When updating the tools of a marketing team or preparing an IT budget for the second half of the year, the challenge is not finding information. It’s sorting out what truly changes the game from what is just noise.
This year’s digital trends focus on a few concrete axes: generative AI in professional uses, European regulatory constraints that modify information systems, and a cloud bill that continues to rise globally.
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Generative AI at work: France among the countries where adoption is growing the fastest
There has been a lot of talk about generative artificial intelligence for the past two years, but the actual adoption figures vary greatly from country to country. According to data shared by Microsoft, nearly 48% of French workers now use generative AI, with a 3.8-point increase in just one quarter. This pace places France in fifth position globally, behind the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Norway, and Ireland.
The point that deserves attention: the United States is stagnating at a lower level. One might expect the country of origin for most models to dominate adoption, but the reality on the ground shows the opposite. French companies, particularly in the banking and industrial sectors, are deploying conversational agents and writing assistants at a steady pace.
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To keep up with the latest news on Avenue du Net, it’s a good reflex when you want to keep an eye on these developments without multiplying sources.
What is changing concretely on a daily basis for teams: generative models are no longer just used to produce text. They are being used to analyze data sets, generate automated reports, or even feed agents capable of triggering actions in a CRM. AI is moving from a gadget to an operational tool integrated into workflows.
CSRD Directive and ERP: when European regulation forces system updates
The European CSRD directive imposes increased transparency on companies regarding their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. In practice, this means that ERP solutions must integrate dedicated modules for sustainable tracking. Vendors like SAP or Oracle are adapting their cloud offerings to meet this requirement.
On the ground, many SMEs are discovering this constraint when renewing their ERP contracts. ESG tracking is no longer a bonus but a regulatory prerequisite for annual reports. Companies that have not yet migrated to an ERP capable of collecting and structuring this data will need to accelerate.
Concrete case: Bayern Munich and SAP cloud migration
A telling example comes from professional sports. Bayern Munich migrated its resource management system to a private SAP cloud to optimize its operations in real-time. This is not trivial: when a club of this size switches to a private cloud to manage ticketing, merchandising, and logistics, it illustrates the maturity of these solutions beyond the tech sector.
Feedback varies on this point depending on the size of the organization, but the underlying trend remains the same: the cloud is no longer an option; it is the default infrastructure.
Global IT spending and cloud: where the money is going in 2026
The share of cloud and AI-related services is growing faster than other IT spending categories. For a team managing a digital budget, here are the areas that weigh the most this year:
- Licenses and subscriptions for cloud platforms (Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Azure) remain the largest expense for medium-sized companies.
- Generative AI tools, billed by usage or per seat, are added to existing software budgets without always replacing them.
- Cybersecurity is absorbing an increasing share of investments, driven by the rise in attacks on industrial environments and educational platforms.
- Regulatory compliance projects (CSRD, enhanced GDPR) generate costs for upgrading information systems.
The direct consequence: financial departments are demanding faster proof of return on investment. Each new tool must justify its place in the technology stack in less than two quarters.
Cybersecurity in industrial environments: a persistent blind spot
Cyberattacks are no longer only targeting office systems. Industrial environments (factories, energy networks, supply chains) constitute a gray area where protections remain insufficient. The communication protocols used in the industry were not designed to withstand current threats.
Shared digital infrastructures are also prime targets. Personal data of users is traded on black markets, which reinforces the urgency to secure every link in the chain.
Three operational reflexes for SMEs
- Segment networks: isolating production systems from office networks significantly reduces the attack surface.
- Audit third-party access: each vendor connected to your infrastructure represents a potential entry point. A quarterly inventory of API accesses is the minimum.
- Train field teams, not just IT staff: an operator who plugs an unverified USB stick into an industrial machine opens a breach that the best firewall cannot catch.
Digital in 2026 is not just a race for new features. The important topics, large-scale adoption of generative AI, ESG compliance integrated into ERPs, and securing industrial environments, are foundational projects. They require more rigor in daily execution than enthusiasm for the latest announcement.