Operational maturity among large enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region lags significantly behind AID adoption, which is widespread in the region, according to a report from Thoughtworks.
The research was conducted by IDC and surveyed 500 senior IT and digital decision-makers across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Asia-Pacific including Japan. Among respondents, 20% are from APJ.
The study covered organisations with more than 1,000 employees and are already using AI or planning to adopt it within the next two years.
While nearly nine in 10 organisations have adopted AI tools, a similar proportion remain stuck in reactive modernisation cycles. Only 12% have managed to break free and transition to a fully continuous, AI-driven optimisation model.
Mature organisations are abandoning one-off initiatives in favour of a continuous modernisation engine. These organisations are leveraging AI to drive measurable gains such as achieving 45% faster product and feature releases; shifting to AI-driven vulnerability management and realising a 48% reduction in risk exposure; and improving systems maintainability and scalability (36%) while aligning IT more closely to business goals (34%).
å“The era of intermittent application modernization is no longer sustainable,” said Josh Burks, SVP at Thoughtworks. “Our research with IDC confirms that a reactive, project-based modernization approach leads to high costs, security vulnerabilities and significant people impact.”
Busks said that to maintain a competitive advantage and deliver AI that works, organizations are moving away from risky one-off interventions and toward a model of continuous modernization.
“Singaporean enterprises are at a crossroads. Intermittent modernisation is no longer viable for organisations competing regionally or globally,” said Steven Yurisich, Thoughtworks regional managing director in APAC.
Yurisich said that while AI adoption is high, maturity is uneven. The real gap isn’t tooling, it’s bridging IT operations and business outcomes.
“We are seeing a clear shift toward a human-in-the-loop model, where AI drives pipeline intelligence, automation, and security at scale while human expertise is focused on architectural judgement, resilience, and value creation. Continuous modernisation, not episodic projects, is what will differentiate Singapore’s next generation of digital leaders,” he added.
Jennifer Thomson, AVP global services insights at IDC, said that enterprise security and operations are rapidly becoming AI-led, yet most organisations lack the maturity to realise the expected benefits.
“The shift we are seeing is a move toward a ‘human-in-the-loop’ strategy where human expertise is reserved for strategic architectural decisions and complex problem solving,” said Thomson.
“By focusing on pipeline intelligence and automated security, organisations can finally bridge the gap between IT operations and business objectives, replacing outdated headcount pricing with shared-risk models that incentivise speed and scale,” she said.
As organisations struggle to break free from reactive maintenance, the report highlights that AI is moving from promise to practice in application operations; however, success will be defined by proof of value, data quality and a fundamental realignment of people and processes.
Organisations are moving away from people-heavy, headcount-based pricing. Among them, 56% want contracts tied to continuous improvement mandates.
Also, 43% are seeking risk-reward sharing models for modernisation initiatives. Further, success is increasingly measured by speed, resilience and customer experience rather than simple uptime.
