STAMFORD, Conn., October 26, 2026 – Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company, has identified the top AI trends in infrastructure and IT operations (I&O) for 2027.
Heads of I&O are increasingly being tasked with improving IT operations while enabling AI initiatives across the business. A Gartner survey of 272 heads of I&O conducted between April and May 2026 found that 58% believe scaling proof of AI concepts to I&O adoption will be an important priority in the next 12 months.
“AI is creating one of the most significant shifts the I&O function has ever faced,” said Jonathan Forest, VP Analyst at Gartner. “Rather than trying to address every aspect of AI simultaneously, heads of I&O should focus on a small number of strategic investments that deliver meaningful impact.”
Gartner identified five AI trends that heads of I&O should focus now to improve operational efficiency with AI, optimize costs, build the hybrid infrastructure needed to support AI inference, address converging operational and cybersecurity risks, and strengthen I&O’s role as the enterprise AI platform orchestrator.
AI Agents Accelerate Autonomous IT Operations
Agentic AI in I&O marks a shift to goal-driven software agents that can execute complex IT workflows with minimal human intervention. As operational complexity, scale and velocity increase, organizations are deploying AI agents to automate tasks such as incident triage, change validation and remediation.
By 2030, Gartner predicts that 50% of organizations will use AI agents with minimal human involvement in IT operations, up from nearly 0% in 2026.
“AI agents are driving a shift from reactive, human-in-the-loop operations to proactive, human-on-the-loop operations,” said Forest. “Heads of I&O who fail to restructure their organization around agentic AI risk higher costs, poor operational agility and performance, and ultimately, irrelevance.”
Agentic AI Creates a Token Economics Challenge
The transition from conversational AI to autonomous agentic AI workflows is driving a significant increase in token consumption. Unlike traditional AI interactions, agentic systems perform complex multistep tasks that require substantially more tokens, creating new cost management challenges for I&O teams.
Through 2027, Gartner predicts that enterprises implementing AI agents in IT operations using uncapped variable pricing models tied to token usage will exceed initial cost expectations by more than 50%, compared with organizations using predictable subscription and bundled pricing models.
Gartner recommends a strict “no telemetry, no deployment” policy to eliminate blind spots in AI spending and token usage.
AI Inference Drives the Rise of Hybrid AI Infrastructure
Most enterprises are consuming existing foundation models through inference rather than training models from scratch. Because enterprise data resides across a mix of public clouds, private data centers and edge environments, AI infrastructure is becoming increasingly hybrid, a shift that is being accelerated by privacy, cost, performance and data sovereignty requirements.
By 2029, Gartner predicts that 80% of large enterprises will operate production AI workloads across at least three infrastructure environments, including public cloud, neoclouds, on-premises data centers and edge locations.
AI Converges IT Operational Risk and Cybersecurity Risk
As AI becomes increasingly embedded in enterprise infrastructure, operational and cybersecurity risks are becoming more interconnected. Shared AI tooling, telemetry and the growing use of AI agents are driving closer collaboration between I&O and security teams to improve resilience, risk management and operational efficiency.
By 2030, Gartner predicts that 25% of enterprises will merge their network operations center (NOC) and security operations center (SOC), up from 5% in 2026, realizing an over 25% reduction in total spend on tooling and staff resources.
I&O Emerges as the Enterprise AI Platform Orchestrator
AI deployments across cloud, data center and edge environments are increasing the need for a coordinated approach to managing AI infrastructure, governance, security and operations. Consequently, I&O is evolving from a traditional gatekeeper role to the orchestrator of the enterprise AI platform, enabling the business to deploy and scale AI in a reliable, secure and cost-effective manner.
Through 2030, Gartner predicts that organizations without a strong I&O function driving AI infrastructure design, architecture and support will be over twice as likely to fail in their AI initiatives.
“The high cost of AI infrastructure leaves little room for error, placing I&O at the center of enterprise AI success,” said Forest. “Heads of I&O must elevate their teams’ capabilities, reduce technical debt and shift from reactive operations to proactively enabling enterprise AI.”
Additional Insights Available
Gartner clients can read more in Top AI Trends in Infrastructure and IT Operations for 2027.
Gartner is the World Authority on AI
Gartner is the indispensable partner to C-Level executives and technology providers as they implement AI strategies to achieve their mission-critical priorities. The independence and objectivity of Gartner insights provide clients with the confidence to make informed decisions and unlock the full potential of AI. Clients across the C-Level are using Gartner’s proprietary AskGartner AI tool to determine how to leverage AI in their business. With more than 2,500 business and technology experts, 6,000 written insights, as well as more than 4,000 AI use cases and case studies, Gartner is the world authority on AI. More information can be found here.
About Gartner for Infrastructure & IT Operations Leaders
Gartner for Infrastructure & IT Operations Leaders helps heads of I&O reinvent how they deliver value for the business. Additional information is available at https://www.gartner.com/en/infrastructure-and-it-operations-leaders.
Follow news and updates from Gartner for Infrastructure & IT Operations Leaders on X and LinkedIn. Visit the Gartner Newsroom for more information and insights.
About Gartner
Gartner (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective business and technology insights that drive smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organization’s mission-critical priorities. To learn more visit gartner.com.
