Gartner: Global AI business market to reach $1.2tn in 2018

As the European Commission this week announced plans to boost AI-focused innovation and research spending in the EU to €20bn by 2020, Gartner has predicted that the global AI-in-business market is set to reach $1.2tn this year.

The market value for 2018 would represent a 70% increase compared to last year, followed by a reduced growth rate to follow in the subsequent years, with AI-derived business value forecast to reach $3.9tn in 2022.

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“One of the biggest aggregate sources for AI-enhanced products and services acquired by enterprises between 2017 and 2022 will be niche solutions that address one need very well,” said John-David Lovelock, Research Vice President at Gartner.

“Business executives will drive investment in these products, sourced from thousands of narrowly focused, specialist suppliers with specific AI-enhanced applications.”

According to Gartner, AI solutions will be used by enterprises to drive performance across three specific areas – customer experience, increasing revenue, and cost reduction.

Breaking the report down further, Gartner predicts that this year 36% of the market will be driven by AI decision augmentation such as deep neural networks (DNNs), with this later rising to 44% by 2022.

“DNNs allow organizations to perform data mining and pattern recognition across huge datasets not otherwise readily quantified or classified, creating tools that classify complex inputs that then feed traditional programming systems,” Lovelock continued.

“Such capabilities have a huge impact on the ability of organizations to automate decision and interaction processes.”

Other key areas of the market include virtual/ digital agents, decision automation systems, and smart products.

For more information, Read the full Business Value of Artificial Intelligence Worldwide, 2017-2025 report.