AI drives Java growth as firms flee Oracle licensing

Azul says enterprises are increasing their use of Java to support artificial intelligence workloads while also accelerating plans to move away from Oracle's Java licensing model due to cost concerns.

The company's 2026 State of Java Survey, based on responses from more than 2,000 Java professionals worldwide, found that 62% of organisations now use Java to code AI functionality. That is up from 50% a year earlier. At the same time, 92% of respondents said they are concerned about Oracle Java pricing, and 81% have migrated, are migrating, or plan to migrate at least part of their Oracle Java estate to a non-Oracle OpenJDK distribution.

AI adoption

The survey indicates that Java is playing a growing role as companies move AI projects from pilot stages into production systems.

Nearly one third of respondents said more than half of the Java applications they build now contain AI features. Respondents highlighted long-term support for modern Java versions, built-in security features and improved observability as key requirements for Java to remain competitive in AI-driven development.

Dean Vaughan, Vice President, APAC, Azul, said artificial intelligence is driving renewed interest in the language.

"AI is a big driver, particularly around Java and the glue behind all of the apps that bring AI together, as well as programming and writing in AI," said Vaughan.

Vaughan said Java sits underneath many enterprise systems that enable AI tools to function at scale.

"All of the applications that power the AI, that ensure that AI can deliver the performance that you're looking for. All of those applications run on Java, and it's the Java that sits there. It's the importance of Java and ensuring that you can deliver the responses that customers expect when it comes to AI," said Vaughan.

Java has long been used for large-scale enterprise systems, including banking platforms, telecommunications services and payment processing. The survey suggests that this installed base is now being adapted to support AI-enabled services rather than replaced.

Licence concerns

The survey also highlights dissatisfaction with Oracle's employee-based pricing model for Java, introduced in 2023.

Only 7% of respondents said they were not at all concerned about Oracle's pricing. Twenty-one per cent said they had already been subjected to an Oracle Java audit. Cost was cited as the main driver for migration away from Oracle Java by 37% of respondents. Other factors included a preference for open source, uncertainty around licensing changes and audit risk.

Vaughan said the pricing model has prompted organisations to reconsider their long-term Java strategy.

"Oracle continues to be a major driver with regards to their employee based licencing. It is driving and scaring organisations everywhere because of the cost that they're looking at and associating with her with their Java support," said Vaughan.

The findings suggest that many organisations are seeking more predictable licensing terms as Java remains embedded in critical systems.

Cloud efficiency

Cost management is not limited to licensing. The survey found that 97% of respondents have taken steps to reduce public cloud spending. Forty-one per cent said they are using a high-performance Java platform as one of their top five cloud cost optimisation strategies.

Seventy-four per cent of organisations reported more than 20% unused compute capacity in their public cloud environments. This suggests many overprovision infrastructure to compensate for inconsistent runtime performance.

Vaughan said faster Java runtimes can reduce the compute resources required to run applications.

"As we see more and more countries in Asia move to cashless societies, payment processing, online payments, this industry is booming, and as it continues to boom, all of that technology runs on Java, and of course, we need the payments to be processed fast and quickly and a high performing Java drives that," said Vaughan.

He added that performance gains can translate into lower infrastructure costs.

"As a result of that, customers can generate greater cloud cost savings because they've got a faster app, and they can deliver that same speed with less compute, or they can just, quite simple transition to better performance," said Vaughan.

Among organisations where at least 90% of applications run on Java, 81% said they use a high-performance Java platform to improve performance, compared with 61% across all respondents.

Developer strain

The survey also points to operational challenges affecting development and DevOps teams. Sixty-three per cent of respondents said dead or unused code affects their productivity. More than half of enterprises now deal with Java-related common vulnerabilities and exposures on a daily or weekly basis. Thirty per cent said their teams spend more than half their time investigating false positives.

The findings indicate that while Java remains central to enterprise IT, organisations face increasing pressure to manage cost, performance and security as AI workloads expand.

The survey was administered by Dimensional Research and compiled from responses by 2,039 qualified participants across five continents.