistance and blowback and backlash from that model because it's relatively rigid, relatively inflexible, difficult to

change, the switching costs are super high. And in order to stay nimble and

high. And in order to stay nimble and stay innovative and stay flexible, organizations are finding that composable ERP options are more suitable in some cases. And by composable ERP, we

mean not one single ERP system where you're locked in, but instead you have different technologies that address different needs and use cases and you tie together that system landscape

across the enterprise. So expect

composable ERP to become the new norm to replace monolithic old school ERP software.

In the past, ERP systems were the core single source of truth. all your data would reside there. All your workflows would be maintained in that ARP system.

And it really was the one-sizefits-all model. But what we're seeing now is that

model. But what we're seeing now is that with the emergence of AI tools, ERP isn't as much of a lock as it was in the past. And what I mean by that is now you

past. And what I mean by that is now you can independent of your ERP system, go find thirdparty AI tools. you can find data governance tools, business analytics or business intelligence tools

and different workflow engines that sit on top of your old legacy systems. And you don't necessarily need to replace your ERP back office to get those capabilities. So viewing it from a

capabilities. So viewing it from a vendor agnostic perspective of how you're going to manage AI, how you're going to manage data is becoming increasingly important, especially when we combine it with some of the other

trends we're seeing in the market such as composable ERP for example. So that

independent view of data in AI is something that we're going to see continue into the late 2020s.

Another trend we're seeing as we enter 2026 is the vendor lockin backlash. For

years and decades now, big ERP vendors have tried so hard and been successful in getting their customers to deploy one single ERP system that's very difficult to replace. And with high switching

to replace. And with high switching costs comes steady, predictable recurring revenue and it comes a lack of customer turn. And it's what every

customer turn. And it's what every software vendor investor wants to see.

However, customers are starting to push back on this model. I think we're seeing it most prominently in the SAP space right now with ECC customers that are simply resisting or rejecting the idea

of moving to S4 HANA. And the reason for that is because they don't want to move from one vendor lock situation to a new vendor lock situation after they've just spent millions of dollars and a ton of

risk and time to get there. So with more options in the marketplace around composable ERP, more modular interoperable types of systems, it doesn't necessarily make sense in all

cases to go allin on one ERP system and be locked in and at the whim of that one software vendor. You have more options

software vendor. You have more options now and you can hedge your bets and find the best solution that fits you by going a different route.

In the years leading up to the 2020s, there was a huge push to the cloud and there still is. A lot of organizations and especially software vendors are pushing hard on the cloud model. And for

a lot of organizations that are deploying technology, it makes sense.

But it really makes the most sense for software vendors and the investors of those vendors. Software vendors love the

those vendors. Software vendors love the cloud model because it's predictable, high margin, sustainable revenue that never goes away. The subscription model is a dream for software vendors. So,

they are going to push the cloud no matter what in most cases. However, for

a lot of organizations, it doesn't make sense to have your entire enterprise landscape in the cloud. There's a

certain amount of flexibility you lose by being in the cloud. There's a certain amount of control you lose. In some

cases, there's regulatory issues or concerns with where the data is housed.

So there's a reason why the cloud first or the cloud only model doesn't make sense for a lot of organizations. And

what we see happening now is more organizations being a bit more measured in how they deploy cloud technologies.

For some of your commodity processes and your commodity applications where you don't need or necessarily want a lot of differentiation, then yes, moving to a cloud application strategy might make sense. But for some of your more

sense. But for some of your more sensitive data, your sensitive workflows or your competitive advantage areas of your business, it may make more sense to be on prim and combine those two

environments into one. Now, cloud

vendors will tell you that's a terrible idea. Everything should be in the cloud

idea. Everything should be in the cloud because again, there's an economic incentive for them to convince you of that. But in reality, if you look at it

that. But in reality, if you look at it objectively and if you look at what a lot of our clients are doing, more of them are moving to a hybrid solution to engage both cloud and on-remise

solutions.

>> [music] >> If you've watched many of my videos, you probably know that I think very highly of change management. And if you look at the data in the marketplace, you probably know that change management is

one of the leading causes, if not the leading cause, for technology failure. A

lack of user adoption, a lack of engagement, buyin, those are all reasons why these projects typically fail. That

chaos and confusion isn't just about people, it's also about your operations.

