ISG Research Reveals New Trends in Human Capital Management
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Apr 10 2026
0mins
Should l Buy III?
Source: Newsfilter
- Evolution of HCM: ISG's research indicates that Human Capital Management (HCM) and workforce management suites are transitioning from mere consolidation tools to core infrastructures for enterprise efficiency and competitiveness, with an expectation that by 2028, two-thirds of enterprises will achieve near-real-time visibility in workforce management.
- AI-Driven Decision Support: The new systems integrate AI analytics and automation to better utilize data, reducing the time managers spend on system operations, thereby enhancing the timeliness and accuracy of decision-making, which boosts enterprise agility and employee engagement.
- Managing Complex Workforce Needs: Many organizations are grappling with the complexities of coordinating in-house staffing with gig marketplaces, and ISG emphasizes the need for enterprises to make flexible staffing decisions based on skills rather than job titles to meet employee expectations for consumer-grade HR tools.
- Software Provider Assessment: ISG evaluated 50 HCM software providers, with Oracle being named Overall Leader in multiple platform categories, while ADP and UKG also excelled in these categories, assisting enterprises in selecting the most suitable solutions for their needs.
Trade with 70% Backtested Accuracy
Stop guessing "Should I Buy III?" and start using high-conviction signals backed by rigorous historical data.
Sign up today to access powerful investing tools and make smarter, data-driven decisions.
Analyst Views on III
Wall Street analysts forecast III stock price to rise
1 Analyst Rating
1 Buy
0 Hold
0 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 4.330
Low
6.50
Averages
6.50
High
6.50
Current: 4.330
Low
6.50
Averages
6.50
High
6.50
About III
Information Services Group, Inc. is a global artificial intelligence (AI)-centered technology research and advisory firm. The Company specializes in digital transformation services, including sourcing advisory, cloud and data analytics; managed governance and risk services, network carrier services, technology strategy and operations design; change management, and market intelligence and technology research and analysis. The Company’s ISG Network and Software Advisory services and its software platforms, including ISG GovernX and ISG Tango. ISG GovernX includes real-time third-party risk management capabilities, including integrated data feeds and real-time alerts. ISG Tango sourcing platform is an AI-embedded, comprehensive solution that enables enterprises and public sector organizations to evaluate their business requirements and identify desired outcomes. Its AI Maturity Index, a data-driven assessment platform designed to benchmark workforce readiness for AI at scale.
About the author

Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
- Significant Market Growth: The Americas technology services spending reached a record $20.2 billion in Q1, marking a 35% year-over-year increase, the fastest growth since Q1 2022, driven by strong AI demand.
- Surge in IaaS Demand: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) annual contract value (ACV) soared 77% year-over-year to $11.5 billion, reflecting accelerated enterprise investments in cloud infrastructure to support AI strategies, further solidifying cloud providers' market positions.
- Sustained Strength in XaaS: The combined services (XaaS) ACV grew 55%, surpassing $14.5 billion for the first time, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, indicating the profound impact of AI-driven digital transformation on the market.
- New Index Launch: ISG launched the first ISG AI Index, revealing that IaaS experienced the greatest impact from AI with a 160% increase, while SaaS rose 53%, indicating that AI is reshaping the landscape of global technology and business services.
See More
- Industry Leadership: Kyndryl has been recognized as a leader in three categories in the 2026 ISG Provider Lens™ Mainframes — Services and Solutions Report, including Mainframe Technology Consulting, Mainframe as a Service (MFaaS), and Application Modernization Services, highlighting its expertise in mission-critical enterprise technology services.
- Enhanced Modernization Capabilities: By leveraging AI-driven discovery and automation technologies, Kyndryl supports enterprises in modernizing mainframe environments without compromising resilience, enabling clients to achieve predictable economics and operational agility, thus driving business transformation.
- Investment and Partnerships: The company continues to invest in workforce development and ecosystem partnerships, ensuring resilient modernization pathways for regulated industries, which further solidifies its competitive position in the market.
