Spending on artificial intelligence software, hardware and services is expected to double by 2024, even though COVID-19 has caused some industries to delay AI deployments, according to analyst firm IDC.
IDC pegged 2020 spending at $50 billion, to grow to $110 billion in 2024.
“Artificial intelligence continues to be a key technology in the road to recovery for many enterprises and adopting AI will help many to rebuild or enhance future revenues streams and operations,” said Stacey Soohoo, research manager at IDC, in a statement.
IDC said the pandemic caused a slowdown in AI investments across the transportation industry as well as leisure and hospitality businesses. By contrast, AI in Europe has been deployed to help governments to monitor the outcome of social distancing and the personal and consumer services. Also, hospitals are using AI to speed up COVID-19 diagnosis and testing and to automate remote medical consultations and to optimize hospital capacity.
Through 2024, the two industries expected to spend the most on AI are retail and banking, with retail focused on improving the customer experience with chatbots and recommendation engines. Banking will focus on fraud analysis and investigation as well as program advisors and recommendation engines, IDC said. The other top industries in the top five of spending will be discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing and healthcare. The fastest growth in AI spending will come from media, federal government and professional services.
The U.S. will provide more than half of all AI spending through 2024 with retail and banking, following by Western Europe and China. The strongest growth, however, will come from Japan with 32% annual growth and Latin America with 25% annual growth.
Of the $50 billion in spending expected in all of 2020, about one-third of the total will go for software and services, with the remainder going for hardware. Servers will dominate hardware spending, totaling $11 billion, while IT services will reach $14.5 billion and AI applications will total about $14 billion.
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