According to its report on the trend in total global expenditure on IT-related products, services and associated software, the market research company Gartner is expecting a year-on-year increase of 4.5% in 2018, which equates to a total volume of around 3.7 trillion US dollars. In particular, the investments of companies in the areas of big data, the Internet of things (IoT), machine learning, digital business models and blockchain technology are leading to growth, the report reveals. This is evident from, among other things, the disproportionate growth in expenditure on special business software of 9.5%.

According to Gartner, additional market volume of around 2.9 trillion US dollars will be created by 2021 in the area of technologies based on artificial intelligence alone. A Teradata survey shows that 80% of all companies are already investing in AI-based solutions now, while around 30% are planning to intensify their work in this area.