Is Your Maturity Standing Still While Technology Levels Up? An Analysis of the 2026 Türkiye Digital and AI Maturity Report

For the past few years, one concept has, with good reason, been a constant in business conversations: artificial intelligence. Nearly every company claims to be AI-first in one way or another. But at the end of the day, the simple, brutal question we need to ask ourselves is this: is this technological revolution really making customers’ lives easier, or is it just noise companies are making in their own echo chambers?

The Türkiye Digital and AI Maturity Report 2026, prepared by Digitopia and TÜSİAD SD2, gives a truly striking and honest answer to exactly this question. Drawing on 103,500 data points globally and offering the largest dataset to date for Türkiye, with 551 measurements, the report delivers a crystal-clear main message: technology has leveled up, but companies’ organizational maturity has stood still.

The Toolbox Got an Upgrade, but the Operating System Stayed the Same

Looking closely at the report’s data, we see that Türkiye’s digital maturity score rose from 2.87 to 2.97 and its AI maturity score from 2.10 to 2.30. However, the overall DAIMI score, which combines the two areas, stayed at 2.83 for Türkiye, trailing the global average of 2.93. What these numbers tell us is that companies are rapidly updating their tools and software but can’t transform their ways of working, their cultures and their decision-making mechanisms at the same pace.

This isn’t unique to us. Global market research that Gartner published in early 2026 shows that 91% of customer service leaders are under heavy pressure from senior management to implement AI. Yet analyses Forbes published in the same period point to a $383 billion global AI yield crisis stemming from companies’ lack of alignment. At the root of that crisis, too, is the fact that these investments have yet to create value for customers. From a customer experience perspective, that is a major danger. If employees haven’t embraced the tool or, most importantly, if this technology traps customers in an endless loop of AI assistants instead of solving their problem, there is no value to speak of. In our recent article AI in Customer Operations: Big Promises, Low Returns. Why?, we addressed exactly this point and argued that technology must be positioned not as an end in itself but simply as a tool that supports people and processes.

The Sector Gap Is Widening, and Creating Value Is Getting Harder

One of the report’s most notable sections covers the divergence between sectors. In Türkiye, banking (3.26), automotive (3.16) and airports (3.05) lead in maturity, while sectors such as tourism (2.43), construction (2.56) and technology (2.58) fall well below the average.

It is especially sobering that tourism, a sector at the very heart of service, lags this far behind on the index. By centralizing data and quickly integrating AI into its value chain, the banking sector is both speeding up its operations and becoming more resilient. Sectors that lag behind, by contrast, get stuck at the pilot-project stage because they can’t put transformation on a systematic footing. The chart on page 16 of the report, which you can also see below, sums up exactly this disconnect. It shows how digital capabilities move beyond trend-following and turn into real business value.

As the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) stressed in its 2026 goals, it is now an organizational imperative for technology investments to deliver a clear, measurable return on investment (ROI) if they are to survive.

Autonomous Commerce and Tomorrow’s Customer Expectations

We have to cut through the noise of chasing what’s fashionable and focus solely on the value signal. The market may be full of flashy technology slogans, but real value emerges the moment back-end processes are rebuilt from scratch with “Agentic Commerce” engines. Customers don’t care which complex language model you’re running behind the scenes. They care about having their request resolved quickly, smoothly and with a personal touch. No infrastructure project that fails to put the customer at the center can survive in the end.

We must measure where we stand with complete candor and stop treating digital transformation as window dressing. To read the full version of this excellent study, prepared by Digitopia in collaboration with TÜSİAD SD2, and to run a fitness check on your own organization, visit Digitopia’s 2026 Türkiye Digital and AI Maturity Report.