U.S. Software "Software Budget Trends – Latest Insights from Customer IT..."

Research evidence excerpt

U.S. Software "Software Budget Trends – Latest Insights from Customer IT..."

Global Research

18 May 2026ab

U.S. Software Equities

AmericasSoftware Budget Trends – Latest Insights from

Customer IT Execs and Procurement Officers Software

Karl Keirstead

Analyst

karl.keirstead@ubs.com

Summary +1-310-734 2455

Over the last month or so we’ve had ~25 conversations with enterprise IT execs and Taylor McGinnis

partners and in this report we focus narrowly on projected IT spending growth, what is Analyst

being prioritized and deprioritized, how buyers are changing contract terms and how IT taylor.mcginnis@ubs.com

execs and procurement officers are reacting to software pricing model changes. Amidst +1-212-713 1332

all the investor debate about medium-term AI disruption risk to the software sector, Roger Boyd

near-term budget trends have taken a back seat but in our view are having a much larger Analyst

impact on Mar/Apr quarter reported results. Bottom line, this is a challenging IT budget roger.boyd@ubs.com

environment overall as growth outlooks become increasingly muted, with pressures +1-212-713 1256

most pronounced for SaaS and application software vendors, while demand remains Radi Sultan, CFA

relatively healthier across AI, data, security, and cloud infrastructure providers. Analyst

radi.sultan@ubs.com

Notable Budget Trends +1-212-882 0094

We’d note: 1. This is a tough spending backdrop, as ~80% of our checks cited stable or Madeline Tribendis

slowing IT spending growth in 2026 given a combo of a) the impact of AI, b) the Associate Analyst

geopolitical situation, especially for B2C firms with customers exposed to higher fuel madeline.tribendis@ubs.com

costs and inflation and c) slowing customer headcount growth. 2. There is a higher- +1-212-713 8151