Enterprise Network Teams Are Falling Behind as AI Raises the Stakes
Network World, Monday, June 8th, 2026
Network ops success is declining amid talent shortages, tool sprawl, and unpreparedness for AI workloads.
Per an Enterprise Management Associates study, only 31% of IT professionals call their network operations strategy completely successful, down from 42% two years earlier.
Teams face concurrent challenges: hiring qualified experts has grown harder, affecting 52% of organizations in 2026 versus 26% in 2022; sprawling tool ecosystems remain unconsolidated despite a decade of effort; and observability capabilities are not yet adapted to emerging AI training and inference workloads.
The research finds that successful organizations prioritize AI-driven automation for day-two operations, implement unified visibility across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, and adopt integration strategies rather than attempting tool consolidation.