Global IT spending will grow to as much as 4.7 trillion euros ($5 trillion) this year, Gartner indicates. This is slightly more than double of global spending in 2023.
Companies worldwide are going to spend more on IT again, Gartner states in its forecast for 2024. Overall, spending is expected to grow by 6.8 percent this year to a total of $5 trillion.
This is double last year’s figures. According to the study, global IT spending in 2023 grew by 3.3 percent. Gartner’s expectations contradict general fears that IT spending would lag this year.
Reasons for growth in 2024
A key reason for IT spending growth includes the fact that companies are now starting to invest in planning for generative AI deployment, according to Gartner. This is despite their expectation that generative AI is not going to have as big an impact on business as previous trends such as blockchain and IoT.
Instead, according to Gartner, more traditional motives such as profitability and work to be done will drive up spending.
IT services now a leading market segment
More specifically, according to Gartner, by 2024, more will be spent on IT services than on the traditional market segment of communication services. This makes the IT services segment the largest sector in which companies put their money.
Overall, the IT services segment will grow 8.7 percent in 2024 to a total of $1.5 billion. In 2023, growth in this segment was 5.8 percent. The communications segment is set to grow by 2.3 percent this year to a total of $1.47 trillion.
Another market segment rising dramatically is that of devices. While spending on devices fell as much as 8.7 percent in 2023, in 2024 it will increase by 4.6 percent. Spending on cloud services is also going to grow by a whopping 20.4 percent this year.
Side note on predictions
Although the Gartner researchers expect positive numbers for this year when it comes to global IT spending, they did suggest a potential development that, if it actually happens, could still have an impact on the positive predictions around IT spending.
According to Gartner, it is quite possible that growth will suffer from so-called “change fatigue” and that it could turn into “change resistance”. By this, they mean that CIOs will eventually begin to hesitate about entering into new contracts with vendors, committing to long-term initiatives or hiring new vendors.
For every new initiative that is launched, CIOs now want to know more about how risks will be countered and more clarity about the ultimate outcomes of their IT spending, according to the market researchers.