Spring 2026 Macro Views: The IT Spending Reversal

See how enterprise technology leaders are recalibrating budgets, adjusting vendor strategies, and responding to the most significant hardware pricing surge in this dataset.

  • Based on insights from over 1,700 enterprise technology leaders

  • Includes 288 Fortune 500 and 421 Global 2000 respondents 

  • Fielded March 3 – April 5, 2026

As organizations move deeper into 2026, enterprise technology leaders are recalibrating spending expectations, adjusting vendor strategies, and responding to new cost pressures driven by tariffs and pricing inflation. The Spring 2026 Macro Views Survey captures how technology budgets, hardware spending, and software priorities are shifting as optimism from earlier in the year gives way to more measured planning.

Grounded in direct feedback from the ETR Community, this report separates signal from sentiment, helping you understand not just what is changing, but why it matters for enterprise technology strategy in the months ahead.

Download the full findings, including breakouts by enterprise size, industry, geography, technology category, and AI adoption strategy.

About the Macro Views Survey

The Macro Views Survey consistently tracks and updates core trends like budget growth, spending priorities, and organizational trends. By surveying the ETR Community, a body of technology leaders with direct budget accountability, Macro Views provides a grounded, real-time view of how macro conditions translate into actual enterprise decision-making.

Inside the Spring 2026 Findings

  • Hardware pricing hits a dataset high: Hardware pricing surged to 5.5%, the largest jump of any category and the most significant pricing spike in this dataset, likely driven by tariff pre-buying ahead of anticipated price increases.

  • IT spending growth reverses: CY2026 growth fell a full percentage point to 3.6%, erasing January's upward revision and returning to July 2025 levels. A spring survey-over-survey decline has now occurred three years running, suggesting moderation rather than outright reversal.

  • Cost-cutting methods are shifting: Reducing staffing costs fell to 20%, its lowest level over the past year, while vendor consolidation (16%) and delaying or stopping projects (15%) follow. SaaS licensing optimization reached a series high of 9%, up from 7% in January.

  • Tariff uncertainty is driving action: 47% of organizations are renegotiating contracts, with 46% delaying hardware purchases and 39% diversifying suppliers.

  • Growth diverges by enterprise size: Small (4.3%) and Midsize (4.7%) organizations remain the most optimistic, while Fortune 500 expectations pulled back from 4% to 3.2%.

  • Cloud holds, Software slows: Cloud (IaaS/PaaS) held flat at 7.9% for the second consecutive survey; Software decelerated to 3.7% and Outsourced Services slipped to 0.9%.


Download the Spring 2026 Macro Views Survey Infographic for a quick, visual summary of the important findings—built to scan fast and share internally.

 

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