Azul 2026 State of Java Report: 62% Enterprises Use Java for AI, 81% Moving Away from Oracle Java

Survey of 2,000+ Java professionals highlights AI adoption surge, Oracle pricing concerns and cloud cost optimisation trends

Bengaluru: Enterprise Java is entering a decisive new phase, with artificial intelligence adoption and cost pressures reshaping platform choices across the global developer community, according to the latest survey by Azul.

The 2026 State of Java Survey & Report, based on responses from more than 2,000 Java professionals worldwide, reveals that 62% of enterprises now use Java to power AI functionality – up sharply from 50% last year – while 81% have migrated, are migrating, or plan to migrate at least part of their Oracle Java estate to non-Oracle OpenJDK distributions.

The findings point to a dual transformation underway: Java’s growing centrality in AI-driven architectures and accelerating dissatisfaction with Oracle’s pricing and licensing model.

Java’s Expanding Role in AI-Driven Enterprises

Java, long considered the backbone of enterprise systems, is increasingly becoming foundational in modern AI stacks. According to the report, 31% of respondents say more than half of the Java applications they build now contain AI functionality.

Enterprises are integrating machine learning models into existing Java-based systems to move AI workloads from experimentation into production environments. Respondents identified the following capabilities as critical for Java to remain competitive in an AI-enabled landscape:

• Long-term support for modern Java versions (35%)
• Built-in security features (34%)
• Observability insights (32%)
• Support for large data access (30%)
• Integration with large language models (30%)

The findings suggest that Java’s strengths in scalability, performance and security continue to make it a preferred runtime for deploying AI-enhanced enterprise services at scale.

Oracle Pricing Concerns Drive Migration

The survey highlights mounting concern within the Java community over Oracle’s employee-based pricing model introduced in 2023.

An overwhelming 92% of respondents report being concerned about Oracle Java pricing, while only 7% say they are “not at all concerned,” nearly half the level recorded last year. Satisfaction with Oracle’s licensing model continues to decline, prompting organisations to reassess long-term strategy.

Key migration drivers include:

• Cost reduction (37%)
• Preference for open source (31%)
• Uncertainty due to ongoing pricing changes (29%)
• Audit risk concerns (26%)

Notably, 21% of respondents reported already being subjected to an Oracle Java audit.

A significant 63% of enterprises intend to migrate their entire Java estate to non-Oracle OpenJDK distributions, indicating that the shift is not incremental but structural.

High-Performance Java Platforms as Cloud Cost Levers

As enterprises intensify cloud optimisation efforts, Java is also emerging as a key lever for compute efficiency.

The survey shows that 97% of respondents have taken steps to reduce public cloud costs. Among the top five strategies implemented, 41% cited the use of high-performance Java platforms to lower compute expenses.

By deploying faster and more efficient Java runtimes, enterprises can process more transactions with fewer cloud resources, directly reducing infrastructure spend or freeing up budgets for innovation.

However, inefficiencies remain widespread:

• 74% of organisations report more than 20% unused compute capacity in public cloud environments.
• Overprovisioning is common due to inconsistent runtime behaviour and slow start-up cycles.
• Among enterprises where at least 90% of applications run on Java, usage of high-performance Java platforms jumps from 61% to 81%.

These findings indicate that performance-optimised Java platforms are increasingly viewed as strategic infrastructure investments rather than technical enhancements.

DevOps Productivity Under Strain

Beyond cost and AI adoption, the survey highlights persistent productivity challenges.

Dead and unused code remains a major drag on engineering efficiency:

• 63% say dead or unused code negatively affects productivity.
• Only 6% report no impact.

Security noise compounds the issue. Java-related CVEs now demand attention daily or weekly for 56% of enterprises, up sharply from 41% in 2025. Meanwhile, 30% of respondents say their teams waste more than half their time chasing false positives triggered by scanners flagging vulnerabilities in non-executing code paths.

The findings suggest that runtime visibility and smarter vulnerability detection tools may become essential in preserving DevOps velocity.

Industry Perspective

Scott Sellers, co-founder and CEO of Azul, said Java continues to demonstrate durability and strategic importance amid one of the most transformative periods in enterprise computing. He noted that from AI-powered applications to cloud cost control and estate modernisation, Java remains central to both innovation and operational efficiency.

The 2026 report reflects a community that is increasingly embracing open technologies, prioritising cloud optimisation and working to eliminate friction that slows DevOps productivity.

A Platform at an Inflection Point

The 2026 State of Java Survey underscores a broader shift in enterprise technology strategy. Java is no longer simply the backbone of legacy systems – it is emerging as a key enabler of AI production workloads, cloud efficiency and operational resilience.

At the same time, pricing pressures and licensing complexity are accelerating the move toward open distributions, signalling a rebalancing of power within the Java ecosystem.

For enterprises navigating AI integration, cloud economics and security complexity simultaneously, Java’s evolution may prove pivotal in shaping the next decade of digital transformation.