Asia Pacific Enterprises Planned AI Investment Boosts
A survey of IT decision-makers indicates a shift toward localized data strategies as companies prepare for 2026 AI deployments.
Updated on Sept. 22, 2026 in Data Centers
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Digital Realty has released the 2026 Global Data Insights Survey, revealing that 59% of surveyed Asia Pacific enterprises plan to increase AI investment by more than 25% in 2026. The findings underscore a growing reliance on distributed data architectures as firms navigate the complexities of moving AI from research to production.
Why it matters
As AI moves into production, enterprises are forced to reconcile data-location requirements with the demand for specialized infrastructure. The survey highlights how current infrastructure limitations and regulatory landscapes are shaping where companies host their AI workloads.
Digital Realty surveyed 2,131 IT decision-makers across 19 countries, including 707 respondents from seven Asia Pacific markets. While 88% of these regional respondents report following a distributed data approach, only 22% describe their hybrid infrastructure as fully integrated.
The players
Digital Realty
A global provider of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions that supports distributed data architectures for enterprise AI.
The details
The survey data suggests that regional infrastructure maturity is a significant barrier, with 50% of Singaporean respondents explicitly citing a lack of specialized AI infrastructure as a primary challenge. Companies are increasingly linking their data-location strategy to their AI plans, with 92% of respondents confirming this connection as foundational. Organizations are now attempting to bridge the gap between legacy hybrid systems and the high-performance demands of production-grade artificial intelligence.
Timeline
September 22, 2026: Digital Realty released the findings of the 2026 Global Data Insights Survey.
2025: This year served as the baseline for the survey's AI investment comparisons.
2026: This year represents the period during which respondents plan to scale their AI investments.
The Tech Race
This data extends the trend established by the 2026 Global Data Insights Survey, which maps how enterprises are balancing the push for AI performance against data residency requirements. It highlights a critical competitive divide between markets like Australia, where ROI is beginning to emerge, and others still struggling with infrastructure prerequisites.
IT leaders should expect the shift toward distributed data approaches to intensify as more organizations struggle to integrate legacy hybrid infrastructure with new AI requirements. Regional compliance and interconnection needs, as noted by 30% of Japanese and 24% of South Korean respondents, will likely dictate future vendor selection and infrastructure spend.
The takeaway
The data confirms that the current barrier to AI production is less about model availability and more about the physical and regulatory integration of distributed data. Future updates to the Digital Realty survey will clarify whether infrastructure investment is keeping pace with stated AI deployment timelines.
Further reading
For broader trends on the physical infrastructure enabling enterprise intelligence, read our latest analysis in Data Centers.
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Do you believe artificial intelligence is currently providing genuine benefits to your workplace?
