An operations leader gets a new mandate on a Monday morning. A vendor changes terms, a regulation shifts, a key system goes down. The plan that took weeks to build now needs to change by Friday. The tools are supposed to make this easier. Instead, someone spends the afternoon updating three different systems by hand, hoping nothing falls through the cracks.
That scenario plays out constantly across operations teams, and Smartsheet’s newly released 2026 Operational Excellence Report puts numbers behind it. Smartsheet surveyed 1,550 operations professionals across the US, UK, Germany, France, Singapore, Japan, and Australia, and the findings point to a problem that goes deeper than efficiency. It’s resilience, and most organizations don’t have it.
Efficiency Was Never the Whole Problem
Operations leaders rank efficiency as their top priority. They also rank it as their second biggest challenge. 99% of survey respondents say they still spend time every week on repetitive, low-value tasks, and the report found the most common response to this pressure has been investing in more tools and systems.
That instinct makes sense on the surface. It also tends to backfire. Point solutions accumulate over time, each one solving a narrow problem while adding a new silo. The result is a war chest of disconnected tools that lock teams into manual workarounds instead of freeing them up. Smartsheet’s research found 76% of operations professionals rely on these workarounds because their existing tools and processes can’t flex with changing priorities.
This is the pattern we see in Smartsheet engagements. Organizations don’t lack tools. They lack a system where those tools actually talk to each other.
Fragmentation Is an Operational Risk, Not Just an Inconvenience
Nearly every operations leader surveyed, 99.6%, said business changes require them to shift priorities, and 46% say this happens frequently. Change isn’t the exception in operations. It’s the baseline condition.
The problem is that most operational systems aren’t built to absorb that change. Smartsheet’s report found 71% of respondents agree that friction from fragmented tools and rigid, manual processes creates drag that slows their ability to respond to business challenges. And while 97% say full visibility into work across the organization matters, 61% admit they don’t have it.
That gap compounds. Only 28% of operations leaders say they always have access to the right data and insights to anticipate disruptions and make timely decisions. Without connected data, leaders are reacting to problems after they’ve already cost time and money, rather than seeing them coming.
Smartsheet’s data makes a case we’ve been building with clients for years: operational excellence isn’t just about running lean. It’s about building infrastructure durable enough to hold institutional knowledge and consistent workflows even as priorities, tools, and people change.
AI Is Already in the Operations Stack, Whether It’s Governed or Not
According to the report, 94% of operations professionals currently use AI tools for operational management, ranging from general-purpose generative AI to specialty AI features built into their operations platforms. Notably, 31% say they’ve already started using AI agents to autonomously approve and trigger actions. That’s no longer a future-state conversation. It’s happening now, often without a formal strategy behind it.
The report also found a strong correlation between AI use and data access: 71% of respondents who say they “always” use AI also report always having the data they need to make informed decisions, compared to just 13% of those who rarely use AI. AI’s real strength here isn’t generating content. It’s aggregating and organizing data across systems that were never designed to talk to each other, which is exactly the fragmentation problem operations teams are fighting.
But adoption without governance creates its own risk. Only 26% of organizations report having fully documented and strictly enforced AI governance policies, while 70% admit employees are using AI tools that fall outside official policy. And 87% of respondents still believe AI needs human input to deliver useful results. That combination, high usage and low governance, is exactly how organizations end up with new silos and new risk instead of new resilience.
This is where we spend a lot of our time with clients right now: not convincing them to adopt AI, but helping them govern the AI adoption that’s already underway.
What a Durable Operating System Actually Looks Like
Smartsheet’s report is direct about the fix: the answer isn’t another point solution. It’s a system where standardization and flexibility coexist, where processes live in the infrastructure itself rather than in one person’s head, and where new team members can run to standard from day one regardless of leadership changes.
That system needs a few specific capabilities to work:
1. AI has to be embedded directly into the workflows people already use, not siloed in a separate app they have to remember to check.
2. Governance and auditability need to be built in from the start, with audit trails and rollback controls that make AI usage traceable rather than a black box.
3. Systems need to be orchestrated across platforms instead of operating in isolation, so a change in one place doesn’t create a blind spot somewhere else.
4. Leaders need real-time visibility into outcomes, not manually assembled reports that are outdated by the time they’re finished.
