KUALA LUMPUR (April 18): Global IT spending is expected to rise 8% year-on-year to US$5.06 trillion (RM24.2 trillion) in 2024, according to consulting firm Gartner, Inc.

In a statement on Wednesday, the firm said this is an increase from the previous quarter’s forecast of 6.8% and puts worldwide IT spending on track to surpass US$8 trillion well before the end of the decade.

Gartner distinguished VP analyst John-David Lovelock said with spending on IT services on track to grow by 9.7% to eclipse US$1.52 trillion, this category is on pace to become the largest market that Gartner tracks.

Lovelock said enterprises are quickly falling behind IT service firms in terms of attracting talent with key IT skillsets.

This creates a greater need for investment in consulting spend compared to internal staff.

“We are at an inflection year for this trend, with more money being spent on consulting than internal staff for the first time,” he said.

Gartner said spending on data centre systems is expected to see a notable jump in growth from 2023 (4%) to 2024 (10%), in large part due to planning for generative AI (GenAI).

“We are seeing a cycle of story, plan, execution when it comes to GenAI. In 2023, enterprises were telling the story of GenAI and in 2024 we are seeing most of them planning for eventual execution in 2025,” said Lovelock.

He said technology providers are required to be a step ahead of this cycle and are already in the execution phase.

Lovelock said they are bringing GenAI capabilities to existing products and services, as well as using cases being identified by their enterprise clients.

“There is also gold-rush level spending by service providers in markets supporting large scale GenAI projects, such as servers and semiconductors.

“In 2024, AI servers will account for close to 60% of hyperscalers total server spending,” he said.