- Customer Demand Response: Kyndryl's comprehensive mainframe consulting services can support discrete projects and multi-year transformations, addressing clients' urgent needs for modernized mainframe environments while combining deep mainframe expertise with strong governance to enhance clients' modernization readiness.
See More
- Significant Market Growth: According to the Information Services Group (ISG) report, the European cloud infrastructure services market grew by 30% in Q1, reaching a record $12.2 billion, indicating strong AI-driven demand as businesses accelerate digital transformation to optimize costs and drive AI strategies.
- Robust Infrastructure Services: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) surged 72% in Q1 to $6.1 billion, marking the highest quarterly growth rate in over seven years, reflecting a surge in demand for cloud services and further solidifying ISG's leadership position in the market.
- Managed Services Performance: Managed services' annual contract value (ACV) rose nearly 6% in Q1 to $4.7 billion, marking the second consecutive quarter for EMEA to exceed $4 billion, demonstrating sustained demand for outsourcing services amid AI investment trends.
- Growing AI Impact: The newly launched ISG AI Index indicates that IaaS has seen the greatest impact from AI, with a 160% increase, while Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) rose by 53%, showcasing how AI technology is profoundly transforming the technology and business services landscape.
See More
- Unified Data Platform: An increasing number of enterprises are adopting the Databricks platform, leveraging the Lakehouse architecture to unify data environments, addressing fragmentation and rising AI adoption costs, thereby enhancing decision-making efficiency and business responsiveness.
- Accelerated AI Integration: Organizations are utilizing Databricks' capabilities such as MLflow and Mosaic AI to expand AI from pilot programs to enterprise-wide deployments, significantly improving workflow efficiency and the effectiveness of data analytics, helping businesses tackle macroeconomic challenges.
- Strengthened Governance and Compliance: In the face of growing regulatory pressures, enterprises are implementing fine-grained access controls and data lineage tracking through Databricks to ensure compliance and accountability, while optimizing cloud resource usage and enhancing cost visibility.
- Critical Role of Service Providers: The ISG report highlights the essential role of service providers in helping organizations optimize Databricks capabilities, driving strategic goals in the integration of data, AI, and governance.
See More
- Modernization Strategy Shift: According to ISG's report, U.S. enterprises are shifting their modernization strategies towards business-led transformation, leveraging AI to interpret legacy systems, thereby maintaining operational continuity and enhancing agility in complex environments.
- AI-Driven Operations: Many companies are embedding AI-driven operations and automation into mainframe environments, utilizing enhanced AIOps for predictive monitoring and self-healing capabilities, significantly reducing downtime and manual intervention, thus improving system reliability.
- DevOps Standardization: U.S. enterprises are standardizing DevOps pipelines and API-enabled architectures to integrate mainframes with distributed systems, accelerating code release speed and improving consistency, which supports incremental modernization without disrupting critical workloads.
- Role of Service Providers: The ISG report highlights the crucial role of service providers in enabling secure, phased transformation, combining AI with structured modernization practices to achieve faster business outcomes while maintaining control over operations.
See More
- AI-Driven Workflows: The ISG report indicates that European enterprises are increasingly integrating generative AI (GenAI) into standardized workflows during mainframe modernization, utilizing AI-driven workflows built on deterministic engines to coordinate analysis, rule explanation, and test creation, thereby enhancing efficiency and accuracy.
- Data Sovereignty and Compliance: Organizations are placing greater emphasis on data sovereignty and regulatory demands during modernization, expecting clear evidence-based assurances regarding data storage locations, workload operations, and encryption key access, which enhances trust in AI platforms.
- Incremental Modernization Strategy: European enterprises are shifting from large-scale, one-time mainframe replacements to gradual, carefully managed modernization programs to reduce risk and maintain compliance, allowing core systems to remain stable while avoiding disruptions caused by a shortage of specialized skills.
- Cautious Human-AI Collaboration: While increasingly utilizing GenAI in mainframe modernization, enterprises are adopting a cautious approach, especially in critical systems, emphasizing human review and decision documentation at key stages to mitigate risks and ensure accuracy.
See More







