Okta Announces Results of Annual 'Businesses at Work 2026' Survey on Business Application Usage Trends

Okta Japan Co., Ltd., the Japanese subsidiary of Okta, Inc. (Headquarters: San Francisco, USA, hereinafter Okta), a provider of identity management services, has announced the results of its annual report, "Businesses at Work 2026," which surveys business application (Note 1) usage trends based on anonymized data from Okta's global customers.

This survey analyzes anonymized data from the "Okta Integration Network (OIN)" that integrates with business applications used by Okta's global customers, revealing trends and changes in business application usage. This year's survey is based on data from November 1, 2024, to October 31, 2025.

This year's survey results show that the average number of adopted applications continues to increase across different company sizes, such as large enterprises and SMEs, with Japanese companies showing robust growth of 15% year-over-year. Furthermore, it highlights the reality of building next-generation identity foundations, including managing non-human identities (NHI) and migrating to phishing-resistant, high-assurance MFA factors, in anticipation of full-scale automation and AI operations.

Globally Fastest-Growing Business Applications
Reflecting the increasingly complex security threats of recent years, half of the fastest-growing applications globally this year are security solutions. "NinjaOne" took the top spot overall, recording a growth of 240% year-over-year, followed by "CrowdStrike Falcon" in second place (up 66%).

Looking at the fastest-growing applications by country, "NinjaOne" (up 240% year-over-year) topped in the US, "1Password" (up 25% year-over-year) in Canada, and "Notion" (up 43% year-over-year) in Japan.

Top 15 Most Used Business Applications Globally
The overall ranking of the top 15 most used business applications by customer count showed little change in the top positions: 1st "Microsoft 365," 2nd "Google Workspace," 3rd "Amazon Web Services (AWS)," 4th "Salesforce," and 5th "Zoom." Meanwhile, collaboration and development platforms like "Slack" (6th) and "GitHub" (8th) moved up in the rankings, and the design tool "Figma" made its first appearance at 11th, indicating the popularity of business applications that enhance team productivity.

Top 10 Most Used Business Applications in Japan
In the ranking based on customer count for Japanese customers, the top three (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, AWS) were the same as the global overall results. However, "Slack" ranked 4th and "Box" ranked 5th, and "Notion," which was the fastest-growing app in Japan, made its first appearance at 9th, reflecting trends unique to the Japanese market.

Average Number of Applications Adopted per Company
The global average number of applications adopted per company decreased from 101 last year to 98 (down 3% year-over-year), but when viewed by company size, the average number of adopted applications increased from last year. For SMEs with fewer than 2,000 employees, it increased from an average of 71 last year to 72 (up 1% year-over-year), and for large enterprises with 2,000 or more employees, it increased from an average of 247 last year to 259 (up 5% year-over-year). Technology startups also continued to grow, with an average of 46 (up 10% year-over-year).

Regionally, the AMER (Americas) region saw an average of 107 (down 4% year-over-year), while EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) continued to expand with an average of 77 (up 5% year-over-year), and APAC (Asia-Pacific) with an average of 67 (up 3% year-over-year). By country, the US had an average of 109 (down 4% year-over-year), but France saw an average of 83 (up 17% year-over-year), Japan an average of 53 (up 15% year-over-year), and South Korea an average of 46 (up 15% year-over-year), showing continued growth in the average number of applications adopted per company.

Accelerating Adoption of Best-of-Breed
Among Okta's Microsoft 365 customers, there is a stronger trend to complement some business functions with best-of-breed products from other companies. For the first time, the percentage of companies using both "Amazon Web Services (AWS)" and "Google Workspace" reached 51%, exceeding the majority. Other co-used third-party applications include Zoom (48%).

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