The intelligent automation space is positioned to take advantage of an enormous surge in AI spending by global businesses. According to a new report by S&P Global Ratings, AI spending worldwide will triple over the next three years to more than $650 billion, accounting for more than 14 percent of IT spend (up from 7 percent in 2024).
While S&P Global says cloud service providers are benefitting most from increased AI investment right now, companies that are leveraging AI and generative AI to “streamline current workloads” and “replace (or assist) lower-skilled and repetitive functions” be the focus for the next two to three years. The report says these products will be developed by a few companies, used by many, and will lead to immediate productivity improvement.
“Widespread adoption of AI by other business sectors will come only once AI infrastructure, large language models (like ChatGPT), and product-enhancing software applications are in place,” said Andrew Chang, technology director for S&P Global Ratings. “Starting about 2025, we expect investment will shift significantly towards accelerating capabilities for AI at the edge (where data will be captured and analyzed on local devices) and will thus expand AI’s adoption in various end markets requiring increased security and lower latency.”