Technology - Software & Services: 2Q26 CIO Survey - An Improved Revision Risk Picture for 2026 IT Budgets

Research evidence excerpt

Technology - Software & Services: 2Q26 CIO Survey - An Improved Revision Risk Picture for 2026 IT Budgets

Foundation

July 16, 2026 02:25 AM GMT

Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc+MTechnology - Software & Services | Europe George W Webb

Equity Analyst

2Q26 CIO Survey - An Improved George.Webb@morganstanley.comMark Hyatt +44 20 7425-2686

Mark.Hyatt@morganstanley.com +44 20 7677-3663

Revision Risk Picture for 2026 IT William Richards

Research Associate

William.Richards1@morganstanley.com +44 20 7425-0269

Budgets

Technology - Software & Services

Europe

Our latest proprietary survey shows an uptick in IT budget Industry View In-Line

expectations, while near-term revision risk inflected positively.

Software remains the fastest growth category and is

sequentially unchanged, but IT Services expectations edged

lower.M

Key Takeaways

2026 IT budget growth now expected to accelerate +10bps y/y to 3.8%, a

sequential growth expectations tick-up for our third survey in a row

Software is the fastest growth category at 4.1% y/y growth (+30bps y/y); Services

at 1.8% y/y growth (-30bps y/y)

For the first time since our 1Q24 survey, the near-term IT budget revision ratio

(a.k.a. up-to-down ratio) exceeds 1.0x implying upside risks

AI remains the top 2026 spending priority for CIOs, but macro-defensibility of

these projects has moderated

Slight acceleration in expected 2026 IT budget growth… 2026 y/y IT budget

growth is now expected to be 3.8% (+10bps y/y acceleration), versus of 3.7% (+c.

10bps y/y) in our prior survey. Software is the highest-growth category at 4.1% y/y

growth (+c. 30bps y/y), followed by Communications at 2.6% (-c. 10bps y/y),

Services at 1.8% (-c. 30bps y/y), and Hardware at 1.6% (flat y/y). EU CIOs expect