In 2026, enterprise mobility will become even less about “devices and plans” and more about operational performance. Buyers are tightening expectations around service outcomes — how quickly problems are resolved, how consistently policies are enforced, and how smoothly employees can be onboarded, supported, and offboarded across a distributed workforce.
Two trends stand out in particular: AI moving from superficial assistance to real operational automation, and eSIM lifecycle management starting to become a baseline requirement rather than an innovation.
Most AI used in enterprise mobility today is still positioned as assisted support. That typically means chat-style help experiences, better searching across knowledge bases, or incremental workflow automation inside the service desk. While these tools can improve user experience, many common scenarios still require human intervention. Basic troubleshooting may be faster, but higher-value processes — device configuration, compliance remediation, zero-touch enrollment support, and complex incident resolution – are often escalated to specialist teams.
A key issue is proof. Providers frequently describe pilots and “AI-powered” tools, but they don’t always publish consistent operational results. Metrics that matter to business buyers — such as reduced contacts per incident, lower cost per ticket, faster mean time to resolve, or measurable improvements in service-level agreements (SLAs) — are not yet standard in marketing or RFP responses. When outcomes are shared, they often focus on qualitative improvements (“better experience”) rather than hard numbers (“fewer outages,” “less downtime,” “faster recovery”).
This will change in 2026. AI capability will increasingly be a primary differentiator in managed mobility, but only where it can demonstrate real operational impact. The next phase is “agentic” AI: systems that don’t just suggest answers, but can take constrained actions under policy control. In practical terms, leading providers will productize repeatable operational loops leveraging agentic AI to:
-
Detect an issue (through device telemetry, network signals, or user experience indicators)
-
Diagnose the probable cause (for example, a configuration issue, compliance failure, or faulty profile)
-
Remediate automatically within approved boundaries (change a policy, trigger a compliance fix, re-push an enrollment profile, reset a connectivity setting)
-
Verify the outcome and only then close the incident — or escalate to a human if confidence thresholds are not met
Story Continues
For enterprises, this is not simply “more automation.” It is a shift toward reducing business disruption: fewer user interruptions, fewer help-desk interactions, and faster restoration of productivity. It also supports a more scalable support model, where the provider can improve SLA performance without endlessly increasing headcount.
However, this also raises governance concerns that will move into the mainstream buying process. As AI gets closer to configuration and compliance environments, enterprises will ask tougher questions about AI system auditability, data boundaries, approval flows, and the ability to explain what the system changed and why. In other words, RFPs will increasingly expect AI governance features to come bundled with AI automation, not as an optional add-on.
The second major change is the normalisation of eSIM lifecycle management for enterprise fleets. eSIM has long been seen as a transformative technology, promising faster provisioning, fewer logistics headaches, and better control (along with huge sustainability benefits for large organisations). Yet enterprise readiness has been uneven. Some providers offer credible portals and early API-led provisioning, while others still rely on processes that vary by country and carrier. In global organisations, fragmentation is often operational as much as technical: different support processes, local regulatory constraints, and inconsistent commercial terms can make it difficult to deliver a standardised experience to end users.
The consequences are tangible. Provisioning can still take too long and involve multiple handoffs. Break/fix scenarios, where an employee’s device needs to be swapped quickly, can become costly in terms of downtime. This is especially acute for distributed and mobile workforces and for high-turnover roles, where shipping delays and SIM logistics create avoidable productivity loss.
In 2026, enterprise buyers will increasingly treat eSIM lifecycle management as a baseline requirement, not a differentiator. They will expect:
-
Self-service and API-driven provisioning, not manual support tickets
-
Integration with mobile device management (MDM), IT service management (ITSM), and HR systems, so provisioning aligns with identity, inventory, and role-based policy
-
Policy-driven activation and deactivation to support onboarding, offboarding, and temporary workforce scenarios
-
Auditable governance and standardised reporting across countries, device types, and user populations
This is an important point: without integration into business platforms, eSIM is just a different form factor. The business value comes when it is connected to authoritative systems and automated policies, so that a new hire can be provisioned quickly, a departing employee’s connectivity can be deactivated reliably, and a replacement device can be brought online in minutes rather than days.
Providers will still compete on execution. Those that can industrialise eSIM at a multinational scale — delivering consistent governance and provisioning in minutes, not days, across more territories — will be positioned to win a disproportionate share of large and mid-market deals. Differentiation will also come from catalogue depth (dynamic plan selection, support for corporate-liable and BYOD scenarios) and from operational capabilities that reduce activation failures during device swaps.
As mobility becomes more outcomes-driven, procurement and IT leaders should adjust their evaluation criteria. First, require AI claims to be backed by operational metrics tied to SLAs, not demos. Second, treat eSIM lifecycle automation and systems integration (MDM/ITSM/HR) as mandatory requirements, with clear expectations for auditability and cross-country consistency. Finally, assess providers on their ability to run mobility as an operational discipline — measured in downtime avoided, incidents resolved faster, and onboarding made frictionless — rather than on feature lists or tariff plans alone.
“Enterprise mobility in 2026: AI that makes a difference and more eSIM automation” was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand.
The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
