Digital transformation and AI trends for businesses in 2027

In short: The digital transformation trends that matter for 2027 come down to one question: how to put AI into real operations in a way you can measure and control. Reports from Gartner, McKinsey and the World Economic Forum point to governed AI agents, business data with context, AI that handles voice and numbers, AI skills in the workforce, and pressure to prove financial return. In Vietnam, three new laws on AI, personal data and digital transformation took effect during 2026.

What counts as a digital transformation trend?

A trend is a shift in technology, ways of working or regulation that many organisations follow over the next few years, as recorded by analyst firms, international bodies or government policy. It deserves attention when it changes your costs, how you sell, how you manage or what the law requires of you.

Two cautions when reading trend reports. Forecasts from Gartner or McKinsey are mostly based on large companies worldwide, so small and mid-sized businesses in Vietnam usually move more slowly. And a forecast shows direction; it is not a shopping list for next year.

This article has three parts: sourced global trends, changes in Vietnamese law and policy, and HAT's own observations, clearly labelled and without numbers.

Summary table

Trend	Source	What SMEs should do
AI agents built into business software, with many projects cancelled	Gartner (2025)	Pick a narrow, measurable task; test vendor claims
Context-rich data drives AI quality	Gartner (2026)	Standardise product, customer and process data first
AI beyond text: voice, images, numbers	Gartner (2024, 2026)	Try AI on calls, document photos, simple forecasts
Governance and identity for AI agents	Gartner (2026)	Give AI permissions like a staff account, with logs
AI and data skills in the workforce	WEF (2025)	Train on real tasks, with an AI usage policy
Pressure to prove return in money	McKinsey (2026)	Measure a baseline and ROI before scaling
AI, personal data and digital transformation laws in force	National Assembly of Vietnam (2025)	Audit where AI and personal data are used

Global trends

AI agents arrive in business software, and many projects will be cancelled

An AI agent completes a chain of tasks rather than just answering a question: it takes a request, looks up data, drafts the result and triggers the next step. Gartner predicts that 40% of enterprise applications will feature task-specific AI agents by 2026, up from less than 5% in 2025. The accounting, sales and support software you already rent will increasingly ship with such features.

Gartner also flags the downside. According to Gartner (2025), over 40% of agentic AI projects will be cancelled by the end of 2027 because of rising costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls. It warns about "agent washing", where vendors relabel existing assistants, chatbots or RPA as agents without real agentic capability. The practical lesson: start from one specific chain of work and measure it. See what is an AI agent for which tasks suit one.

Data with context decides whether AI gets it right

Gartner's list of top strategic technology trends for 2027, published on 20 October 2026, includes AI context platforms: a layer that brings together scattered company knowledge (processes, definitions, master data, documents) so AI agents make decisions aligned with business goals. Gartner groups its ten 2027 trends into three themes: the nontextual AI frontier, governing autonomous agent platforms, and architecting durable agility.

In operational terms, AI only answers correctly when it knows what "key account" means in your company, which product code replaced which, and who can approve how much. A business with clean master data and documented processes will get cheaper, more accurate AI than one whose data lives in a dozen spreadsheets. See the data-driven business.

AI beyond text

The first theme in Gartner's 2027 list covers AI that works on data other than words, such as models that reason directly on speech and models built for numerical forecasting and planning. Back in 2024, Gartner predicted that 40% of generative AI solutions would be multimodal, handling text, images and audio together, by 2027. For SMEs this shows up as AI that summarises customer calls, reads photos of handwritten delivery notes or suggests reorder quantities from sales history.

Governance and identity for AI agents

Once an agent can send emails, create orders or change records, "who did this?" gets harder to answer. Gartner's 2027 list includes AI agent identity: giving each agent its own identity, access rights and activity log, much like a staff account. Gartner predicts that by 2028, 25% of enterprise security breaches will be traced back to AI agent abuse. Three rules are enough to start: an agent never has more access than the person using it, important actions such as approving payments or sending quotes need human confirmation, and every agent action is logged. More in AI governance and data security.

AI skills become a condition for change

The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that employers expect 39% of workers' core skills to change between 2025 and 2030. AI and big data top the list of fastest-growing skills, followed by networks and cybersecurity, then technological literacy. The same report says 63% of employers see skill gaps as the biggest barrier to business transformation over that period. Buying AI tools is therefore only half the job; staff need to know what to use them for, how to check results and what data must never go in. Our guide to AI tools for the office includes ready-to-use data safety rules.

