Kyndryl Survey Finds Only 9% Fully Understand Their Application Dependencies

Only 9% of respondents fully understand their applications’ dependencies, according to Kyndryl’s first global Modernization Report, released October 1. The company surveyed 2,000 business and technology leaders across five continents and 12 industries; nearly half said their modernization work was behind schedule.

Why dependencies matter

An application dependency is another component, service or data source that software needs to function. Kyndryl also reports that one-quarter of respondents have large numbers of undocumented applications. These are respondents’ assessments, not the result of CapKet inspecting their systems.

CapKet analysis: The practical question for a budget owner is not simply which software to replace. It is what else must change for the replacement to work. A proposed project should identify the systems it connects to, the teams responsible for them and the evidence that those connections will continue to operate.

One useful starting point is a map of an actual business process, such as receiving an order and producing an invoice. Mark the applications, data transfers and manual steps involved. Then ask what has been tested and what is still assumed. This is an illustrative planning exercise, not a description of a surveyed company’s process.

AI findings need careful interpretation

Kyndryl says 10% of surveyed organizations have agentic AI in production for modernization. It reports that 67% of those adopters are on or ahead of schedule, compared with 51% of other organizations. Agentic AI refers here to software that can plan and carry out tasks.

The comparison does not establish that AI caused the difference. Organizations may start with different resources, skills or project scopes; this release does not remove those possible explanations. CapKet has not reviewed individual responses or independently verified the reported outcomes.

Kyndryl supplies modernization services, so readers should recognise the commercial context of its research. Our finance-readiness explainer covers the related distinction between owning an AI budget and being ready to deploy it.

Primary source: Kyndryl’s October 1 release, checked at approximately 18:11 IST. This is a fresh company report; CapKet has not confirmed it as a search-trending topic.