AI Hardware and Software on Track to Top $1 trillion by 2027
Bain & Company forecasts that the value of the AI sector in three years’ time will be $780 billion at a minimum and $990 billion at a maximum.
Almost $1 trillion. That’s how much the artificial intelligence (AI) market could be worth by 2027, according to estimates shared by Bain & Company. Their calculations point to $780 billion at a minimum, with the potential to reach $990 billion between hardware and software.
Its evolution will be driven by the introduction of generative AI in the enterprise and the rise of data centres.
Bain & Company believes that AI-based job tasks will increase by 25-35% annually by 2027 and will lead to increased demand for processing capacity. At the same time, the cost of data centres will rise from $1-4 billion today to a range of $10-25 billion in the next five years.
Over the past year, the number of large enterprises spending more than $100 million on AI implementation has already doubled, leading them to experiment with hundreds of use cases.
Software development, customer support, sales and marketing, product improvement and internal operations are generating most of the value for companies in terms of AI.
‘In the case of Spain, several companies are considering major AI-related moves and are doing proofs of concept,’ says Alberto Requena, partner at Bain & Company, ’but only a few have made AI a key priority with specific plans and KPIs to measure their progress.
‘The areas where we are starting to see results are: coding (where we are seeing savings of up to 50% of code development time, driven by the employees themselves), internal knowledge management and customer service areas,’ specifies Requena.
A new chip shortage?
Bain & Company also predicts that large data centres could eventually expand to 1 gigawatt or more. They currently operate at between 50 and 200 megawatts.
Edge computing, meanwhile, should eventually move forward with domain-specific models. These will be geared towards lower latency and fast responses.
Another forecast from the consultancy concerns semiconductors for devices such as smartphones and computers. More specifically, a likely return to chip shortages due to increased demand for GPUs. Requests for key components could rise by 30% by 2026 and cause supply chain stresses.
