Digital Realty: APAC AI Investment Gathers Momentum

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 23 (Bernama) -- Digital Realty’s 2026 Global Data Insights Survey (GDIS) has found strong artificial intelligence (AI) investment momentum across Asia Pacific (APAC), alongside significant differences in how individual markets are turning that investment into business value.

Nearly six in 10 (59 per cent) APAC respondents expect their organisations to increase AI investment by more than 25 per cent in 2026 compared with 2025, versus 55 per cent globally. More than one-third (36 per cent) have already identified repeatable, high-impact AI use cases, while a similar proportion reports measurable business outcomes from AI.

The survey, which covered 2,131 information technology (IT) decision-makers across 19 countries, found that enterprises are progressing at different stages and prioritising different requirements as they move AI into wider deployment, Digital Realty said in a statement.

In Australia, 33 per cent of organisations said they are currently realising AI return on investment (ROI), more than double the APAC average of 16 per cent. Nearly half (47 per cent) also have real-time AI in deployment, compared with 36 per cent across the region.

In Japan, compliance features prominently in AI strategy and infrastructure decisions, with 30 per cent ranking compliance with AI and data privacy regulations as the top requirement for a successful AI strategy, compared with 18 per cent across APAC. In Singapore, 50 per cent cited a lack of specialised AI infrastructure as a challenge, compared with 40 per cent regionally.

South Korean enterprises, meanwhile, emphasise reliable interconnection to support AI execution, with 24 per cent ranking it first among requirements for AI strategy success, compared with 14 per cent across APAC. Almost half (46 per cent) report integrated interconnection across key cloud and infrastructure platforms or architecture centred on dynamic, on-demand interconnection.

As enterprises increase AI investment, the survey indicates that infrastructure and data-location decisions are becoming more closely tied to how AI is deployed. Across APAC, 92 per cent of respondents tie their data-location strategy to their AI plans, while 88 per cent already follow a distributed data approach, with enterprise data, applications and workloads increasingly spread across multiple locations and environments.

However, only 22 per cent of APAC respondents describe their hybrid infrastructure as fully integrated, highlighting the challenge of connecting data, compute, clouds and partners across markets. Digital Realty said enterprises will need to make increasingly deliberate choices about where workloads and data reside and how those environments connect as AI moves further into production.

Through PlatformDIGITAL, Digital Realty provides AI-ready infrastructure and connectivity across markets, helping customers bring together the data, applications, clouds and ecosystems they need as their AI strategies evolve.

-- BERNAMA