Credit: Dreamstime
Global artificial intelligence (AI) software spending will grow 21.3 per cent to US$62 billion next year, according to analyst firm Gartner.
Knowledge management, virtual assistants, autonomous vehicles, digital workplace and crowdsourced data will make up the top five use cases for AI software spending in 2022.
The forecast report focused on applications with AI embedded in them, such as computer vision software, as well as software that is used to build AI systems.
“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,” Gartner senior research director Alys Woodward said.
Demand for AI technologies and associated market growth is closely tied to organisational AI maturity levels, the report said.
Enterprises also demonstrated a strong interest in AI, with 48 per cent of CIOs in the 2022 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey responding that they have already deployed or plan to deploy AI and machine learning technologies within the next 12 months.
Despite this, the report found the reality of AI deployment is much more limited; even though organisations commonly experiment with AI, they struggled to make the technology a part of their standard operations.
Gartner predicts that it will take until 2025 for half of organisations worldwide to reach the “stabilisation stage” of AI maturity or beyond.
Advances in AI maturity will increase AI software revenue due to increased spending, particularly across the data and analytics related technology category. A lag in maturity — caused by reluctance to embrace AI, lack of trust in AI and difficulties delivering business value from AI — will have a corresponding deceleration effect on spending and revenue, the report said.
This forecast report focuses on applications with AI embedded in them, such as computer vision software, as well as software that is used to build AI systems.
Gartner has previously highlighted the importance of the technology, with it claiming advanced AI as one of its top tech trends to be embraced by CIOs in 2022 at its virtual IT Symposium/Xpo.
Other trends include hyper-automation, cloud-native platforms, decision intelligence, and advanced security, among others.
