Six Key Words for Enterprise Digitalization in 2026
As 2025 is coming to an end, we have witnessed the surging wave of technology and experienced the hardships and transformations of enterprises' digital transformation. Looking back at this point in 2025, the once - blurred paths are gradually becoming clear. Digitalization is no longer an optional choice but a necessary answer for future survival. Where will enterprise digitalization head in 2026? For this reason, Lao Yang has summarized six key words for enterprise digitalization in 2026:
Key Word 1: The 15th Five - Year Plan
The launch of the 15th Five - Year Plan will inject strong impetus at the national strategic level into enterprise digitalization and serve as a guiding beacon for the future development of enterprises. How to build enterprise digitalization to reflect its value has always been a headache for CIOs. The implementation of the 15th Five - Year Plan will provide a top - level design direction for this difficult problem, promoting enterprises to shift from passive response to active layout.
The core role of the 15th Five - Year Plan in enterprise digital transformation is to provide a clear "battle map" and "resource supply". Therefore, CIOs must thoroughly study the policy orientation, closely follow the national strategic deployments in scientific and technological innovation, industrial integration, and green development, and align enterprise digitalization goals with the key tasks of the 15th Five - Year Plan. Only in this way can they win the support of senior management and policy dividends in resource allocation, project establishment, and cross - departmental collaboration, elevating digitalization from a technical proposition to a strategic engine and truly entering the fast lane of high - quality development.
Key Word 2: AI
2025 can be said to be a crucial year for AI technology to move from concept verification to large - scale application. The breakthrough progress of large models in fields such as natural language processing, image recognition, and intelligent decision - making. Although there are still practical challenges in the process of enterprise application implementation, such as scenario adaptation, data islands, high computing power costs, and insufficient AI capabilities of leaders and employees, AI technology has become an irreversible trend. In 2026, Lao Yang believes that enterprises will no longer be satisfied with the shallow integration of "+AI" but will comprehensively move towards deep - level reconstruction. For example, in terms of cost, AI boxes can significantly reduce computing power costs and promote the popularization of AI in edge - computing scenarios. That is to say, at the enterprise's production terminals, AI boxes can achieve real - time data processing and intelligent decision - making, reducing the dependence on centralized computing power. Various AI box products will also be popular in the market in 2026.
In 2026, AI technology will pay more attention to implementation issues, focusing on solving actual business pain points and improving the efficiency of scenario - based applications. If 2025 was a period of confusion for enterprise AI applications, then 2026 will be a year to break the deadlock in realizing AI value. Various AI tools and platforms that meet enterprise scenarios will mature at an accelerated pace, helping enterprises achieve the leap from "usable" to "easy to use". However, it should be noted that AI is not a panacea. Enterprises need to avoid blindly following the technology while ignoring the essence of the business. They need to improve the AI literacy of the team, especially abandon the "AI omnipotence theory" and cultivate a rational understanding of human - machine collaboration to make the technology more valuable.
Key Word 3: Emotional Value
What is emotional value?
Emotional value is the positive emotional experience that enterprises create for users or employees in their products and services. Its role is to enhance user stickiness and employee sense of belonging. It is a new dimension of brand differentiation competition. In today's increasingly homogeneous user experience, those who can accurately convey warmth, resonance, and trust will win people's hearts. Emotional value is changing from a hidden bonus item to an explicit competitiveness. Then, does the information department of an enterprise need to have the ability to create emotional value?
The answer is yes!
When enterprises carry out digital transformation construction, value is the core. However, the realization of value has always been the most headache for CIOs. Lao Yang believes that the realization of value is not only the matching of technology and business but also the need to pay attention to people's experiences and feelings in the process of change. The emotional value conveyed by the information department during the digital construction process is becoming a key hidden variable that determines the success or failure of the transformation. You should know that when new technologies encounter resistance and are questioned, it is often the "soft" forces such as trust, empathy, and a sense of achievement that truly drive the change. Therefore, in 2026, the information department should learn to win recognition with warmth, build trust with professionalism, use empathetic communication to resolve resistance, and let the business department see results and gain a sense of achievement through iterative methods of small - step and rapid progress. This is the manifestation of emotional value. And the ability to create emotional value has always been the shortcoming of the information department and is also the ability that needs to be improved in 2026.
