New EMA research · October 2026

Is your ITAM AI-ready? Download the free EMA report

AI is moving into operations faster than the asset data it depends on. EMA’s 2026 maturity benchmark shows what separates AI-ready ITAM from the stage just below it.

71.9%

Report broad operational AI adoption or beyond

22.2%

call their ITAM function
AI-ready

203

IT professionals surveyed in North America

— EMA Research Report · October 2026

ITAM in the Age of AI

EMA’s 2026 Maturity Benchmark

Research by EMA, sponsored by Virima.
— WHAT’S INSIDE

Everything you need to judge your own AI readiness

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The AI readiness gap

How far AI adoption has moved ahead of asset data readiness, and why being good at traditional ITAM is not the same as being ready for AI.

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A broader asset estate to track

Why ITAM now spans cloud, SaaS, containers, APIs, AI models, datasets and vector databases, and where visibility remains uneven.

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Discovery, coverage and dependency mapping

How uneven discovery coverage falls short of trusted asset intelligence, and how dependency mapping adds the relationship context assets need.

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Making the CMDB accurate and well populated

How organizations rate the accuracy and completeness of their CMDB today, and how they populate and reconcile it.

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The five maturity stages

The five reported stages of ITAM maturity, and why optimized is not synonymous with AI-ready.

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The AI readiness threshold

Why EMA describes a threshold, and the six capabilities that change at it, organized into a trusted data foundation, operational and financial integration, and governed action.

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ITAM as cross-functional infrastructure

How ITAM data now serves teams well beyond ITAM, and why success measures extend beyond inventory.

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The economics of AI-ready ITAM

Where software and cloud waste remain measurable concerns, and how FinOps complements ITAM.

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Compliance, audit and AI governance

How ITAM information supports multiple audit types, why audit defense is a directly measured value, and how AI governance introduces a new control requirement.

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Where organizations struggle

What limits ITAM's ability to support AI, including siloed tools and skills constraints, and the pressures of tool fragmentation and consolidation.

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Voices from the survey

Open-ended responses from IT professionals that add context to the numbers.

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EMA's path to AI-ready ITAM

Six recommendations for assessing your own readiness, and EMA's view of ITAM becoming part of the AI control plane.

Also inside: the research methodology and respondent profile.

— THE VERDICT

Strong ITAM operations don't
guarantee AI-grade asset data.

AI-ready organizations stand apart on trusted, current, governed asset data: accurate CMDBs, one source of truth, integrated
FinOps and change impact analysis. EMA concludes AI readiness is a threshold, and most organizations haven’t crossed it.

Findings show association, not causation. Source: EMA, October 2026.

— Frequently asked questions

About AI-ready ITAM

What is AI-ready ITAM?
In EMA’s benchmark, AI-ready is the highest of five self-reported maturity stages: ITAM that delivers trusted, runtime asset intelligence as a single source of truth across all asset types, including cloud, containers, models, datasets, and APIs. 22.2% of respondents placed themselves there.
AI-ready organizations were far more likely to report very high CMDB accuracy, a single authoritative source of asset truth, runtime asset data, integrated FinOps and ITAM, confidence in AI governance, and automated pre-change impact analysis. The report breaks down each difference.
Most organizations see room to improve: only a minority rate their ITSM and CMDB asset data at 95% accuracy and completeness or higher. The report shows how organizations rate their data and why accuracy matters for AI.
Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) surveyed 203 qualified IT professionals in North America, all from organizations with 1,000 or more employees. The report was written by Parker Hathcock, Research Director, and sponsored by Virima.

— Get started

Move faster. Act safely.

Download EMA’s 2026 maturity benchmark and see what AI-ready
organizations do differently with their asset data.
Download the report