India’s IT spending to reach $44 billion in 2024, growing 11% YoY

IT spending in India for 2024 is expected to grow 11% year-on-year (YoY), reaching USD $44 billion in 2024, according to IDC. This was presented today by IDC to CIOs and senior IT leaders from across India during the thirteenth annual edition of the India CIO Summit themed The Future of IT: Rethinking Digitalization for an AI Everywhere World.

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 elongating refresh cycles.

As India’s digital economy continue to thrive in 2024 and beyond, IDC expects IT spending* in India to accelerate at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.9% over the coming years to cross the USD $59 billion mark in 2027 with the software market consistently showing double digit growth across the forecasted years. Generative AI (GenAI) will continue to accelerate AI adoption in India with more leading organizations exploring or investing in GenAI use cases. As technology leaders realize AI’s pivotal role in their digital-first strategies, IDC forecasts that investments on GenAI by 2027 will be 26% of the overall AI spend in the country or a CAGR of 101.6%.

The India CIO Summit by IDC and Foundry, throughout its 11-year run, is considered by India’s visionary technology leaders as the most significant event where they can discuss and collaborate with industry and technology experts and peers. This year, the event seeks to empower attendees with insights on how they can further realize the transformative power of AI to significantly enhance digital innovation, customer experiences, operational efficiencies, and sustainability to propel forward-thinking governments and digitally driven organizations toward an AI Everywhere mindset.

“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,” says Vasant Rao, Managing Director, IDC India and South Asia.

Steven Frantzen, Head of WW Strategy and Senior VP & Regional Managing Director (EMEA), IDC who delivered a presentation on Rethinking Digitalization for an AI-first World says, “Even with economic headwinds and uncertainty in 2024, we anticipate that global ICT spending will expand by more than 6% (3x of projected GDP growth), as we enter a new era of accelerated digital innovation, driven in part by greater investment in automation and generative AI.” IDC