State of On-Demand Tech Skills 2026 Research Report

85% already use on-demand tech skills. Only 11% are doing it right.

The data everyone in tech has been arguing about without evidence. Until now.

Every leadership team is having the same debate: how do we build capability fast enough to keep up with AI, modernisation and shifting priorities without betting everything on slow, rigid hiring?

Until now, that debate ran on opinion and anecdote. No independent benchmark existed.

So we built one. This report is the first hard evidence base for what "good" actually looks like and where most organisations are quietly leaving value on the table.

Five things you'll know in the next two minutes that your competitors don't:

1. Where you really sit vs your peers
   Benchmark your approach against the market and see exactly how far ahead the top 11% have pulled.
2. Why flexibility is a smokescreen
   52% say "flexibility" is their driver. The real story underneath is bigger, structural, and AI-shaped.
3. The one challenge that decides everything
   66% named the same friction point (almost double any other). Get it wrong and on-demand delivery fails. Get it right and the results are immediate.
4. The hidden cost of hiring the old way
   39% missed delivery deadlines because traditional sourcing couldn't keep pace. See what it's costing organisations like yours.
5. What the next 24 months demand
   67% are accelerating data and AI. Find out whether your current model can actually deliver it or whether it's about to break.

"The shift to on-demand tech skills is not a trend. It is a structural change in how organisations compete. This report gives leaders, for the first time, the data they need to benchmark their approach and make better decisions." Stuart Houghton - CEO & Founder, Brightbox

The leaders aren't doing something radical. They're doing it deliberately.

The organisations pulling ahead have moved from reacting to planning. From sourcing individuals to building capability. From treating on-demand skills as a cost to managing them as a strategic asset.

That shift is available to every organisation in this report. The only question the data leaves open is when you start.

See where you stand.

Get the world's first independent benchmark on on-demand tech skills - the findings, the data, and the playbook the top performers are already running.