Gartner published its top predictions for data and analytics on 11 March 2026 and its top trends on 16 June.12 Between them they contain fourteen items, and by the time they reach a leadership slide most have lost their date and their conditions. I have put them back in order of target year, because a forecast for 2027 and one for 2030 ask for different decisions.
Eight predictions (March 2026) and six trends (June 2026)
- By 202775% of hiring processes include certification or testing for workplace AI proficiency. A $58 billion shake-up of the productivity-tool market driven by generative AI and agents.1
- By 2028Data streaming for agentic AI above 60% adoption, from under 15% in 2025.2 Half of content-risk roles move from legal and cybersecurity teams to AI engineering.1
- By 2029Explicitly modelled decisions five times more trusted and 80% faster than ungoverned ones. 40% of enterprises have used GraphRAG.2 Agents generate ten times more data from physical environments than all digital AI applications combined.1
- By 2030Half of organisations use agents to turn governance policy into machine-verifiable data contracts. Universal semantic layers treated as critical infrastructure. 60% of AI-differentiated organisations led by executives who prioritise human relational skills. Unicorns with $2 million of revenue per employee.1 More than one in ten enterprises AI-first.2
Sources: Gartner, 11 March 2026 and 16 June 2026. Three of the June trends carry no figure and are discussed below.
Two clusters, two kinds of decision
The 2027 and 2028 items land inside the next budget cycle. The hiring forecast means a data team will soon be judging AI credentials from candidates, and its own staff will face the same tests for internal moves. The productivity-tool forecast, which Rita Sallam called "the first true challenge to mainstream productivity tools in 30 years", argues for shorter terms on suite licences signed now.1
The 2029 and 2030 items describe where the market might be when those programs finish. They belong in a board conversation about competitors more than in a project plan. A start-up earning $2 million per employee changes what a lean cost base looks like. Ten times more data from physical environments is a reason for manufacturers and logistics operators to look hard at sensor and edge data.1
Where practitioners disagree
BARC’s Trend Monitor 2026 asked 1,579 people, 78% of them in Europe, to rate twenty topics on a ten-point scale. The results sit awkwardly next to the forecasts above.3
BARC Trend Monitor 2026, importance out of 10, with rank out of 20
Source: BARC, Data, BI and Analytics Trend Monitor 2026, November 2025. Online survey, summer 2025.3
Real-time analytics and streaming came last, while Gartner expects streaming for agentic AI to pass 60% adoption within two years. Agentic AI came 19th. The two views can both be right. Gartner’s streaming forecast is tied specifically to agents that act on live data, while BARC asked about real-time analytics in general. The gap still says something about timing: the people maintaining today’s estates are spending their attention on quality, culture and self-service.
The governance forecasts point one way
Three items describe governance that runs inside systems. Modelled decisions are forecast to be faster and more trusted by 2029.2 Half of content-risk roles are expected to move into AI engineering by 2028, to close gaps between separate assurance processes.1 By 2030, agents are expected to write governance policy into machine-verifiable data contracts.1
Three trends in the June release carry no figure: sovereign AI, AI governance platforms and agentic data management. Carlie Idoine said sovereign AI "is fundamentally changing how organizations think about control, innovation and resilience".2 Read together with the numbered forecasts, the direction is policy that a machine can check, owned closer to the engineers who build the systems.
A planning grid
| Horizon | What Gartner forecasts | Suggested posture |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | AI proficiency tested in hiring; productivity-tool shake-up | Act in this budget cycle |
| 2028 | Streaming for agentic AI above 60%; risk roles move to AI engineering | Fund only where agents already act on live data |
| 2029 | Modelled decisions, GraphRAG, physical-world data | Pilot where a decision or data source already exists |
| 2030 | Semantic layers as infrastructure, machine-checked data contracts, AI-first firms | Track and benchmark |
The postures are my suggestions. An organisation with a different regulatory position or competitive pressure will move rows around.
Sources
Figures link to their original publications. All sources were published in 2025 or 2026.
- Gartner Announces Top Predictions for Data and Analytics in 2026Gartner, 11 March 2026
- Gartner Identifies the Top Trends for Data and AnalyticsGartner, 16 June 2026
- BARC Data, BI and Analytics Trend Monitor 2026BARC, November 2025
Forecasts are Gartner’s own, taken from its press releases, and may change. BARC ratings come from an online survey with its own sample.