AI is Growing Three Times Faster than the IT Sector as a Whole

This corresponds to an average annual growth rate of 19 percent, three times faster than the entire IT market will grow during the same period. This is the conclusion of a recent study by management consultants Sopra Steria Next.

The study divides the market into four application areas: ‘AI for machines,’ ‘AI for processes,’ ‘AI for people,’ and ‘AI for software.’ According to the study, the global AI market is expected to account for around ten percent of the IT market in 2028, up from an estimated six percent in 2023. Sopra Steria highlights that growth will be driven by significant technological advances in each of these four application areas of artificial intelligence.

AI for machines

The market for industrial AI is expected to grow by 13 percent annually, reaching a volume of USD 330 billion by 2028, according to Sopra Steria Next’s forecast. This will represent 26 percent of the global AI market.

Industrial AI will enable machines, factories, and entire supply chains to operate more intelligently. This development will be driven by the adoption of 5G/6G networks and the spread of networked sensors, which represent a quantum leap in data collection, collation, and processing. The flagship of industrial AI technology will be digital twins and their integration within the industrial metaverse.

AI for processes

This application area is projected to reach a volume of USD 390 billion by 2028, accounting for 31 percent of the AI market, with a growth rate of 18 percent annually.

This category’s development will be driven by competitive convergence between providers of automation solutions (e.g., robotic process automation and OCR text recognition), providers of workflow management solutions (e.g., business process management and process mining), and the major ERP providers. The primary goal is to develop integrated intelligent automation platforms that make the various connected solutions available.

Intelligent process automation focuses on management activities, ushering in a new wave of automation. The study highlights that this category will be especially prevalent in financial services, public administration, and central functions such as HR, finance, and compliance. In addition to end-to-end automation, new AI tools could help better detect anomalies or fraud, according to Sopra Steria.

AI for people

This segment is expected to see the strongest growth over the next five years, rising from USD 130 billion in 2023 to USD 380 billion in 2028. By then, this application area will represent 30 percent of the AI market. Growth will be driven by the increasing maturity of generative AI and the synergy between predictive and generative AI.

The ‘AI for people’ category includes tools to support decision-making as well as various types of virtual assistants such as Copilot, Hugging Face, and ChatGPT. According to Sopra Steria, this field of application is growing particularly in the financial services, healthcare, e-commerce, and media sectors.

AI for software

The AI market within IT development is expected to more than triple, reaching a value of USD 170 billion by 2028. This corresponds to an annual growth rate of 25 percent.

This application area includes tools for automating the IT development process and supporting code generation. The segment is benefiting from the growing interest in low-code/no-code applications.

To illustrate this trend, Sopra Steria Next draws on the experience of the more than 40,000 IT professionals in the Sopra Steria Group. For specific activities and computer languages, the company has recorded a reduction in the number of errors by up to 40 percent and a time saving for developers of at least two hours per week.