Java use surges in AI as Oracle pricing drives shift

More than six in 10 enterprises now use Java to build artificial intelligence features. Concern over Oracle's Java pricing is also accelerating a shift toward OpenJDK distributions, according to a new survey of Java professionals from Azul.

The Azul 2026 State of Java Survey & Report is based on responses from more than 2,000 Java professionals worldwide. It shows Java playing a growing role in AI development, alongside increased scrutiny of licensing and costs across Java estates.

Java and AI

The survey found that 62% of organisations use Java to build AI functionality, up from 50% a year earlier in the same annual study.

Java has long been widely used in enterprise applications. The new results suggest more teams are adding AI components to existing systems rather than building AI services in separate stacks.

Nearly a third of respondents (31%) said more than half the Java applications they build now include AI functionality. The report cited Java-friendly AI libraries such as JavaML and Deep Java Library.

Respondents also highlighted what matters most for Java in an AI-enabled development environment. Long-term support for modern Java versions ranked highest at 35%, followed by built-in security features at 34%.

Observability insights ranked at 32%. Support for large data access and integration with large language models both ranked at 30%.

Licensing pressure

The results point to widespread unease over Oracle's Java pricing. Some 92% of respondents said they were concerned, while 7% said they were not concerned.

Oracle introduced an employee-based pricing model in 2023. The report described the change as an ongoing source of friction for organisations managing large Java estates, especially where Java is deployed across many business units and environments.

Migration away from Oracle Java also appears to be well under way. The survey found that 81% of respondents have migrated, are migrating, or plan to migrate at least part of their Oracle Java to a non-Oracle OpenJDK distribution.

Nearly two-thirds (63%) said they intend to migrate their entire Java estate. Cost was the most commonly cited reason for moving away from Oracle Java, at 37%.

Other drivers included a preference for open source (31%), uncertainty from ongoing changes (29%), and audit risk (26%).

The survey also asked about audit experience. It found 21% of respondents have already been subjected to an Oracle Java audit.

Cloud spend focus

Public cloud cost control emerged as another theme. Some 97% of participants reported taking action to reduce public cloud costs.

Using a high-performance Java platform was one of the top five cost-reduction strategies. About 41% of respondents said they had implemented this approach.

The report also highlighted ongoing concerns about waste. It found 74% of organisations reported more than 20% unused compute capacity in public cloud environments.

Among organisations with the highest concentration of Java usage, the survey suggested a stronger link between Java runtime choices and performance tuning. For respondents who said at least 90% of their applications run on Java, the share using a high-performance Java platform to improve application performance rose to 81% from 61%.

Operational drag

The survey also pointed to technical and operational issues affecting development and DevOps teams. Dead and unused code remained common, with 63% of respondents saying it affects their team's productivity.

Only 6% reported no impact.

Security workload was another pressure point. The report found 56% of enterprises now deal with Java-related CVEs daily or weekly, up from 41% in 2025.

It also found that 30% of respondents said their teams waste more than half their time chasing false positives, which the report linked to scanners flagging vulnerabilities in code paths that do not run in production.

Azul said the findings underscore Java's continued central role in enterprise development, including AI-driven applications and cloud deployments.

"Java continues to prove its durability and strategic importance as enterprises navigate one of the most transformative periods in modern computing," said Scott Sellers, co-founder and CEO of Azul.

Sellers said Java remains central to innovation and operational excellence, from powering AI-driven applications to helping organisations control cloud spend and modernise their estates.

He added that the survey points to a community evolving quickly, embracing open technologies, accelerating cloud optimisation, and removing friction that slows DevOps productivity.