Information Services Group Launches AI-Driven ADM Services Research
Information Services Group has launched a research study examining providers that enable enterprises to adopt next-generation application development and maintenance capabilities based on advanced AI tools. The study results will be published in a series of comprehensive ISG Provider Lens reports, called AI-driven ADM Services, scheduled to be released in September 2026. The reports will cover companies offering services spanning AI enablement for application development outsourcing, project-based application development, managed services and quality assurance. Enterprise buyers will be able to use information from the reports to evaluate their current vendor relationships, potential new engagements and available offerings, while ISG advisors use the information to recommend providers to the firm's buy-side clients. Application development and maintenance services are entering a new phase as enterprises integrate AI and GenAI more deeply into software delivery. Organizations are seeking measurable improvements in efficiency, reliability and responsiveness and increasingly expect providers to embed AI into scalable delivery models for development, testing and application operations. At the same time, governance, security, traceability and quality assurance are becoming more important as enterprises recognize the importance of managing risk amid transformation. ISG has distributed surveys to nearly 200 providers of AI-driven ADM services. Working in collaboration with ISG's global advisors, the research team will produce six quadrants representing the AI-enabled ADM services that enterprises are buying, based on ISG's experience working with its clients. The six quadrants are: Application Development Outsourcing, evaluating providers delivering large-scale outsourced application development services that apply AI across the software development lifecycle through disciplined delivery models. Application Development Projects, assessing providers using AI to accelerate project-based application development and modernization with defined scope and timelines. Application Managed Services - GSIs, covering global systems integrators delivering AI-enabled managed services for large and complex application portfolios. Application Managed Services - SIs, evaluating specialist providers delivering application managed services with deep expertise in specific technologies, platforms, regions or industries. Application Quality Assurance, assessing providers delivering quality assurance and quality engineering services that use AI-driven testing, analytics and controls across the application lifecycle. Continuous Testing Specialists, covering providers that specialize in continuous testing and verification for modern continuous integration and continuous delivery environments, including validation of AI-assisted development outputs.
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- Recognition of Innovation: At ISG events in Boston and Dallas, Linc AI and ASPR AI won audience votes for their AI-powered solutions, showcasing their potential in process intelligence and sales enablement, indicating a strong market demand and recognition for AI technologies.
- Linc AI's Successful Demonstration: Linc AI's Chief Product Officer Shrey Sambhwani demonstrated how their interview tool transforms screen recordings, videos, and meeting transcripts into actionable documents, winning audience support at the Boston ISG AI Impact Summit, highlighting its application value in corporate recruitment processes.
- ASPR AI's Sales Assistant: At the ISG Xperience Summit in Dallas, ASPR AI's founder Ganesh Iyer won the best pitch for the unified agentic AI sales assistant, showcasing its potential to enhance sales efficiency and customer engagement, aligning with corporate needs for intelligent sales tools.
- Future Workplace Insights: The ISG Future Workplace Summit spotlighted innovative companies like 20xwork and PAIR, emphasizing the importance of AI in reshaping job roles and upskilling employees, reflecting the urgent demand for new technologies in corporate transformation.
- Growing Automation Demand: As enterprises increasingly rely on IT service management platforms, it is projected that by 2027, 50% of enterprises will adopt ITSM software with agentic AI for proactive issue detection and workflow automation, thereby enhancing operational efficiency and reducing labor costs.
- Platform Evolution Trend: IT management platforms are shifting from passive workflow management to active decision support, with the introduction of AI enabling these platforms to generate actions in real-time and adapt workflows, significantly improving enterprise responsiveness and decision-making efficiency in complex IT environments.
- Asset Management Complexity: The demand for software and hardware asset management capabilities is rising, with many organizations beginning to evaluate these capabilities separately to address the complexities of SaaS licensing, cloud subscriptions, and regulatory requirements, thus achieving better cost control and resource allocation.
- Governance and Transparency: Enterprises should prioritize strong workflow capabilities and high-quality operational data when evaluating IT management platforms, ensuring that the platforms can support enterprise service management, asset governance, and financial accountability to meet the increasingly complex IT landscape and business needs.
