Gartner predicts that the global artificial intelligence software market will reach $62 billion in 2022

Market growth will accelerate as organizations gain AI maturity

[November 30, 2021] Gartner predicts that global artificial intelligence (AI) software revenue is expected to reach US$62.5 billion in 2022, an increase of 21.3% compared to 2021.

“The AI ​​software market is accelerating, but its long-term trajectory will depend on the organizations that drive AI maturity,” said Alys Woodward, senior research director at Gartner.

The AI ​​software market includes AI-embedded applications such as computer vision software and software used to build AI systems. Gartner's forecast for the AI ​​software market is based on use cases, predicting how use cases will grow by measuring the potential business value, time to value and risk.

Gartner predicts that the five use cases with the highest spending on AI software in 2022 will be knowledge management, virtual assistants, autonomous vehicles, digital workplaces, and crowdsourced data (see Table 1).

Table 1. Global software market use case forecast from 2021 to 2022 (Unit: million US dollars)

Source: Gartner (November 2021)

“The success of AI business outcomes will depend on careful selection of use cases,” said Woodward. “Use cases that deliver significant business value while also being scalable to mitigate risk are critical to demonstrating to business stakeholders the difference an AI investment can make.”

AI maturity lags behind interest

The demand for AI technologies and the related market growth are closely related to the AI ​​maturity level of the organizations. Enterprises continue to show strong interest in AI. In the Gartner 2022 CIO and Technology Executive Survey, 48% of CIOs said they have deployed or plan to deploy AI and machine learning technologies in the next 12 months.

But the actual deployment of artificial intelligence is far less optimistic. According to Gartner's research, although enterprises generally try to use artificial intelligence, it is difficult to integrate this technology into their standard operating processes. Gartner predicts that half of the world's enterprises will not reach the "stable stage" or higher artificial intelligence maturity described by Gartner's artificial intelligence maturity model until 2025.

Increased AI maturity will lead to increased spending and, in turn, revenue for AI software, especially in technology categories related to data and analytics, while lags in maturity caused by reluctance to accept AI, lack of trust in AI, and difficulty realizing business value from AI will have a corresponding decelerating effect on spending and revenue.