According to Gartner, global IT spending will reach $5 trillion this year. AI fever is driving investment in data center infrastructure, while the search for talent is driving companies to spend more on IT services.

Inflation and geopolitical instability or not, companies around the world continue to invest heavily in IT. The market analysis agency Gartner assumes that global IT spending will rise again this year by eight percent to 5.06 trillion US dollars. For Gartner, three categories stand out: data centers, mobile devices and IT services.

AI: from history to implementation

Although data centers represent only a small portion of the total IT potential ($259.68 billion), it is one of the fastest growing categories. Last year, investments in data center infrastructure and services increased by four percent; this year the increase will decrease by ten percent. It should come as no surprise that the hype around generative AI is behind this rise.

According to Gartner, this year we are entering a new phase of AI: the planning phase. In 2023 it was mostly just nice stories, but this year companies are starting to prepare for the large-scale implementation of GenAI next year. According to Gartner, AI servers will account for nearly 60 percent of hyperscalers’ total server spending by 2024.

Gartner does not attribute the fact that the mobile device market will recover after 2023 (+3.6 percent) to AI, only to be quickly forgotten. The presence of an NPU or TPU in a smartphone or PC is currently no more than one good to have Because there is a lack of groundbreaking applications that demonstrate added value, an analyst explains to TechRepublic. Gartner also believes that the term “AI PC” is nothing more than misplaced marketing, even though manufacturers continue to slap the label on their new devices.

Search for talent

Another category where we are seeing a sharp increase is spending on IT services from external providers, up 9.7 percent. According to Gartner, this is related to the search for IT talent. Since key positions cannot be filled internally, the budget shifts to hiring external consultants in order not to fall behind on IT projects.

The software category recorded the greatest increase in the IT investment landscape with thirteen percent more spending. The most important category remains communications at $1.55 trillion, although it seems only a matter of time before IT services and software take up that torch.