Global IT spending is expected to rise by 7.9 percent to a total of $5.43 trillion in 2025. This is according to the latest forecast by research firm Gartner.
Despite a strategic slowdown in new investments due to global economic uncertainties, digital transformation, driven by artificial intelligence and generative AI, remains the engine of growth.
The growth in 2025 follows an increase of 7.4 percent in 2024. Spending on data center systems is growing particularly strongly. With an increase of over 42 percent, this segment is one of the fastest-growing parts of the IT market. According to Gartner, this growth is mainly due to demand for AI-optimized servers, which will be worth three times as much as traditional servers by 2027. In 2021, this market was virtually non-existent.
Geopolitical tensions
At the same time, what Gartner calls an uncertainty pause is causing CIOs to be cautious about new IT investments. This pause, which has been noticeable since the second quarter of 2025, stems from economic concerns and geopolitical tensions. Organizations are increasingly choosing not to reduce existing budgets, but to postpone them strategically. Hardware and infrastructure projects are particularly affected, partly due to price increases and disruptions in the supply chain. Existing contracts for cloud and managed services, on the other hand, remain largely unaffected.
Although many companies have started 2025 better than they did 2024, only a quarter expect to exceed their own targets this year. This is according to a Gartner survey of 252 senior executives in North America and Western Europe. The same survey shows that 62 percent of respondents see AI as critical to their competitive position over the next ten years. This emphasizes that technological innovation remains a strategic priority even under difficult circumstances.
Gartner notes that generative AI is currently in a phase where expectations and reality are becoming more aligned. Instead of large-scale experiments, IT leaders are now focusing more on concrete applications that can be deployed quickly. There is growing interest in simple, ready-to-use solutions that are offered as part of existing software packages. Although many CIOs are being presented with such functionality, this does not automatically mean that they will implement it immediately; the emphasis is more on proven short-term added value than on promising technology alone.
Despite all the uncertainties, technology remains an essential tool for many companies to maintain their competitive advantage. More than 64 percent of the leaders surveyed see technological investments as the key to success, even in a deteriorating economic climate.