Worldwide spending on IT is expected to reach around $5 trillion in 2024, an increase of 6.8 per cent compared to the previous year.

According to a new forecast from technology research firm Gartner, these figures represent a decline on the previous forecast of eight per cent growth.

The company says that while generative AI (GenAI) is a big trend, it won’t impact the growth of spending on IT in the short term.

Gartner’s data suggests that IT services will see the largest increase in growth, jumping by 8.7 per cent to $1.5 trillion in 2024.

The research business said that this is due to companies investing in organisational efficiency and optimisation products which will be necessary during the current period of economic uncertainty.

“Adoption rates among consumers for devices and communications services plateaued over a decade ago,” said John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner. “Consumer spending levels are primarily driven by price changes and replacement cycles, leaving room for only incremental growths, so being surpassed by software and services was inevitable.”

Lovelock added that enterprises are continuing to find more uses for technology, with IT moving away from the back office to position itself at the forefront of operations.

IT is now revenue producing, explained the Gartner analyst, adding that until there is a plateau for how and where technology can be used in an enterprise, there “cannot be a plateau in enterprise IT spending”.

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