Organizations that have built this kind of system are already seeing what it delivers. Smartsheet’s report cites Bayer standardizing 1,500 projects on a single system and saving more than 20,000 hours in 2023, ADP reclaiming 33 hours per week previously spent on reporting, and Roche managing 30% more projects with the same headcount. None of that comes from a single new tool. It comes from a connected system that removes the manual work standing between operations teams and the decisions they need to make.
How Optimum Helps Operations Teams Close the Gap
Closing the resilience gap takes more than turning on a new feature. It takes a strategy that connects the platform, the data, and the AI layer into one governed system, and it takes a partner who understands all three.
As a Smartsheet Elite Solution Partner, Optimum designs Smartsheet environments built around this kind of durability from the start: standardized workflows, embedded automation, and dashboards that give leadership the visibility Smartsheet’s report shows most organizations are still missing. We also help clients connect Smartsheet to Microsoft Copilot and Claude through Smartsheet’s MCP support, so AI can act inside the platform teams already use instead of living in a separate tool nobody adopts.
That work extends beyond Smartsheet configuration. As an official Microsoft Solutions Partner and Claude partner, we bring the AI, data, and integration expertise needed to connect Smartsheet with the ERP systems, data warehouses, BI tools, and CRMs operations teams already depend on, so information moves across systems instead of getting stuck in another silo. And because governance is where so many AI initiatives stall, we build responsible AI adoption into every engagement: clear policies, audit trails, and change enablement that help teams trust the systems they’re using instead of working around them.
Smartsheet’s 2026 Operational Excellence Report makes it clear that the organizations closing the resilience gap aren’t the ones with the most tools. They’re the ones with the most connected, most governed system. That’s the work we help operations teams build.
Ready to see where your operations stand? Reach out for a complimentary discovery session and find out where your biggest opportunities for durable, AI-ready operations are hiding.
About Optimum
Optimum is a Smartsheet Elite Solution Partner and award-winning IT consulting firm, providing AI-powered data and software solutions and a tailored approach to building data and business solutions for mid-market and large enterprises.
With our deep industry expertise and extensive experience in data management, business intelligence, AI and ML, and software solutions, we empower clients to enhance efficiency and productivity, improve visibility and decision-making processes, reduce operational and labor expenses, and ensure compliance.
From application development and system integration to data analytics, artificial intelligence, and cloud consulting, we are your one-stop shop for your software consulting needs.
Reach out today for a complimentary discovery session, and let’s explore the best solutions for your needs!
Contact us: info@optimumcs.com | 713.505.0300 | www.optimumcs.com
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Smartsheet 2026 Operational Excellence Report?
The Smartsheet 2026 Operational Excellence Report is a research study based on a survey of 1,550 operations professionals across the US, UK, Germany, France, Singapore, Japan, and Australia, fielded in partnership with Dimensional Research. It examines how operations teams balance efficiency with the need to adapt to business change, and it identifies a widening “resilience gap” between what operations teams need from their systems and what those systems actually deliver. The report also looks at how AI adoption is reshaping operational management, including where AI is helping and where a lack of governance is creating new risk.
What is the “resilience gap” in operations management?
The resilience gap refers to the disconnect between how often operations teams need to shift priorities in response to business change and how well their tools and workflows can actually support that shift. According to Smartsheet’s research, 99.6% of operations leaders say business changes require them to reprioritize, yet 71% say friction from fragmented tools and rigid, manual processes slows their ability to respond. The result is a reliance on manual workarounds, limited visibility into work across the organization, and difficulty making timely, informed decisions, even as the pace of change keeps increasing.
How does AI help close the operational resilience gap?
AI helps close the resilience gap primarily by aggregating and organizing data across systems that were previously disconnected, giving operations leaders the visibility they need to anticipate disruptions rather than react to them. Smartsheet’s report found that operations professionals who consistently use AI are far more likely to always have access to the data and insights they need for informed decisions. However, AI alone isn’t a complete solution. It needs to be embedded directly into existing workflows, backed by clear governance and audit controls, and paired with human oversight to be effective and trustworthy at scale.
What is Smartsheet’s Elite Solution Partner designation?
Elite Solution Partner is Smartsheet’s top partner tier, recognizing organizations with deep expertise across Smartsheet implementation, integration, and adoption. Optimum holds this designation following more than a decade as a Smartsheet Platinum Partner, reflecting a track record of helping organizations design governed, AI-enabled Smartsheet environments rather than simply deploying the platform out of the box.