Key Word 4: Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement
Cost reduction and efficiency improvement are still the core propositions for enterprise survival in 2026. Lao Yang once conducted a special survey in the group, and more than 70% of enterprises' digital budgets were cut, with only a small number of enterprises maintaining or increasing their investment. Against the background of tightened budgets, the work of the information department will surely face more rigorous scrutiny. According to the survey, some enterprise information department personnel have been optimized or recruitment has been frozen, further increasing the resource pressure. In this context, the information department must re - examine the input - output ratio, focus on high - value scenarios, and maximize benefits with minimum costs to reflect the value of digitalization.
For software companies, 2026 will be a watershed. The market will accelerate the elimination of those flashy and scenario - detached solutions. At the same time, software companies that truly understand industry pain points and provide lightweight and efficient tools will win market opportunities. Those who can help customers achieve key business breakthroughs at a lower cost will stand out in the competition. The traditional market model is no longer suitable for the current environment. If they don't change, even large companies will be at risk of collapse. Then, which large software company do you think will collapse in 2026?
Key Word 5: Data
In 2024, the inclusion of data assets in the balance sheet was fully implemented, and enterprises' exploration of data rights confirmation, pricing, and circulation has begun and entered the practical stage. However, after 2025, with the popularity of AI concepts and technologies, the value of data has been further magnified. More and more enterprises have realized that data is not only an asset but also the core fuel for driving intelligent decision - making. For this reason, Lao Yang believes that in 2026, the data strategy will shift from "inclusion in the balance sheet for compliance" to "intelligent - driven". Enterprises will no longer be satisfied with the book value of data but will pursue its in - depth application in AI model training, real - time decision - making, and personalized services. This poses higher requirements for the data governance ability of the information department, which needs to build a full - link collaborative mechanism covering data collection, cleaning, modeling, and application scenario implementation. 2026 will be a year when data truly releases productivity and the first year for enterprises to compete around high - quality data sets. Those who master high - quality, iterable data closed - loops will have the right to speak in the intelligent era.
Key Word 6: Mid - career Crisis
In 2025, the mid - career crisis has quietly spread to the information department. Technical backbones are facing the double pressure of skill iteration and age anxiety. On the one hand, the popularization of new technologies such as AI has accelerated the replacement of basic development positions. On the other hand, enterprises' demand for
composite talents is becoming more and more urgent. Technology is no longer a single barrier, and business understanding, systematic thinking, and rapid learning ability have become the keys. In 2026, Lao Yang believes that for middle - aged technical personnel, the transformation window is narrowing. On the one hand, the market still requires experience, but it values more the ability to transform experience into the ability to solve complex problems rather than just the accumulation of past technology stacks. On the other hand, age discrimination still exists, and some enterprises tend to replace senior technical personnel with young and low - cost employees. Middle - aged technical personnel must actively break out of their comfort zones and plan their transformation paths in advance. Don't wait until they are eliminated to realize the crisis has arrived. It is recommended that middle - aged practitioners in the information department make a five - year career plan and layout for their future. Making plans for tomorrow will prevent them from being caught off guard by unexpected events.
The above are the six key words for enterprise digitalization in 2026 summarized by Lao Yang. It is hoped that every enterprise digitalization practitioner can see trends, identify risks, and seize opportunities from them. If you think there are other key words that need to be added, welcome to share your views in the comment section.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Xiangjiang Digital Review" (ID: benpaoshuzi). The author is Lao Yang, and it is published by 36Kr with authorization.