Application management never stands still as technologies, processes, strategies, and priorities continuously evolve. In this blog, we are exploring the main app management trends for 2026, especially those that apply to enterprise organizations.
Automation First Approach
Automation has been a feature of the app management landscape for some time now. At Access IT Automation, for example, we have been helping enterprises automate application management tasks for over 10 years.
While app management automation is well established, there is a growing shift to an automation-first approach, especially with the simplest and most frequently updated applications. These types of applications can be categorised as such, with automated packaging and testing workflows becoming the default approach.
App Management Self Service
Even with automated application management technologies, there can still be bottlenecks in the process if app owners or individuals requesting an app have to wait for a response from the technical support team.
As a result, we expect to see more and more organisations move to a self-service approach. With suitable guardrails and parameters in place, app owners and other requestors can self-service the packaging and testing of an application’s initial installation and setup, removing technical teams from the process.
Evergreen Application (and Driver) Management
There are certain applications within an enterprise organisation’s app estate that take up a lot of time because of the frequency of updates. A high frequency of updates can also make it more difficult to keep everyone on the latest version, as fresh updates are often released before packaging, testing, and quality control processes for the previous version are complete.
For frequently updated and commonly used apps from trusted vendors, evergreen application management is the solution. In addition to automating packaging, testing, and publishing, evergreen solutions also continuously watch specified repositories for updated application versions. In other words, end-to-end automation.
Plus, with Access Capture’s Evergreen AI solution, you can also automate the patching of drivers using the same process.
Shift-Left Validation
Testing is moving earlier and earlier in the software development lifecycle, especially when CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment) is utilised. Automating application package testing fits in with the CI/CD approach.
Rise of Intune
SCCM is still here, but enterprises are continuing the gradual shift to Intune with a corresponding shift to fully automating application publishing through Intune.
Hybrid-by-Default Architectures
Hybrid architectures are becoming the default approach for a number of reasons. For example, IT leaders in enterprises are increasingly questioning the financial implications of a cloud-only approach, as the cost savings are not as clear as they were once perceived to be. License renewal costs are an important part of that equation.
Plus, the past year has seen some of the biggest names in tech – Microsoft, AWS, Cloudflare – suffer outages that impacted the day-to-day operations of large numbers of businesses. These outages moved cloud resilience higher up on the agenda, with hybrid architectures often being part of the solution.
This trend can also be seen by moves made by Microsoft, where Azure and AVD now also support on-prem.
So, architectures will continue to evolve in 2026, with hybrid likely to be the most common approach.
Automation in IT Ops
AIOps, or artificial intelligence for IT operations, is a general tech trend for 2026, but it also has implications in application management. For example, AI models can continuously assess endpoints in real-time to predict issues, including app issues, before they become apparent to users.
DEX Analytics
At Access IT Automation, we’ve been talking about DEX – the digital employee experience – for several years now, and we only see the importance of DEX growing. One key trend for 2026 is the use of endpoint analytics to provide comprehensive, real-time visibility of endpoints, including application health, endpoint performance, and user sentiment.
AI-Driven Testing
Modern enterprises typically have a vast array of endpoint configurations. Applications have to be packaged and tested across all configurations that apply. We expect to see automation in this area move to the next stage, with AI-powered technologies automating regression testing to detect compatibility issues across multiple desktop configurations before the app is deployed.
2026 and Beyond
The application management trends in this blog can be summarised as increasing levels of automation, utilising the potential of AI technologies, and minimising data and infrastructure risks.
Access IT Automation is proud of its position at the cutting edge of application management technologies, with many new features recently released and more in the pipeline. Get in touch to arrange a demo.
