Enterprise GenAI Focus Shifts to Economics, Operations: ISG Studies
Information Services Group (Nasdaq: III) published two global research reports examining enterprise adoption of generative AI and the providers supporting deployment.
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Companies prioritize business outcomes over the most advanced technology, ISG Provider Lens® reports say
The 2026 ISG Provider Lens® Generative AI Services report finds that as enterprises deploy GenAI in more use cases, they seek providers to help address increasing complexity, economic pressures and work transformation. The Generative AI Services ― Specialists report reveals that service providers with deep industry expertise are developing tailored GenAI architectures to solve the problems of specific businesses at production scale.
“Most companies have already carried out GenAI pilots and are building out deployments at scale,” said Steve Hall, chief AI officer, ISG. “They need providers to convert that abundant machine cognition into meaningful enterprise change.”
Increasing use of GenAI is shifting enterprise focus from architectural sophistication to the economics of the technology, which changes their expectations of large and midsize service providers. Often, large-scale conventional implementations of GenAI are creating more business impact than smaller-scale advanced applications. ISG research shows organizations want AI to deliver benefits including lower costs and higher agility, staff productivity, revenue and profit. By using AI for task automation, process optimization and data analysis, many are creating tangible value.
Advancing GenAI from experimentation to production scale reveals new requirements that companies need to understand and meet. For example, to consistently generate accurate and traceable outputs, a model needs to correctly interpret enterprise context as it evolves. This makes data and knowledge preparation essential. Getting functions such as security and observability right takes ongoing work rather than one-time implementation. Companies also need to determine where probabilistic outputs are adequate and where business processes require deterministic controls or human judgment.
Production-scale GenAI is also beginning to reshape enterprise operations in ways that some organizations are not prepared for. Amid signs that it is significantly improving tasks such as software development, customer interactions and decision-making, there is less evidence that companies are adapting roles, handoffs and operating models accordingly. Enterprises will need to determine where the low cost of machine cognition justifies a fresh look at how it fits in with human labor.
Specialist providers of GenAI services are moving from tightly coupled, single-stack implementations to modular architectures to increase flexibility. These allow enterprises to combine data, applications, AI models and deployment environments in different ways, so individual components can evolve without the whole environment being redesigned, ISG says. To build depth around specific models, specialist providers are collaborating closely with partners for early access to emerging models and platforms.
“Partnerships are becoming an essential part of successful specialization in industries and technologies,” said Gowtham Kumar Sampath, ISG principal analyst and lead author of the report. “Joint development and co-innovation can strengthen engineering expertise and accelerate solution development.”
The reports also explore other trends in GenAI services, including the growing importance of AI systems participating directly in workflows and rising investment in ontologies to create structured representations of enterprise knowledge.
For more insights into the GenAI-related challenges faced by enterprises, along with ISG’s advice for addressing them, see the ISG Provider Lens Focal Points briefing here.
The Generative AI Services report evaluates 60 large and midsize providers across four quadrants: Strategy and Consulting Services ― Large, Strategy and Consulting Services ― Midsize, Development and Deployment Services ― Large, and Development and Deployment Services ― Midsize.
The report names Accenture, Accion Labs, Apexon, Ascendion, Birlasoft, Brillio, Capgemini, Cognizant, Cybage, EXL, Firstsource, HCLTech, Hexaware, IBM, Infosys, Konecta, NTT DATA, Persistent Systems, Softtek, TCS, Trigent, Unisys, Virtusa and Wipro as Leaders in two quadrants each. It names Atos and Deloitte as Leaders in one quadrant each.
In addition, HTC Global Services is recognized as a Rising Star — a company with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition — in two quadrants. Atos and Tech Mahindra are recognized as Rising Stars in one quadrant each.
The Generative AI Services ― Specialists report evaluates 22 providers across two quadrants: Strategy and Consulting Services — Specialists and Development and Deployment Services — Specialists.
The report names Fractal Analytics, Lingaro, Network Science, Quantiphi, Sigmoid, Straive, Tiger Analytics, Tredence and Version 1 as Leaders in two quadrants each.
In the area of customer experience, HCLTech (large), Persistent Systems (midsize), and 66Degrees (specialist) is named the global ISG CX Star Performer for 2026 among Generative AI Services (Large & Midsize) & (Specialists) providers. HCLTech (large), Persistent Systems (midsize) and 66Degrees (specialist) earned the highest customer satisfaction scores in ISG's Voice of the Customer survey, part of the ISG Star of Excellence™ program, the premier quality recognition for the technology and business services industry.
Customized versions of the reports are available from Accion Labs, Ascendion, Cybage, EXL, Firstsource, Hexaware, UAI Labs, Unisys and Version 1.
The 2026 ISG Provider Lens Generative AI Services report is available to subscribers or for one-time purchase on this webpage. The Generative AI Services — Specialists report is available here.
About ISG
ISG (Nasdaq: III) is a global AI-centered technology research and advisory firm. A trusted partner to more than 900 clients, including 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is a long-time leader in technology and business services that is now at the forefront of leveraging AI to help organizations achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm, founded in 2006, is known for its proprietary market data and research, in-depth knowledge and governance of provider ecosystems, and the expertise of its 1,500 professionals worldwide working together to help clients maximize the value of their technology investments.
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Press Contacts:
Laura Hupprich, ISG
+1 203-517-3132
laura.hupprich@isg-one.com
Erik Arvidson, Matter Communications for ISG
+1 978-518-4542
isg@matternow.com
Source: Information Services Group, Inc.