2026 Leadership Trends In The Technology Sector

From the innovation-heavy UK to the rapidly scaling markets of Southeast Asia, 2026 will be a crucial year for the global tech industry. Business models are being transformed by AI, sustainability priorities are shifting and leaders are under intense pressure to move quickly. 

Mike Drew, head of Odgers’ global Technology & IT Services Practice joined Paul Clayson, head of our Technology & CIO Practice in Southeast Asia, to share insight and outline the trends and leadership strategies that will define the year ahead. 

Our ‘Leading Through Uncertainty’ series explores how senior leaders manage continual complexity, ambiguity and transformation. In a world where change is the only constant, we spotlight the real-world, inspirational stories of leadership in uncertain times. 

Current Tech Market Status 

Southeast Asia 

The technology market in Southeast Asia continues to evolve at pace, driven by digital transformation and AI adoption, with sustainability appearing to have shifted down the priority list for many clients.  

“Southeast Asia’s growth is fueled by rapid digitalization and a thriving start-up ecosystem. Technology continues to be viewed more and more as a revenue driver or enhancer in addition to its role in operational excellence and cost optimization,” said Paul Clayson. 

According to IBM’s APAC AI Outlook 2026, 64% of APAC enterprises are shifting AI investments from efficiency gains toward revenue-driving initiatives. 

UK 

The UK tech sector remains structurally strong and innovation-led, contributing roughly 6–7% of national economic output and responsible for 2.6m jobs in the UK alone. But its future growth will likely hinge less on scale - due to the challenges in competing with the U.S. & China in this area - but how as a nation the necessary platforms are provided to embrace the generational opportunity in specialities like AI, which is a real asset for the UK.  

“Due to the strength of our academic institutions, the UK possesses a genuine strategic advantage which creates a steady flow of highly innovative start-ups, e.g. ElevenLabs, Wayve and Isomorphic Labs. 

“What needs to improve is our approach to encouraging risk, providing the funding and economic stimulus to keep these scale ups in the country and the reduction of overly complex regulations, that can stunt innovation at pace. The tech sector, fueled by AI can become a strategic economic pillar for the UK with the right platforms in place to support growth,” added Mike Drew. 

Tech Leadership Through Uncertainty 

Today’s technology leaders are expected to be strategic visionaries, capable of navigating geopolitical shifts, supply chain disruptions, and accelerating innovation cycles whilst maintaining increasingly complex architectures.  

Southeast Asia 

Across Asia Pacific, CIOs increasingly deploy AI, IoT and digital twins to anticipate supply chain risks from geopolitical tensions to regulatory shocks. IDC forecasts that 50% of top supply-chain organizations will have LLM-driven predictive systems by 2028.  Paul Clayson added; 

UK 

From digital transformation to risk-and-trust transformation, leaders today need to balance adoption speed with governance, as AI becomes a material enterprise risk.  

More board-level fluency will be key as digital strategies, especially cyber and AI, are increasingly shaped by geopolitics. For instance, the World Economic Forum reported that 64% of organizations are accounting for geopolitically motivated cyberattacks in their mitigation strategies.   

Leaders are also facing new challenges, like the increase of skills churn with employers expecting 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030, making ‘leading through reskilling’ a core leadership requirement.  

Commented Mike Drew: “This requires a higher level of leadership transparency and communication from the top, with CEOs in particular having to provide greater clarity and reassurance on how technology and human workforces are increasingly intertwined.” 

Strategies in building high-caliber leadership teams

Successful organizations are prioritizing diversity of thought and experience with successful strategies including: 

• Cross-functional integration by blending technology, business and risk leadership to drive holistic decision-making.  
• Continuous learning cultures through investing in leadership development focused on adaptability, digital fluency and managing effectively through ambiguity. 

Southeast Asia 

“The talent landscape in Southeast Asia offers a young, digitally native workforce with strong entrepreneurial energy, but faces challenges in deep technical specialization areas such as AI, cyber security and data science,” said Paul Clayson. 

A 2025 World Economic Forum assessment found that 60% of Southeast Asian businesses believe skills gaps, including in data analytics and climate-related digital expertise, will hinder their readiness for future transformation. 

UK 

Resilience, flexibility and open communication combined with a higher level of digital fluency are all critical for leadership teams in an AI first era. The need to pair deep technology capability with human-centered leadership skills to manage adoption, ethics, and change are increasingly key. Mike Drew added;

Outlook for tech leadership 

The next frontier is AI governance and ethical innovation. Leaders will grapple with integrating generative AI responsibly, ensuring cybersecurity resilience, and aligning technology with sustainability goals.  

The sector has been for decades the instigator of digital disruption, but often being immune to the transformation it drove as they already embraced it. But AI is different. It’s impacting every industry and especially in areas like SaaS. If AI can code and build products, single focused SaaS vendors will be replaced by AI created alternatives.  

Tech leaders now face rapid AI adoption, talent shortages, and the bigger question of what AI means for their organizations. Combined with geopolitical uncertainty, the challenge is shifting: success is no longer about innovating fastest, but about balancing AI with human capability to achieve profitable, sustainable growth. 

Many of these themes will be central to the conferences we are attending during ‘Momentous March’, when nearly two thirds of the industry’s most influential events take place. Hearing directly from leaders across the tech spectrum, from disruptive scaleups to global giants, will inform how we guide clients over the next year. Being there in person gives us real insight and the knowledge gathered will help steer our work through 2026 and beyond. 

Explore our Leading Through Uncertainty collection here.  

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