AI agents now act on behalf of organizations, and the work, the money, and the technology around them are being rebuilt to match. FutureScape 2027 calls this the Great Rewrite and sorts what is changing into three windows: closing, open, and emerging. IDC FutureScape 2027 begins rolling out today, with all 25 reports publishing October 27-29. Each report includes 10 predictions looking ahead up to five years across a wide range of industries and topics.
The windows show how much time is left to act on each shift, which changes which decisions come first.
What is IDC FutureScape, and who uses it?
IDC FutureScape is IDC’s annual set of predictions, written by the analysts who cover each market. Every prediction carries a time frame, so you can see what is likely to happen and roughly when. Two audiences put that to work in different ways.
Tech leaders use FutureScape to navigate the market they operate in. They look for which forces are building, how fast, and what the next budget cycle needs to account for. Tech suppliers use it to see where their customers are headed. That shows them where to develop solutions that help those customers find an advantage as markets shift.
See the IDC FutureScape top 10 worldwide predictions webinar hosted by Rick Villars, Group Vice President, Worldwide Research.
What is the Great Rewrite?
Across FutureScape 2027, dozens of predictions from different practice areas reach the same conclusion. AI isn’t being added on top of how organizations work. It’s rewriting what sits underneath: the compute layer, the org chart, the balance sheet. The Great Rewrite is that shift, and it is reaching every organization whether or not that organization has planned for it.
The Agentic Economy is the operating environment the rewrite produces, and it is where winning and losing get decided. Pace is part of the story. IDC’s Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey (Wave 2, March to April 2026, n=1,009) shows the scale. Enterprises expect to nearly double the types of AI agents they run in production, from an average of 23.5 in April 2026 to 43.2 by year-end1. The deciding factor is the distance between how fast agents can act and how well organizations can govern what they do. That distance compounds with every agent type that goes into production.
Want more information about this year’s predictions? Visit our IDC FutureScape 2027 site.
What do the closing, open, and emerging windows mean?
The forces in the Great Rewrite do not move at the same speed. Each prediction lands in a window based on how settled the decision is: nearly made, still yours to shape, or only now taking form. Each window asks for a different kind of decision.
- Closing: an opportunity is about to become a disadvantage. The big decisions are nearly made, and waiting means inheriting the outcome of choices others have already set.
- Open: decisions you need to make today. These are still yours to shape, but the room to shape them is narrowing.
- Emerging: advantages you can still influence. Nobody has captured these yet, so early moves can still change how the advantage gets built.
For tech leaders, the windows answer a practical question: which decisions belong in this planning cycle, and which can wait and be watched? Settle the closing decisions now, and use the open window to shape what is still undecided.
For tech suppliers, the windows show where buyers have already chosen, where they are still deciding, and where no direction is set yet. That is where new solutions can still change the outcome.
Hear Rick Villars sort the Top 10 Worldwide Predictions into these windows live on October 28: watch the webinar.
How can you hear the Top 10 Worldwide Predictions?
IDC’s FutureScape Top 10 Worldwide Predictions name the ten most notable ways the world is being rewritten. On October 28, Rick Villars, Group Vice President, Worldwide Research, walks through them live in the webinar The Great Rewrite: Winning in the Agentic Economy. He sorts each prediction into closing, open, or emerging. Then he shows how the ten play out across three threads that run through all of them:
- Redefining Resilience: AI is redefining it, with real benefits, real pain, and consequences that reach the architecture you are planning today.
- Creating Trust in Agents: Agents are already taking actions in your business, and trusting what they do is a long, complex, and uncertain journey.
- Establishing New Leadership: Placing bets on independence comes with risks and rewards, and the harder call is where to play.
You will leave with the ten predictions ordered by how long you have to decide, ready for your next leadership or budget conversation. The session runs sixty minutes, with time for your questions, at 8 AM Pacific and 3 PM in London. Joining from the Gulf, live is 7 PM in Dubai. In Asia Pacific, live is 11 PM in Singapore, midnight Thursday in Tokyo, and 2 AM Thursday in Sydney, so the replay is the better fit.
If you set 2027 technology priorities or control the budgets behind them (CIOs, CTOs, CFOs, and heads of AI), or you build the solutions they buy, this one is for you.
Explore the FutureScape 2027 reports as they publish through October 29 at idc.com/futurescape.
Sources
- IDC Survey Spotlight: From Pilot to Production — How Rapidly Is AI Agent Adoption Maturing? (IDC #AP54627726, June 2026). IDC’s Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey, Wave 1 (February 2026, n=903) and Wave 2 (March to April 2026, n=1,009).
