Don’t let talk of layoffs and economic downturns get you down. Whether you’re a vendor looking to rebound in 2024 or an enterprise looking to deploy technology to meet business goals, there’s reason for optimism. Gartner this week revised it worldwide IT spending forecast, predicting an 8% increase to $5.06 trillion in 2024.

To be clear, there was reason for optimism already as Gartner's previous forecast predicted sizable growth, but this is a significant jump from the 6.8% growth anticipated earlier this year and. The revised focus puts global IT spending on track to surpass $8 trillion before the end of the decade.

“IT services are poised to become the largest market segment we track, with spending expected to surge 9.7% to a staggering $1.52 trillion,” said John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, said in a statement. “The talent gap in key IT skillsets is widening, causing enterprises to turn increasingly to IT service firms for expertise. This trend is pushing consulting spend to outpace internal IT staff investment for the first time.”

[caption id="attachment_140603" align="alignnone" width="947"] Source: Gartner (April 2024)[/caption]

Data center system spending is projected to witness a significant jump in spending, rising from 4% in 2023 to 10% in 2024. This upswing is largely attributed to enterprises planning for generative artificial intelligence (genAI) adoption.

While genAI caught the eye of enterprises – and the world – in 2023, Gartner predicts that in 2024, organizations will focus on planning and strategy for implementation in 2025.  “Tech providers are a step ahead, actively integrating genAI capabilities into existing products and services, aligning with use cases identified by their enterprise clients,” Lovelock said.

Gartner predicts a rise in service provider spending for markets supporting large-scale genAI projects, particularly servers and semiconductors. It anticipates AI servers to account for nearly 60% of hyperscalers' total server spending in 2024.

Gartner’s IT spending forecast analyzes sales data from over a thousand vendors across IT product and service industries, according to the research firm.