Worldwide IT spending is expected to total $5.26 trillion in 2024, an increase of 7.5% from 2023, according to the latest forecast by Gartner. The increase will be driven largely by a 24% AI-fuelled increase in spending on data centre systems, said the firm.

► Software and services also expected to see growth

► Pace of growth expected to quicken later in the year

Spending on data centre systems is expected to increase sharply, largely due to increased planning for GenAI. Software will be up 12.6% while IT services spending is projected to grow 7.1%, with consulting and business process services expected to be a little slower than previous estimates. Devices growth is expected to recover to 5.4% after falling in 2023.

Gartner expects the pace of growth to quicken as the year progresses. John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, said: ‘The change fatigue in CIOs that we saw at the start of the year has now abated and the contract backlogs going back to the third quarter of 2023 are being cleared. We expect to see a larger rush towards the end of the year to make up for the slow start’.