The current geopolitical scenarios, the global economic challenges, the potential cyber vulnerabilities, and the importance of operational resilience will drive companies to strengthen their strategies around new technologies. In this regard, Deutsche Telekom Group’s digital division, T-Systems, has identified the 7 technological trends that will aim to improve competitiveness, efficiency, and economic development for businesses in the upcoming year 2026.
Digital Sovereignty
Global tensions, disruptions in supply chains, and increasing cyber threats have prompted the European Union to prioritize European digital sovereignty as a strategic goal. Companies are working to develop technology and create robust digital environments that enable Europe to have its own ecosystem and architecture, compliant with regulatory, cybersecurity, and data protection requirements set by community regulations like GDPR, the Data Act, or the AI Act.
Sovereign Cloud
The ongoing migration to the cloud will remain a key focus to ensure greater flexibility and operational efficiency for organizations. However, in light of new geopolitical, economic, and legal factors, companies will seek to provide highly secure environments with a sovereign cloud infrastructure that complies with legal, operational, and security requirements of both European and individual member state jurisdictions. This will ensure that data, workloads, and infrastructure are controlled and managed by trusted providers within specific countries or economic areas.
Sovereign AI
The potential of AI and the efficiency of Generative AI are undeniable. Today, they support increasingly complex use cases across all industries: from automating industrial processes, predictive maintenance of machinery, and quality control; to predictive analytics in smart cities; as well as improving administrative processes, developing personalized services, and enhancing medical diagnoses and treatments. The advent of large language models, data analysis capabilities, and chatbots will demand significant capacity and performance without compromising data protection laws. In this context, combining AI and the cloud will be essential. We are already seeing key developments, such as the creation of the first European Industrial AI Cloud, developed by Deutsche Telekom in collaboration with NVIDIA, featuring 10,000 cutting-edge GPUs to accelerate the development of a sovereign, high-performance AI cloud.
Cybersecurity
Anticipating virtual threats and potential data hijacking will be crucial to strengthening operational resilience across industries and ensuring data protection and confidentiality. Companies will need to adopt a comprehensive approach to address the convergence of Information Technologies (IT) and Operational Technologies (OT). The use of AI, automation, machine learning, and techniques like XDR (Extended Detection & Response) will be instrumental in detecting threat patterns in real time. Additionally, securing AI systems will help prevent data manipulation, mitigate biases, and defend against advanced cyberattacks. To meet these challenges, it will be vital to implement security by design, conduct regular audits, and develop adaptive defense frameworks aligned with AI’s evolution. Proactive measures such as Threat Hunting, external encryption key management, and Threat Intelligence will also be essential to tackle challenges posed by quantum computing.
Data Spaces
Data will continue to be a valuable asset for companies and citizens alike. Data ecosystems or spaces will play a key role in facilitating data sharing and federated management in a reliable and secure manner among providers and consumers. This will promote the deployment of cross-cutting services, advance the data economy, improve planning and decision-making, and foster public-private collaboration across different sectors.
European Alliances and Strategic Partners
The technological progress toward European sovereignty requires alliances between organizations and agreements with strategic partners to enhance the competitiveness that the European Union needs. The first associations, such as ESTIA — the European Alliance for Sovereign Technology Industry — are emerging, along with initiatives like GAIA-X and the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) to promote an open, federated, and interoperable data infrastructure that ensures digital sovereignty. Forming alliances with technology providers will help align with European strategic priorities and enable the development of consortiums and projects financed through EU funds.
Technology for Sustainability and ESG Measures
Sustainability is not a passing trend but a business imperative to accelerate decarbonization, combat climate change, and improve the planet. The European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) underscores this pursuit by requiring organizations to report how they integrate sustainability into their corporate strategy with measurable data. Technology platforms tailored to each company’s needs will be vital—they will help define, visualize, measure, and control sustainability indicators and craft an optimal ESG strategy.