Study: Global AI spending rose more than 20% in 2021

In 2021, global revenue from AI products totaled $383.3 billion. IDC researchers estimate this to be 20.7% higher than the previous year.

Experts analyzed global AI spending across software, hardware, and services.

The largest segment of the market remained the software sector: last year it accounted for around $340 billion of total spending. Nearly half of this amount came from AI applications. At the same time, AI software platforms demonstrated the highest year-on-year growth — 36.6%.

In 2021, spending on AI hardware amounted to about $18.8 billion. However, this sector posted the fastest growth — 38.9% compared with 2020. $15.6 billion went to server sales.

Total AI services market value rose 22.4% year over year to $24 billion. Of this, IT services accounted for $18.8 billion, a 21.9% rise.

In 2022, analysts expect the AI market to reach $450 billion.

In IDC’s 2021 report, researchers forecast AI spending to grow by 15.2%, to $341.8 billion.

“In all industries and functions of consumer-focused organisations, AI technologies unlock benefits as more powerful systems enable better decision-making and productivity,” said Rasmus Andersbjerg, IDC’s Deputy Vice President of Data and Analytics.

Earlier in March 2021, KPMG researchers found that the coronavirus pandemic accelerated the deployment of AI systems.

In November 2021, Gartner analysts forecast AI software market growth to $62.5 billion.

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