ORLANDO, Fla.—Despite ongoing economic worries, a new study from Gartner is forecasting that worldwide IT spending is projected to total $5.1 trillion in 2024, an increase of 8% from 2023. 

The researchers noted that generative AI (GenAI) has not yet had a material impact on IT spending but investment in AI more broadly is supporting overall IT spending growth.

“In 2023 and 2024, very little IT spending will be tied to GenAI,” said John-David Lovelock, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “However, organizations are continuing to invest in AI and automation to increase operational efficiency and bridge IT talent gaps. The hype around GenAI is supporting this trend, as CIOs recognize that today’s AI projects will be instrumental in developing an AI strategy and story before GenAI becomes part of their IT budgets starting in 2025.”

The study also noted that cloud price increases would help boost software and IT services spending. 

The software and IT services segments will both see double-digit growth in 2024, largely driven by cloud spending as spending for software hits $1.04 trillion and IT services grows to $1.5 trillion. 

Global spending on public cloud services is forecast to increase 20.4% in 2024, and similarly to 2023 the source of growth will be a combination of cloud vendor price increases and increased utilization, the study reported. 

While inflation’s effect on both consumers and businesses plagued the devices market throughout 2022 and 2023, devices spending will begin to rebound modestly in 2024, growing 4.8% to $722 billion. 

Cybersecurity spending is also driving growth in the software segment. In the 2024 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey, 80% of CIOs reported that they plan to increase spending on cyber/information security in 2024, the top technology category for increased investment.

“AI has created a new security scare for organizations,” said Lovelock. “Gartner is projecting double-digit growth across all segments of enterprise security spending for 2024.”

The researchers also report that CIOs are experiencing change fatigue, which is often manifesting as a hesitation to invest in new projects and initiatives. This is pushing a portion of 2023’s IT spending into 2024, a trend that is expected to continue into 2025.

“Faced with a new wave of pragmatism, capital restrictions or margin concerns, CIOs are delaying some IT spending,” said Lovelock. “Organizations are shifting the emphasis of IT projects towards cost control, efficiencies and automation, while curtailing IT initiatives that will take longer to deliver returns.”

Gartner’s IT spending forecast methodology relies heavily on rigorous analysis of the sales by over a thousand vendors across the entire range of IT products and services. Gartner uses primary research techniques, complemented by secondary research sources, to build a comprehensive database of market size data on which to base its forecast.

The Gartner quarterly IT spending forecast delivers a unique perspective on IT spending across the hardware, software, IT services and telecommunications segments. These reports help Gartner clients understand market opportunities and challenges. The most recent IT spending forecast research is available to Gartner clients in “Gartner Market Databook, 3Q23 Update.”

Learn more in the complimentary Gartner webinar IT Spending Forecast, 3Q23 Update: The Impact of GenAI. 

ORLANDO, Fla.—Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.6 trillion in 2023, an increase of 5.1% from 2022, according to a new forecast by Gartner, Inc. released during Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo™.

Global IT spending is expected to hit $4.43 trillion in 2022, a slight 0.8% increase over 2021. 

Communications services will be the largest category of spending at $1.47 trillion followed by IT services at $1.36 trillion in 2023. 

The ongoing move to cloud-based technologies is reflected by the fact that spending on software will see an 11.3% increase in 2023 to $879 million, making it the fastest growing category, Gartner reported.   

Despite an expected slowdown in the global economy, demand for IT in 2023 is expected to be strong as enterprises push forward with digital business initiatives in response to economic turmoil, Gartner reported. 

“Enterprise IT spending is recession-proof as CEOs and CFOs, rather than cutting IT budgets, are increasing spending on digital business initiatives,” said John-David Lovelock, distinguished vice president analyst at Gartner. “Economic turbulence will change the context for technology investments, increasing spending in some areas and accelerating declines in others, but it is not projected to materially impact the overall level of enterprise technology spending.”

“However, inflation has cut into consumer purchasing power in almost every country around the world,” he added. “Consumer purchasing power has been reduced to the point that many consumers are now deferring 2022 device purchases until 2023, driving spending on devices down 8.4% in 2022 and 0.6% in 2023.”

STAMFORD, CONN. – Technology research company Gartner Inc., is forecasting global mobile data traffic will reach 52 million terabytes in 2015, an increase of 59 percent from 2014. Gartner predicts that growth will continue through 2018, with mobile video taking over a majority of total usage, hitting 60 percent by 2018. To help meet this demand, Gartner recommends communication service providers raising data caps to meet consumer needs.

Gartner surveyed 1,000 smartphone users in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2014 about their mobile usage habit. The survey revealed that Americans watch an average of 17.4 minutes per cellular video session; Germany, who Gartner also included in the survey, averaged 10.6 minutes. The biggest market for mobile video usage proved to be families with children, who proved to be the least concerned about using cellular data to stream video.

“With video usage as a percentage of total data usage set to rise from 50 percent now to 60 percent in 2018, we should expect CSPs to offer the best-of-breed video experience to consumers,” said Jessica Ekholm, research director at Gartner. “This involves using video optimization technologies and caching content closer to the consumer. Contract plans that single out video traffic to allow users to reach a certain cap (without touching their contract data cap) will increase usage and revenue for CSPs and meet consumer demand for more mobile video.”

You can find the full report on Gartner’s website.