The ISG Market Lens 2026 Field Services Report, covers the delivery of onsite and physical technology support across enterprise locations. Between now and the end of 2028, 56 percent of companies responding to a global survey expect AI infrastructure or AI-enabled devices to be significant drivers of additional field services demand.
However, AI is also likely to help organizations deliver field services more efficiently: Companies expect one-quarter of field service incidents to be resolved with no human intervention by year-end 2028, up from 14 percent today. ISG AI maturity data indicates that AI is a key enabler of that trend.
“AI is changing the game for field services,” said Michael Dornan, ISG principal analyst and co-author of the report. “Enterprises are expanding AI data centers and injecting AI into operations so quickly that the need for field support is escalating. Competing in this new age will require more field service capacity, broader coverage and effective fulfillment models.”
The global survey of 200 field services decision-makers at large, mostly multinational enterprises in the Americas and Europe finds that these organizations spend an average of $21 million annually, or approximately $100,000 per supported site. As operations expand across more locations, enterprises report a growing need for improved responsiveness, resilience and customer experience.
Amid the growth of AI, data centers are expected to be a hotspot for field services. Data center, network or connectivity expansion was cited by 39 percent of companies as a significant driver of additional need. Legacy system retirement and new security, regulatory or access requirements were also cited by more than one-third of respondents. The mean forecast of demand growth for data centers and technical infrastructure sites is 3 percent, the highest of all operating environments.
New technologies are helping to meet increasing demand. Field service technicians remain important, but other interventions such as remote diagnostics and predictive maintenance are reducing avoidable dispatches, the study finds. By the end of 2028, automation or self-healing is expected to be the fastest-growing method of resolving incidents, followed by self-service or digitally guided resolution on site. The percentage of incidents requiring onsite intervention by a technician is expected to fall from nearly 29 percent to just 17 percent and will often involve specialized, time-sensitive work on mission-critical systems.
Enterprise satisfaction with field services is generally high in core enterprise environments, such as corporate offices, logistics facilities and data centers, but lower in less central locations. More than one-third of survey respondents said services at remote, low-density or unmanned fixed sites fell short of their expectations, and more than one-quarter were dissatisfied with field services at mobile, fleet and temporary operating locations. While standardized delivery models may serve core locations well, supporting remote sites often requires additional flexibility, ISG says.
Expectations for field services differ among organisations, the study finds. The largest group of survey respondents (46 percent) aim for a cost-optimized field service capability that is only differentiated where business-critical needs require it. Another 13 percent want a standardized utility that reliably meets defined requirements. But 36 percent of enterprises seek, above all, high-performing services that minimize downtime and protect user or customer experience in all operations.
“As large companies build out increasingly complex environments, cost of support is no longer the only criterion for evaluating field services,” said Angela Kreiter, ISG principal analyst and co-author of the report. “Organisations want partners to help them establish an enterprise-wide operating model that combines internal, outsourced and on-demand resources to meet the requirements at each type of site.”
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