It can disrupt your operations. It can

disrupt your customers and it can lead to significant financial results that are not positive. And so for that reason, more and more boardrooms and executives are starting to recognize that change management isn't just a nice

to have. It's not just a let's feel good

to have. It's not just a let's feel good about this sort of story. It's a

business necessity. It's a business value proposition. And without change

value proposition. And without change management, you have to ask yourself, why are we deploying technology? Why are

we wasting our money on a technology deployment if we're not going to invest heavily in change management? In fact,

what I think is going to happen here in the late 2020s is that more organizations are going to start to recognize that they should be investing more money in change management, more time in change management than they do in technology. And if you had to think

in technology. And if you had to think of it as a sort of a scale of investing in technology and people, I would move a lot more of the nuggets from technology over the people side knowing that you

may have less of a technical footprint, but you're going to get a lot more business value out of it because you have invested in people to get it right.

So watch for change management to become more of an executive level boardroom driven priority going forward.

Legal and regulatory issues are likely to become a bigger issue in 2026 and beyond for a number of reasons. First of

all, there's cyber security issues and concerns that organizations are having.

More organizations are concerned with the data privacy of their customer data, their sensitive company information. And

in addition to that, software vendors are becoming increasingly concerned with the legal risk of failed implementations. We're seeing a massive

implementations. We're seeing a massive amount of failures now, more than we've ever seen in the past. And I think all of these legal risks, all these legal issues are becoming increasing concerns

both for software vendors and for their customers. In addition, now with AI, I

customers. In addition, now with AI, I think that's one of the big unanswered questions in the legal world is how is AI going to settle in the court system

as far as intellectual property, data, privacy, confidentiality, etc. With these big open AI models and generative AI models, it's unclear who owns intellectual property. It's unclear

intellectual property. It's unclear where the line should be drawn with data privacy and intellectual property. So

there's a lot of concerns, a lot of legal risk, and a lot of things that have yet to be solved or resolved in the legal and regulatory space. So watch for

this area to be a big trend going into 2026 and beyond.

Another prediction I have for 2026 and beyond is that industry specific AI solutions are going to surpass industry specific ERP solutions. Reason for that is I think that AI is more flexible.

It's lower cost. It's something you can deploy with lower risk and in many cases it's going to deliver a lot more value than simply replacing a back office system. Especially if you already have a

system. Especially if you already have a back office ERP system or a customer relationship management or HR system and if it works pretty well, why would you invest a ton of time and money and risk

just to maybe make incremental upgrades if you're lucky? Instead, some of the forward thinking organizations are starting to say, why not invest in AI tools, standalone thirdparty tools that

are independent of the technology that we do or don't already have. So, watch

for these AI solutions to overtake ERP software as the vendors with the leading market share in the enterprise tech space in the late 2020s.

>> [music] >> Another trend that we see happening here in the 2020s is the rise of the independent consulting and talent

market. In other words, consultants and

market. In other words, consultants and contractors and practitioners that are not affiliated with just one software vendor. A lot of this is because of all

vendor. A lot of this is because of all the technological changes that are happening where it's just becoming less feasible to focus only on one technology. And a lot of it is

technology. And a lot of it is customer-driven where customers are getting tired of these myopic technologydriven initiatives and they're looking for consultants and talent partners that can provide a broader view

to include not just one type of technology but multiple technologies and not just technology. It's also looking at business processes, organizational change, data management, AI, integration amongst systems. There's a lot of

different things that go into making these projects successful. and having a myopically focused talent pool that focuses just on one technology is obsolete or becoming obsolete. It's just

not fit for the future. So, watch for independent consulting firms like Third Stage Consulting, talent firms like Lander Talent, which is a firm I started with Jonathan Whipple. It's an

independent staffing arm that provides IT resources that are tech agnostic.

Look for those two types of models to continue into the late 2020s and beyond.

So, this is what I think the top 10 predictions are for 2026 and beyond. But

I'd love to hear from you. What do you think is going to happen? Are there

certain trends here you agree with? Do

you disagree with any? Would you add any to the list? Let me know what you think in the comments below. And again, if you'd like to learn more about trends in the marketplace, be sure to check out our annual digital transformation report. You can find that for free on

report. You can find that for free on our website by scanning the QR code right here or go to the links below. So,

I hope you found this information useful and hope you have a great day.