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IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Virtual Events Applications 2026 Vendor Assessment

Wayne Kurtzman — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study highlights a rapidly evolving market, shaped by shifting buyer and attendee expectations, aggressive vendor road maps, and significant industry consolidation. Geopolitical pressures and economic uncertainty are driving a resurgence in virtual events, as is the need to maintain a fresh revenue pipeline. AI-related features, especially those focused on intent and content development, were prioritized over non-AI features, but that pendulum is swinging back toward the middle. Buyers now demand advanced AI capabilities, seamless CRM and application integrations, and, most critically, richer engagement formats with outcome-based metrics. As browser tracking cookies phase out, first-party data from virtual events and community platforms is gaining newfound importance. This study, based on interviews with vendors and customers, evaluates their products, strengths, and challenges, and when to consider them.

"People are not attending in-person events at the same rate as before, yet when virtual events provide ways to engage attendees and allow them to connect with the people they need to, they can energize a brand," according to Wayne Kurtzman, research vice president, Social, Communities and Collaboration, IDC. "People do not want a broadcast; they want a meaningful engagement experience. Many vendors are now providing products that enable client organizations to grow."

Agentic Commerce: B2C Buyer Life-Cycle Opportunity Analysis

Ananda Chakravarty, Heather Hershey — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation looks at agentic commerce. As AI agents move from novelty to infrastructure, they’re quietly rewriting the rules of consumer retail. In this presentation, IDC analysts deliver the first rigorous, end-to-end map of what happens when shoppers stop browsing and start delegating purchasing decisions and execution to agentic AI.

Drawing on an analysis of 343 distinct factors across 5 journey stages and 4 stakeholder groups, the research cuts through the hype with a clear-eyed verdict: barriers currently outnumber opportunities, and the biggest disruption isn’t where everyone is looking.

The findings challenge conventional wisdom at every turn. Agentic commerce doesn’t just create new opportunities; it reallocates control, shifting competitive advantage upstream from brand influence to algorithmic selection. Merchants and brands emerge as the most exposed stakeholders, at risk of becoming metadata in an algorithmic race to the bottom of pricing. Perhaps most surprising is that the greatest value of agentic commerce isn’t in the dazzling front-end experience at all, but in the unglamorous back-end orchestration of fulfillment, inventory, and service.

For any leader trying to separate signal from noise in the agentic era, this research is essential strategic reading. It moves beyond “what AI can do” to the questions that will actually determine winners and losers of the agentic era of commerce:

What is agentic commerce?
Who absorbs the risk when an AI agent gets things wrong?
Who controls the interface of the experience?
Where does value ultimately consolidate?

The companies that internalize these lessons now will be the ones still visible if and when agents become the default front door to commerce.

Enterprise Procurement and Partnership in the Age of AI and Outcome-Based Connectivity — Analysis by Vertical Market

Paul Hughes — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective is the second in a series of three documents that examine how businesses expect to procure connectivity services and related transformation projects in the era of AI and outcome-based connectivity. Drawing on IDC's 2025 Future Enterprise Connectivity Infrastructure and Services Survey and other related IDC data sources, this IDC Perspective identifies vertical market differences for connectivity provider preferences and procurement methods across financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, retail, and education/government.

"Vertical market procurement patterns reveal that industry sector shapes connectivity provider selection more sharply than geography does," commented Paul Hughes, research director, Future Enterprise Connectivity Strategies at IDC. "The same provider can be the dominant trusted partner in one vertical and essentially absent in another — and the criteria for earning this position differ by sector in ways that generic market strategies cannot address."

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide AI-Enabled Spend Orchestration 2026 Vendor Assessment

Patrick Reymann — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study assesses the rapidly maturing worldwide AI-enabled spend orchestration market, highlighting its evolution from early-stage education to mainstream enterprise adoption. The segment is now defined by agentic AI capabilities, robust workflow integration, and expanding platform breadth, with leading providers competing on full life-cycle coverage, embedded intelligence, and differentiated architecture. Venture investment, market convergence, and segmentation are intensifying competition, while buyers are shifting focus from viability to selecting the right platform for their organizational context. The study profiles key vendors, emphasizing strengths, challenges, and unique differentiators, and provides actionable guidance for procurement and finance leaders to evaluate platform depth, AI maturity, and vendor viability in a crowded, innovation-driven landscape.

"The spend orchestration space has proven itself. Now we are transitioning to differentiated offerings and market segmentation. The S2P space is responding, and the convergence of spend orchestration and S2P is inevitable," said Patrick Reymann, research director, Procurement and Enterprise Apps.

Scaling Agentic AI Across the Enterprise: Lessons from McKinsey Clients

Douglas Hayward — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective discusses the analyst summit hosted by McKinsey that featured a selection of its clients, bringing to light a series of valuable lessons for enterprises considering or already implementing transformation projects enabled by agentic AI and GenAI.

