State of Patch Management Report 2026

Research from Adaptiva, in partnership with Demand Metric, reveals both meaningful progress and ongoing challenges in enterprise patch management. Many organizations are embracing automation, recognizing its growing importance in accelerating remediation and reducing security risk. While this marks a significant step forward, most enterprises still operate in partially automated environments where coordination gaps, approval bottlenecks, incomplete coverage, and limited visibility continue to slow response times and increase exposure. As attackers increasingly use AI and automation to exploit vulnerabilities faster than ever, the need for more fully autonomous execution is becoming harder to ignore.