- NaaS Adoption Status: ISG's survey reveals that 60% of large enterprises have broadly or partially adopted Network as a Service (NaaS), with 31% conducting pilots or evaluations, indicating the growing significance of NaaS in enterprise IT modernization.
- Need for Integrated Approach: ISG emphasizes that companies should explore an integrated NaaS approach to avoid vendor lock-in and optimize network configurations, thereby enhancing flexibility and reducing risks, particularly in the context of cloud migration and digital transformation.
- Confidence and Challenges in Management: The survey shows that nearly 90% of respondents have moderate to high confidence in network operations automation, yet enterprises face challenges such as integration complexity, security, and cost uncertainty during the transition to NaaS.
- Divergent Executive Attitudes: While 18% of C-level executives are excited about NaaS opportunities, 42% express interest but remain unconvinced, reflecting a cautious attitude among enterprises regarding NaaS adoption, especially in highly regulated industries.
- Industry Leadership: Ascendion has been recognized as a Leader in the Integrated Platform and Application Services quadrant of the ISG Provider Lens® Digital Engineering Services 2026 report, reflecting its capability to unlock value from agentic AI in enterprise production, marking a significant position in the rapidly evolving digital transformation market.
- Significant Modernization Achievements: Utilizing its AAVA agentic AI platform, Ascendion reverse-engineered over 900,000 lines of 1980s code in just three weeks, halving the completion time and reducing costs by a third compared to traditional methods, showcasing its efficiency beyond conventional approaches.
- Enhanced Client Impact: For a 200-year-old UK bank, Ascendion mapped the architecture in weeks, protecting 5.2 million customers and achieving 50-75% velocity gains on the platform rebuild, significantly enhancing customer service capabilities.
- Large-Scale AI Deployment: In one of the largest enterprise agentic AI implementations for a Fortune 100 technology company, Ascendion deployed over 4,000 agents across 2,500 workflows, freeing thousands of engineers to focus on innovation, accelerating time-to-market by 40%, and unlocking over $500 million in projected savings.
- Research Background: Information Services Group (ISG) has launched a study to evaluate AWS ecosystem partners that assist enterprises in operationalizing AI-driven cloud transformation, with a series of reports set to be published in October 2026 covering consulting, migration, and AI business transformation services.
- Market Demand: As enterprises transition from foundational generative AI to governed, production-grade AI, AWS partners are facing new market demands, with companies seeking partners to build secure, compliant, and scalable AI platforms to meet increasingly stringent data sovereignty and compliance requirements.
- Evaluation Dimensions: The research will assess five key service areas through surveys of over 200 AWS ecosystem providers, including AWS Professional Services, Managed Services, Data Lifecycle Management, AI-powered Business Transformation, and Brazil Public Sector Technology Services, helping enterprises optimize cloud strategies and modernize applications.
- Customer Experience Data: All 2026 ISG Provider Lens evaluations will feature expanded customer experience data based on ISG's continuous client feedback research, ensuring enterprises receive authentic insights on services and solutions to make more informed vendor selections.
- Intelligent Enterprise Blueprint: ISG announced the inaugural NXT.ai event from August 9-12 in Nashville, Tennessee, aimed at bringing together enterprise leaders and technology innovators to collaboratively build the operating blueprint for intelligent enterprises, driving transformation and growth in the AI era.
- Executive Insights: The event will feature keynote speeches and strategic summits discussing AI's impact on enterprise decision-making, with cybersecurity expert Richard Aldrich delivering a talk on the 'New Digital Cold War,' emphasizing the importance of data sovereignty and cyber risk.
- Architecture and Governance: The second day will focus on next-generation enterprise architecture, with Jason Mars discussing how system designs can enhance performance and efficiency in ways traditional architectures cannot, helping enterprises stand out in competitive landscapes.
- Investment Return Challenges: ISG research indicates that AI investment has surged tenfold since 2023, yet workplace impact and ROI lag behind; NXT.ai will provide practical frameworks to help participants apply intelligent enterprise architecture and governance immediately.






