According to Gartner, “AI has been a boon for architecture, namely due to new protocols and hyped patterns, and integration has never been more important.” The 2026 Gartner Software Engineering Survey found that the top priorities over the next 12 months are creating and delivering an AI strategy for software engineering (45%), improving developer productivity and efficiency (41%), and optimizing engineering and operations costs (39%). To us, this Hype Cycle plots where the AI integration technologies behind those priorities actually sit, and how long until they are ready.
What you’ll learn
- Where Tray is named, across self-integrating applications, AI-augmented integration tools, and packaged integration processes
- How MCP and agentic AI are maturing, and how long until mainstream adoption
- Benefit ratings across the profiles, from low to transformational
Gartner® Disclaimer
Gartner and Hype Cycle are trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates.
Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Gartner, Inc. Hype Cycle for AI in Application Integration and Architecture, 2026, Wei Jin, Andrew Comes, 2 June 2026