"Agentic AI and GenAI offer great opportunities to enterprises — but they come with great risks too. CEOs, COOs, CMOs, and CIOs must ensure that their AI strategies start with enterprisewide business objectives, are grounded in strong governance, and incorporate learnings from their peers and from consultancies such as McKinsey," said Douglas Hayward, senior research director, Worldwide Customer Experience Strategies and Services at IDC.

Supply Chain Execution Challenges and Remediation in 2026

Simon Ellis — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective examines the current state of supply chain execution and fulfillment through the lens of persistent challenges and opportunities for remediation.

"As agentic AI is poised to change everything, supply chain execution is an area that should reap significant benefit," says Simon Ellis, IDC group VP for Manufacturing and Supply Chain. "While it is true that if you don't get planning right, you don't get the supply chain right; it is also true that execution and fulfillment are the way customers view performance. Any delivery failure is a customer failure, regardless of the perfection of the underlying plan."

Trends in Serverless Functions

Rob Tiffany — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective examines the trends reshaping serverless functions in 2026 and assesses how seven cloud providers, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Tencent Cloud, are responding. It argues that functions have evolved from event-driven glue into a primary runtime for AI agents, identifies five defining trends (agentic functions, the end of the cold-start arms race, concurrency-driven economics, container and open-standard convergence, and GPU-backed serverless), and offers a decision framework for technology buyers.

"Serverless has quietly become the runtime of the agentic era," explains Rob Tiffany, research director, Cloud Infrastructure, IDC. "The buyers who win will match each workload to the right execution model, weigh concurrency economics over sticker price, and protect portability with open standards to navigate their next move with confidence."

Accenture FY 3Q26: Solid Profitability and Cash Flow as Growth Moderates; New Moves in OT Security and the Midmarket

Lars Goransson, Douglas Hayward — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

On June 18, 2026, Accenture reported results for the third quarter of fiscal 2026 (ended May 31, 2026). Revenue of $18.72 billion rose 6% in U.S. dollars and 3% in local currency (about 4% excluding the roughly 1 percentage point drag from the U.S. federal business), with growth across all geographic markets, industry groups, and types of work. Profitability and cash flow were strong, and Accenture used the quarter to announce two strategic moves intended to open new sources of growth: a $4.2 billion acquisition-led expansion into operational technology (OT) security and the launch of Accenture Edge for the midmarket. The following growth rates are year over year and in local currency unless stated otherwise:

Agentic Commerce: Are AI-Generated Answers a New Gateway to Liability?

Heather Hershey, Roger Beharry Lall — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective discusses a landmark Munich court ruling that found Google liable for false AI-generated answers, redefining AI outputs as authored claims rather than mere search results. This signals a shift in legal accountability for AI answer engines, with significant implications for agentic commerce and brand discovery. As AI-generated content becomes central to consumer interactions, organizations must prioritize source accuracy, audit exposure, and update indemnification terms, recognizing that the shield protecting platforms from liability may no longer apply when AI synthesizes and authors information.

"Brand leaders have been racing to appear in AI-generated answers. Munich adds a harder question: What happens when those answers are wrong, and who is left holding the liability?" — Roger Beharry Lall, research director, Advertising Technologies and SMB Marketing Applications at IDC

Best Practices in Leveraging AI, GenAI, and Agentic AI for Retail Operational Workflows

Cristiano Quattrini, Margot Juros — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC PeerScape identifies best practices for retailers seeking to apply agentic AI to operational workflows. It focuses on four common challenges: orchestrating fragmented retail data and processes, embedding AI into frontline work, using AI to improve inventory and fresh-product decisions, and governing autonomous actions in sensitive operational environments.

Retailers are entering a phase in which the competitive value of AI depends less on experimentation and more on operationalization. The issue is not whether retailers can build pilots, but whether they can connect agents to the data, systems, teams, and controls required to influence day-to-day decisions. Walmart’s development of Wally illustrates the emerging use of agentic capabilities for merchandising and inventory decisions. Marks & Spencer’s rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot illustrates how GenAI can improve frontline productivity and decision support. Carrefour’s use of AI for supply chain and fresh-product planning shows the value of advanced forecasting and optimization, while Amazon’s use of multimodal AI for fulfillment quality and compliance demonstrates the potential of AI-enabled operational automation. Together, these examples show how retailers are building the foundations for more autonomous and agentic operational workflows.

The practices discussed in this PeerScape show that agentic AI succeeds when it is deployed around clear operating problems, when users understand its role, when workflows include human oversight, and when retailers measure outcomes such as labor productivity, stock availability, waste reduction, faster decision cycles, improved customer service, and lower operational risk.

“Agentic AI’s real value emerges when it becomes part of the operating model, connecting signals, decisions, actions, and accountability across stores, supply chains, commerce, and customer service. Retailers should start with workflows where AI can reduce decision latency, improve consistency, and free teams from repetitive coordination work while keeping humans responsible for judgment, escalation, and customer impact,” says Cristiano Quattrini, senior associate advisor, IDC Retail Insights.