COST OF UNPLANNED DISRUPTIONS

agerDuty has published its 2026

State of AI-First Operations Report, highlighting how the financial stakes of extended service disruption have made operational resilience a top priority and how growing trust in AI for digital operations is contributing to revenue growth.

The report draws on survey responses from 1,000 business leaders, IT decision makers and senior developers across Australia and New Zealand, France, Germany, Japan, the Nordic countries, the United Kingdom and Ireland and the United States.

Disruptions have become a board-level financial risk. Some organisations( 8 %) lose more than US $ 1 million per hour, 34 % lose at least US $ 500,000 per hour and more than two thirds( 68 %) lose more than US $ 300,000 per hour during IT incidents. The impact extends beyond revenue loss to brand damage( 52 %), recovery costs( 50 %), reduced productivity( 48 %) and developer burnout( 42 %).

According to the findings, 95 % of respondents believe their leadership understands the competitive advantage of reducing incidents and speeding recovery. The report also shows increasing adoption of AI for digital operations, with 59 % actively incorporating the technology. Among these organisations, 75 % report improved operational resilience, compared to 66 % of those not yet using AI.

Additional key findings include:

• Successful organisations prioritise investments in operational resilience. A majority( 71 %) report higher resilience and maturity than a year ago. While 77 % plan to increase budgets over the next 12 months, organisations experiencing revenue growth are investing more( 82 %) than underperformers( 62 %).

• Post-incident learning capabilities are gaining recognition. Nearly half of organisations( 48 %) have improved resilience by turning incidents into structured learning opportunities. Companies with revenue growth are more likely to see a strong need for continuous learning( 83 %) compared to those with flat or declining revenue( 77 %).

Katherine Calvert, Chief Marketing Officer at PagerDuty, said:“ The 2026 PagerDuty State of AI-First Operations Report further demonstrates how the financial risk of major incidents makes operational resilience a

Disruptions have become a board-level financial risk.

board-level priority. AI-first operations enable organisations to accelerate their incident management workflows so they can restore service more quickly during disruption. With PagerDuty, organisations can not only minimise risk, but reduce time spent firefighting so teams can focus on driving innovation and revenue.”

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