AI software spend will pass $80b globally: Gartner

Revenue from artificial intelligence (AI) software is forecast to total $80 billion (US$62.5 billion) in 2022, 21.3 percent growth from 2021, according to analyst firm Gartner.

However, its continued growth over the long-term will depend on whether enterprise organisations continue to invest in advancing their AI maturity, Gartner senior research director Alys Woodward said.

The AI software market includes applications with embedded AI as well as software used to build AI systems.

Gartner said that the highest growth categories within the market will be knowledge management, virtual assistants, autonomous vehicles, digital workplace and crowdsourced data.

“Successful AI business outcomes will depend on the careful selection of use cases,” Woodward said. “Use cases that deliver significant business value, yet can be scaled to reduce risk, are critical to demonstrate the impact of AI investment to business stakeholders.”

One of the major challenges for the market is the gap between organisations interest in AI technologies and their ability to implement and manage them.

48 percent of CIOs that Gartner surveyed indicated they have or are planning to deploy AI solutions in the next year. However, many organisations struggle to make it a part of their standard operations.

Gartner’s research shows that it may take until 2025 before half of organisations globally reach the “stabilisation stage” of AI maturity, the company said.

In the coming months, AI-driven technology providers will need to balance increased maturity and the resulting increased spend with AI reluctance, lack of trust and difficulties in seeing the delivery of revenue, Gartner said.

The AI software forecast is based on use cases, measuring the amount of potential business value, timing of business value and risk to project how use cases will grow.

AI software market forecast by use case, 2021-2022, worldwide (millions of USD)

Source: Gartner (November 2021)