APAC: AI, IoT, AR/VR to contribute 40% ICT investments by 2023

The latest release of IDC’s Worldwide Black Book: 3rd Platform Edition reveals that the recent acceleration in digital investments sets Asia/Pacific* ahead of the rest of the world. Investments in new technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, IoT, AR/VR, and blockchain are expected to contribute close to 40% of total ICT investments by the end of the forecast period from around 30% in 2020. Compared to other regions, this is the highest and represents close to 18% growth in dollar terms during the forecast period of 2021-25.

“The pandemic induced digital-first shift in the region led to increased investments in new technologies and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future,” says Vinay Gupta, Research Director at IDC IT Spending Guides, Customer Insights & Analysis. “Enterprises that have realized the business gain will find it difficult to undo these initiatives. Those still sitting on the sidelines will recognize that the world has moved on”, he added.

Traditional ICT spending on hardware, software, services, and telecom has two facets: revenue from legacy categories is stagnating or declining, while growth will come from cloud, mobile, big data analytics, and social. Savings secured by enterprises post deploying cloud or analytic solutions is reinvested in new technologies. In developing economies of Asia Pacific*, the story is a bit different. Having skipped the earlier phase of technology investments, enterprises are investing in these new technologies seeing the benefits gained by their brethren in developed economies.

“New Technologies have seen accelerated acceptance due to the faster adoption of the digital journey. Organizations are now poised to take a chance to have a change or be the change for their customers. Interaction and bundling within these technologies will be more effective for their future.” says Mario Allen Clement, Senior Market Analyst at IDC IT Spending Guides, Customer Insights & Analysis.

As per IDC’s latest research, around 40% of Asia Pacific* enterprises report bringing operational efficiency and growing revenue as their two most important business priorities. Thus, enterprises have adopted new technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics-specific use cases that deliver a rapid return on investments. IoT and robotics constitute around 80% of the new technology investment in the region. Driving IoT spending are use cases around manufacturing operations and production asset management. Industrial robots used for monotonous but high precision tasks such as assembly, welding, and painting are witnessing increasing investments. Security-related to new technologies will continue to drive growth in the forecasted period.

IDC’s Worldwide Black Book: 3rd Platform Edition is an expanded view of the ICT market in 53 countries, with forecasts for all traditional technologies in addition to new emerging categories such as drones, sensors, and AR/VR viewers. In addition, it segments all ICT spending by the following platforms: cloud, mobility, big data and analytics, social, IoT, AI, AR/VR, 3D printing, security, robotics, and blockchain. Worldwide Black Book: 3rd Platform Edition gives ICT suppliers and investors all the tools necessary to develop a comprehensive understanding of new and emerging market opportunities alongside traditional technologies and the shift from legacy platforms to new deployment models, including the migration of ICT to the cloud and mobile platforms. BCS Bureau