Generative AI will not increase India Inc’s IT spendings till 2025: Gartner

Gartner predict that generative AI will not have a significant effect on Indian corporations' IT spends till 2025.

Laptop with code displayed on it in an article about IT spends

The consulting firm has also put together a set of principles that can help organisations become AI-ready. (Christina Morillo via Pexels)

You would be forgiven for being led to believe that generative AI will change the world and it will do so right now. As it turns out, the world of Indian corporate IT spending will not be significantly changed by the groundbreaking technology, at least until 2025, according to Gartner.

But despite that, the Indian IT spending forecast looks quite rosy. Overall IT spending had shrunk by 0.5 per cent between 2022 and 2023, attributed to inflation pressure. The increasing adoption of digital technologies in the country will call for greater implementation of cloud services and IT services. This should mean that corporate spending on IT infrastructure is set to increase by 10.7 per cent in 2024, according to consultancy firm Gartner.

“A lot of Indian CIOs will need help with skills. The skill problem was already there for a couple of years. Now it is going to be further accelerated with AI, GenAI and cybersecurity,” said Naveen Mishra, VP, Team Management at Gartner, during a conference hosted by the company in Kochi. A significant chunk of the increased spending is set to come from software and IT services.

Becoming AI ready

As generative AI presents new opportunities for organisations while slowly taking up more and more of their IT budgets, the chief information officers (CIOs) will have to define their AI ambition. According to Gartner, they must begin by examining opportunities and risks of using AI in four areas—the back office, the front office, new products and services and new core capabilities.

A global survey conducted by the firm in June 2023 of CIOs and technology leaders found that only 9 per cent of organisations have an AI vision statement in place and more than one-third of respondents had no plans to create one.

Gartner’s method for organisations to be AI-ready:

The firm set down three things that firms must do for the safe adoption of generative AI technologies in the next 12 months.

Establish AI-ready principles: These principles must align with the values of the organisation, which will serve as the guiding light for navigating the unknowns of how humans, both employees and customers, will interact with machines.

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Make data AI-ready: AI-ready data will meet five categories—it will be secure, enriched, fair, accurate and governed by the organisation’s “lighthouse” principles.

Have AI-ready security: AI won’t just bring glad tidings to companies as many malicious actors will put the technology to use for exploiting security vulnerabilities. CIOs should also look at preparing their organisations for new attack vectors. They should also work to create a solid use policy for public generative AI solutions.

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artificial intelligence