SINGAPORE, Sept. 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the world’s largest cloud- and carrier-neutral data center platform, recently released its 2026 Global Data Insights Survey (GDIS), showing strong AI investment momentum across the region alongside significant differences in how individual markets are turning that investment into business value.
Based on the Asia Pacific (APAC) findings, nearly six in ten (59%) of the region’s respondents expect their organizations to increase AI investment by more than 25% in 2026 compared with 2025, versus 55% globally. More than one-third (36%) have already identified repeatable, high-impact AI use cases, while a similar proportion reports measurable business outcomes from AI.
Beneath the regional picture, the findings show that enterprises are progressing at different stages and prioritizing different requirements as they move AI into wider deployment.
APAC markets are taking different routes from AI investment to value
In Australia, enterprises appear further along in converting AI deployment into financial returns. One-third (33%) of organizations say they are currently realizing AI ROI, more than double the APAC average of 16%. Nearly half (47%) also have real-time AI in deployment, compared with 36% across the region.
In Japan, compliance features prominently in how respondents assess AI strategy and infrastructure decisions. 30% of respondents rank ensuring compliance with AI and data privacy regulations as the top requirement for a successful AI strategy, compared with 18% across APAC. When deciding where to host AI workloads, 22% rank regulatory compliance as their top consideration, compared with 12% regionally.
In Singapore, infrastructure readiness is becoming an important consideration as enterprises advance their AI plans. Half (50%) of respondents cite a lack of specialized AI infrastructure as a challenge, compared with 40% across APAC, while 39% are already reporting measurable business outcomes from AI.
In South Korea, enterprises emphasize connecting distributed data sources to support AI execution. Nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents rank reliable interconnection first among requirements for AI strategy success, compared with 14% across APAC. Almost half (46%) report integrated interconnection across key cloud and infrastructure platforms or architecture centered on dynamic, on-demand interconnection.
“AI investment is accelerating across APAC, and enterprises are entering the next phase with different priorities. As they scale AI, organizations are balancing priorities that range from demonstrating returns and preparing infrastructure to meeting compliance requirements and connecting distributed environments,” said Serene Nah, Managing Director and Head of APAC at Digital Realty.
“These differences matter for enterprises operating across the region. Infrastructure decisions need to reflect the requirements of each market and workload, while giving organizations the flexibility to connect and grow across APAC.”
Different AI paths are shaping infrastructure decisions
As enterprises put more investment behind AI, the survey indicates that decisions around infrastructure and data location are becoming more closely tied to how AI is deployed.
Across APAC, 92% of respondents tie their data-location strategy to their AI plans. At the same time, 88% already follow a distributed data approach, meaning enterprise data, applications and workloads increasingly sit across multiple locations and environments.
Connecting those environments remains a challenge. Only 22% of APAC respondents describe their hybrid infrastructure as fully integrated, even as enterprises increasingly need to bring together data, compute, clouds and partners across markets.
This creates a more complex infrastructure requirement for organizations operating regionally. The location of AI workloads needs to account for factors such as infrastructure availability, performance and local operating requirements, while remaining connected to the wider enterprise architecture.
As AI moves further into production, enterprises will need to make increasingly deliberate choices about where workloads and data reside and how those environments connect. The priority is giving organizations the flexibility to deploy according to local requirements without creating disconnected infrastructure across the region. 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.
The research surveyed 2,131 IT decision-makers across 19 countries, including 707 respondents across seven APAC markets: Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
The full report is available at Global Data Insights Survey 2026.
Methodology
The 2026 Global Data Insights Survey surveyed 2,131 IT decision-makers across 19 countries and eleven industries, including financial services, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, travel, transportation and logistics, business and professional services, energy and utilities, and media and entertainment. Respondents represented organizations with between 500 and more than 10,000 employees.
About Digital Realty
Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the company’s global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) solution methodology for powering innovation, from cloud and digital transformation to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 55+ metros across 30+ countries on six continents. To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X.
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Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to the APAC market, emerging technologies including AI, expected growth in digital transformation, adoption of AI infrastructure, company strategy and capabilities and customer demand. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.