Global spend on digital transformation to top $6.8 trillion in next two years

Some 65% of the worldโ€™s GDP set to be digitalised by 2022, propelled by the pandemic, according to International Data Corporation (IDC).

The research predicts that direct digital transformation investments will total $6.8 trillion (โ‚ฌ5.62 trillion) between 2020 and 2023. Also, that 65% of the worldโ€™s GDP set to be digitalised by 2022, propelled by the pandemic.

IDCโ€™s Global President, Crawford Del Prete, commented, โ€œThe demand for IT has changed dramatically as a result of COVID-19, with almost every segment of the market being impacted by massive changes in customer behaviour.

โ€œWe predict that direct investment in digital transformation will grow at a healthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.5% globally between 2020 and 2023, while non-DX [digital transformation] ICT investment will contract at a CAGR of -1.4% over the same period.

โ€œAnd as more and more companies become fully transformed from the less than 20% of enterprises today, relative GDP from digitalized products and services will expand exponentially.โ€

More intense

Jyoti Lalchandani, IDCโ€™s Group VP said, โ€œAs the focus on operational efficiency intensified, tech-enabled automation became a key priority, reshaping organizationsโ€™ processes and operations.

โ€œMost economists predict a return to economic growth in 2021 as a vaccine becomes widely available. As this recovery begins, the focus of end-user organisations will revert to business growth and new investment. But the technology investments made during the pandemic will ensure that the โ€˜Next Normalโ€™ that emerges will be very different from the pre-COVID economy.

โ€œIndeed, by 2022, 70% of all organisations globally will have accelerated their use of digital technologies, transforming existing business processes to drive customer engagement, employee productivity, and business resiliency.โ€ Presumably those goals will remain regardless of whether most people return to work at least some of the time or not.