A new GFT Technologies survey of 945 CIOs and CTOs at companies with at least $500M in annual revenue across 19 countries found that 84% have canceled an AI pilot or project because of limitations in their legacy systems. The study, conducted by Wakefield Research between August 11 and 31, 2026, also found that 93% believe failing to modernize before running AI on legacy infrastructure will eventually trigger an enterprise-wide security crisis, while 89% are concerned that global AI investment may be growing faster than the business value it can realistically deliver. On geopolitics, 99% said potential government restrictions on AI access increase the importance of not depending on a single AI provider, and 91% believe some public companies cite AI to justify workforce changes primarily intended to boost their share price. Personal risk is also rising for technology leaders, with 89% concerned that a wrong workforce decision made while scaling AI could put their own job at risk, and only 20% saying their organization's other C-suite executives and board members fully understand the security risks of running AI on legacy systems. Marco Santos, Global CEO of GFT Technologies, said legacy infrastructure is becoming a real constraint not only on innovation but also on security and scalability, and that closing the gap between AI ambition and infrastructure readiness is critical to turning AI investment into sustainable business value.
GFT Technologies SEGFT's own survey of 945 CIOs highlights legacy-system constraints on AI, positioning its modernization services as the solution to a demand gap.
