Global spending on artificial intelligence (AI), including software, hardware, and services for AI-centric systems, is expected to reach USD 154 billion in 2023, an increase of 26.9 percent over 2022, according to the latest study from the International Data Corporation, IDC, a market intelligence and advisory service provider.
According to IDC Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Spending Guide the ongoing incorporation of AI into a wide range of products will result in a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.0% over the 2022-2026 forecast with spending on AI-centric systems expected to surpass $300 billion in 2026.
Spending in the five-year period will be broad. IDC notes that only one of the 36 AI use cases it has identified will have a Cagr of less than 24 percent over the forecast period. The three top AI use cases in terms of spending include augmented customer service agents, sales process recommendation and augmentation, and programme advisors and recommendation systems. These top three will account for more than a quarter of all AI spending in 2023.
Commenting on this, Mike Glennon, Senior Market Research Analyst with IDC’s Customer Insights & Analysis team said, “Companies that are slow to adopt AI will be left behind – large and small. AI is best used in these companies to augment human abilities, automate repetitive tasks, provide personalized recommendations, and make data-driven decisions with speed and accuracy.
“Suppliers of AI technologies need to know which are the largest and fastest growing opportunities, but without data they become just another opinion. IDC’s AI Spending Guide provides the foundation for marketing strategy through its comprehensive coverage of AI opportunities and gives a robust basis for a market focus that ties with companies’ capabilities” he added.
The report adds that only one of the 36 AI use cases identified by IDC will have a CAGR of less than 24% over the forecast period.
These cases will see investment from nearly every industry and combined will account for more than a quarter of all AI spending in 2023. The other use cases that will see the largest spending this year support a more diverse set of tasks: IT Optimization, Augmented Threat Intelligence and Prevention Systems, and Fraud Analysis and Investigation.
The two industries that will deliver the largest AI investments in 2023 and throughout the forecast are Banking and Retail. The next largest industry for AI spending will be Professional Services followed by Discrete and Process Manufacturing. Together, these five industries will account for more than half of all spending on AI-centric systems this year.
The fastest growth in AI spending will come from the Media industry with a five-year CAGR of 30.2%. However, much like use case spending, only two of the industries in the Spending Guide will have CAGRs of less than 25%.