Market forecast: Artificial intelligence drives IT investment

According to the latest Gartner forecast, global IT spending is expected to reach US$5.43 trillion this year. "Although the rise in global uncertainty is leading to a temporary pause in investment in new projects, this effect is largely offset by ongoing digitization initiatives in the areas of artificial intelligence and generative AI," says Gartner analyst John-David Lovelock, illustrating the situation in the IT market.

The analysts at the market research firm therefore continue to expect a considerable increase of 7.9 percent compared to 2024, although this represents a downward revision of two percentage points from their January growth forecast.

Strategic restraint - except for AI

Since the start of the second quarter of 2025, the market researcher has observed a strategic reluctance to make new investments in many sectors. This “pause in uncertainty” is a direct reaction to increasing economic uncertainties and geopolitical risks. The submarkets for software, IT services and end devices are suffering, with growth rates now estimated to be significantly lower than originally expected.

At the same time, however, Lovelock is registering a real boom in data center investments triggered by generative AI and largely driven by hyperscalers. For example, expenditure on AI-optimized servers, which would have played virtually no role four years ago, is expected to reach three times the level of investment in traditional servers by 2027.

Growth rate for data center investments doubles

In light of this market development, Gartner has doubled its original growth rate forecast for data center investments to over 42 percent, with a volume of just under $475 billion. For the software and IT services segments, however, the expected growth rate has been revised downwards by around four percentage points. Spending on software is now expected to grow by only 10.5 percent to $1.23 trillion, while service investments are expected to grow by 4.4 percent to $1.69 trillion.

In the end-user device business, suppliers will have to contend with a halving of growth to just over five percent, with an expected volume of $760 billion. The market research company has also revised its growth forecast for the communications services market downwards. It now expects growth of two percent to just under $1.3 billion.

(mho)