Worldwide spending on technology will reach $3.7
trillion this year, an increase of 5% from last year, according to a new global forecast.
The main drivers of spending growth are IoT projects and the progression from Big Data to algorithms
to machine learning to artificial intelligence, according to the report by Gartner.
"Looking at some of the key areas driving spending over the next few years, Gartner forecasts $2.9 trillion
in new business value opportunities attributable to AI by 2021, as well as the ability to recover 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity," stated John-David Lovelock, research vice president at
Gartner. "That business value is attributable to using AI to, for example, drive efficiency gains, create insights that personalize the customer experience, entice engagement and commerce, and
aid in expanding revenue-generating opportunities as part of new business models driven by the insights from data."
The Gartner forecast is based on an analysis of sales by thousands of
suppliers along with primary and secondary research.