IT spend in India to grow 11%, to hit $44 b in 2024: IDC report

IT spending in India for 2024 is expected to grow 11 per cent yearonyear reaching $44 billion in 2024, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).

In 2023, despite economic headwinds and uncertainty, Indian enterprises continued to invest in digital to increase customer engagement and satisfaction, launch new products and services, and improve operational efficiency to drive revenue growth and profitability.

They allocated their budgets mainly to software, application development and cloud migrations, a reflection of their judiciousness to make their hardware assets work longer and elongate refresh cycles, according to the report.

SHIFT TO DIGITAL

“India Inc.’s shift to digital continues unabated as enterprises march aggressively towards an AI Everywhere future. We can clearly see this in the growth of AI investments from Indian enterprises,” said Vasant Rao, Managing Director, IDC India and South Asia.

As India’s digital economy continues to thrive in 2024 and beyond, IDC expects IT spending in India to accelerate at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.9 per cent over the coming years to cross the $59 billion mark in 2027, with the software market consistently showing doubledigit growth across the forecasted years. Generative AI (GenAI) will continue to accelerate AI adoption in India, with more leading organisations exploring or investing in GenAI use cases.

IDC forecasts that investments in GenAI by 2027 will be 26 per cent of the overall AI spend in the country, or a CAGR of 101.6 per cent.

Steven Frantzen, Head of WW Strategy and Senior VP & Regional Managing Director (EMEA), IDC, said, “Even with economic headwinds and uncertainty in 2024, we anticipate that global ICT spending will expand by more than 6 per cent (three times the projected GDP growth) as we enter a new era of accelerated digital innovation, driven in part by greater investment in automation and generative AI.”