Recent insights from Flexera’s 2026 State of the Cloud Report indicate a broad shift towards GenAI public cloud services, with adoption reported across all surveyed organisations. At the same time, 73% report that they currently lack the necessary resources or expertise to effectively manage these environments.
While nearly half (45%) indicate extensive use of GenAI public cloud services, the most commonly reported challenge remains cloud expenditure management, cited by 85% of organisations. In addition, 30% express concerns around cost unpredictability, particularly when scaling AI-related workloads.
The research highlights a gap between the adoption of AI services and the skills organisations identify as necessary to manage increasingly complex cloud environments. This sits alongside ongoing challenges related to cloud costs, complexity, and visibility as AI use expands.
Many organisations are increasing AI implementation while also needing to develop or strengthen the expertise required to manage the associated cloud infrastructure. As AI adoption grows across teams and workloads, it places additional demands on existing cloud environments.
Overall, the findings suggest that organisations are balancing rapid adoption of emerging AI technologies with the need to invest in supporting infrastructure and skills. Effective cloud management is becoming an important factor as AI becomes more integrated into business operations.
For businesses, this points to the importance of aligning technology adoption with operational readiness, ensuring that cloud strategies and internal capabilities evolve alongside innovation efforts.
