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# Organizations Are Now Reaching for OpenSearch for AI, Not Just Search
- URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/opensearch-open-data-report-2026/
- Published: 2026-09-22T16:41:33.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:41:33.000Z
- Description: The 2026 Open Data Infrastructure Report finds 62% of current users already run OpenSearch for AI workloads.
- Author: Sourav Rudra
- Tags: Enterprise, News

That's very interesting to see considering OpenSearch began as a fork.

When Elastic relicensed Elasticsearch and Kibana in 2021, AWS built an open alternative, keeping it under the *Apache 2.0 license*. Three years later, the project moved to neutral governance after the [Linux Foundation](https://www.linuxfoundation.org/?ref=itsfoss.com) launched the [OpenSearch Software Foundation](https://opensearch.org/foundation/?ref=itsfoss.com) in September 2024 as its vendor-neutral steward.

Now, reflecting on the journey so far, [Linux Foundation Research](https://www.linuxfoundation.org/research?ref=itsfoss.com) and the OpenSearch Software Foundation have jointly published **The 2026 Open Data Infrastructure Report**, examining how organizations are building out data infrastructure and what role OpenSearch plays in that picture.

The survey, conducted in May 2026, covered **294 respondents** across diverse categories like IT vendors, end-user organizations, and independent consultants.

## The report, briefly

Generative AI and LLM-powered applications lead all AI use cases **at 82% of organizations surveyed**.

At least 83% of respondents across every region are already running AI workloads or have plans to. Among current [OpenSearch](https://opensearch.org/?ref=itsfoss.com) users, 62% are already using it in AI workloads, and 44% consider it core AI infrastructure rather than a supporting component.

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2026/09/opensearch-open-data-report-2.png)

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2026/09/opensearch-open-data-report-3.png)

By 2026, **89% of organizations had heard of OpenSearch**, up from 68% two years prior. Production deployments went from 19% to 36% over the same period, with another 36% running tests or assessing adoption.

**Cost and vendor independence** are what organizations weigh most when picking a data infrastructure platform. Total cost of ownership tops the selection criteria for **80% of organizations**, security and compliance for **79%**, and vendor independence for **69%**.

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2026/09/opensearch-open-data-report-1.png)

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2026/09/opensearch-open-data-report-4.png)

71% also say **running infrastructure outside any single cloud provider's control is a strategic priority** for their organization, while average annual data infrastructure spend across the sample sits at around $2.4 million.

**Among active users**, search and retrieval leads at **91%**, followed by log analytics and observability at **83%**, real-time analytics at **70%**, and AI-related workloads at **62%**.

Whereas hybrid search is the go-to approach for **68% of organizations**.

## What now?

Most current deployments are not yet deeply embedded. Six in ten users say their OpenSearch setup is either experimental or something they could swap out; **only 36% call it deeply embedded or mission-critical**.

**Among non-users**, 81% say they are open to evaluating OpenSearch, though only 14% are actively planning to do so.

Alongside the report, the OpenSearch Software Foundation has announced **three new members**; one of them being Intel, and the other two being the new long-term support vendors.

We asked [Bianca Lewis](https://itsfoss.com/open-search-bianca-lewis/), Executive Director of the OpenSearch Foundation, what she thought about where agentic AI's headed next and how OpenSearch would fit into it:

> The technology stack powering agentic AI is shifting rapidly, and with growing uncertainty around AI costs, long-term commitments to proprietary platforms present both a financial and architectural risk. Now, leaders are turning to an open, vendor-neutral platform to strategically mitigate risk.

> An open data layer provides cost data and full visibility into which services are being called, giving teams the clarity needed to accurately cost and manage their infrastructure.  
>  
> This delivers the flexibility to innovate without vendor lock-in, ensuring organizations maintain sovereignty over both their data and their spend as the future of AI takes shape.