Pressure to prove financial return

McKinsey titled its 2026 survey "On the road to ROI", and the numbers explain why. According to McKinsey (2026), 80% of respondents said AI had improved their individual productivity, but only about 37% reported any contribution from AI to company EBIT, roughly unchanged from 2025. Expect fewer "let's just try it" AI projects in 2027 and more questions about baselines, full costs and payback, covered in digital transformation ROI.

Trends in Vietnam

The biggest change in Vietnam for 2026 and 2027 is the legal framework. As of November 2026, three laws that directly affect business data and AI are in force:

Law	Passed	In force	What to watch
Personal Data Protection Law (No. 91/2025/QH15)	26 June 2025	1 January 2026	Customer and employee data in software and AI
Law on Artificial Intelligence (No. 134/2025/QH15)	10 December 2025	1 March 2026	Risk classification, transparency, human oversight of AI systems
Law on Digital Transformation (No. 148/2025/QH15)	11 December 2025	1 July 2026	General framework for digital transformation

AI systems already running before the AI law took effect have a transition period: 18 months in healthcare, education and finance, and 12 months elsewhere, according to a summary by the Can Tho legal information portal. Businesses using AI in their processes should check the full text and implementing decrees.

On policy direction, the Politburo's Resolution 57-NQ/TW of 22 December 2024 on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation targets a digital economy of at least 30% of GDP by 2030. Tax is the third driver: under Resolution 198/2025/QH15, household businesses stopped using the lump-sum tax method from 1 January 2026. HAT's reading is that as small sellers in the supply chain move to self-declaration and e-invoices, the distributors, retailers and suppliers who work with them will face more requests to connect orders and invoices digitally.

HAT's view for 2027

These are observations from HAT Solutions' consulting work, not survey results, so they carry no numbers.

1. AI arrives through software you already use. For most SMEs, the easiest route to AI in 2027 is switching on built-in features. The harder part is deciding who gets them, for which tasks, and how to measure.
2. Chat channels hold a lot of automatable work. In Vietnam, orders, quotes and customer questions flow heavily through Zalo and other messaging apps. AI that reads messages and drafts orders is a realistic first project for many businesses.
3. An AI usage policy for staff becomes a must. With the personal data law in force, staff pasting customer data into personal AI accounts is a risk few boards will accept.
4. Small, measurable projects beat big, impressive ones. When analysts themselves forecast high cancellation rates, SMEs gain by moving in short steps and stopping early when something does not work.

What should SMEs do in 2027?

Work from the foundation up, not from the newest technology:

1. Audit where AI and personal data are used today, and through which accounts.
2. Issue a one-page AI usage policy and train each team on its real tasks.
3. Clean up master data: products, customers, suppliers, process documents.
4. Pick one or two processes to try AI on, measure the baseline, and review after six to eight weeks.
5. Put these steps into a digital transformation roadmap with a budget and an owner.

If orders, receivables and stock are still on paper or in one spreadsheet per team, 2027 is the year to digitise those, not to deploy AI agents. Our digital transformation guide helps you see which stage you are at.

FAQ

What are digital transformation trends? Shifts in technology, ways of working and regulation that many organisations follow, as recorded by analysts or public policy. For 2027 the focus is putting AI into operations with control and measurable results.

How do Vietnam's trends differ from global ones in 2027? Mainly the new legal framework: the personal data, AI and digital transformation laws all took effect in 2026. Vietnamese businesses need compliance and an AI usage policy alongside any new technology.

Should a small business chase AI agents? Not until basic data and processes are digital. After that, try an agent on one narrow chain of work, with a human approving the final step and measures before and after.

Which trend reports are worth reading? Original publications with stated methods, such as Gartner's annual technology trends, McKinsey's State of AI and the WEF Future of Jobs Report, plus laws from official portals.

Will this article be updated? Yes. HAT updates it each year as new reports are published, rather than writing a new article.

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HAT Solutions helps businesses read these trends against their own situation: what is worth doing in 2027 and what can wait. Contact us to plan next year. Related: AI for business.