New Ensono research finds 78% of IT decision-makers believe legacy systems have become more important over the past two years, although skills shortages and rising costs continue to hamper modernisation programmes.
More than three-quarters of IT decision-makers believe legacy systems are more important to their organisations than two years ago as Artificial Intelligence changes approaches to IT modernisation, according to Ensono research.
The company’s second annual State of IT Modernization Report surveyed IT leaders in the UK and US, with 78% saying the importance of legacy environments has increased.
Rather than replacing older technology outright, 52% are optimising existing systems and modernising applications in place. The approach is more common among UK organisations, at 57%, compared with 48% in the US.
AI is also accelerating modernisation, according to 54% of respondents, up from 39% in 2025.
However, cost and skills remain significant obstacles. Some 97% said talent shortages had increased modernisation costs to some degree, while 71% of initiatives had exceeded their planned budgets.
The figure was higher in the UK, where 77% of organisations reported exceeding budgets compared with 66% in the US.
Overall, 61% of organisations had paused, delayed, scaled back or abandoned IT modernisation initiatives during the previous 24 months.
Organisations also continue to encounter difficulties generating returns from AI, with workflow integration cited by 33%, infrastructure limitations by 28% and governance concerns by 25%.
