Spending on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the Middle East, Turkiye, and Africa (META) is set to exceed $238 billion in 2024, marking a 4.5 percent increase from the previous year, IDC said.
Spending on telecommunications services is anticipated to grow by 5 percent, reaching $133 billion. IT spending is expected to see a 3.9 percent increase, totaling $105 billion, the IDC report said.
IDC forecasts a significant rise in digital transformation spending, projecting it to surpass $59 billion in 2024 and maintain a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 percent through 2027, reaching $88 billion.
AI spending in the MEA region will surpass $3.0 billion in 2024, a 32 percent increase from 2023. Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC’s group vice president and managing director for the META region, emphasized the evolving priorities of end-user organizations in AI investment, shifting towards revenue growth rather than just cost reduction.
Lalchandani highlighted the increasing interest in generative AI (GenAI), stating that spending on AI is anticipated to reach $6.9 billion by 2027. He urged providers to align their AI offerings with the evolving business goals of their customers.
Crawford Del Prete, IDC’s global president, expects global spending on GenAI to exceed $150 billion by 2027, constituting approximately 30 percent of all AI-related investments.
Public cloud spending in the META region will surpass $13 billion in 2024, showing a 21 percent year-on-year growth. Software as a service (SaaS) is anticipated to dominate this spending, accounting for 59 percent, followed by infrastructure as a service (IaaS) at 23 percent, and platform as a service (PaaS) at 18 percent.
Cyber security spending in the META region is expected to exceed earlier projections, crossing the $6.5 billion mark in 2024. Notably, 77 percent of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) in the META region anticipate an increase of 10 percent or more in their cybersecurity budgets for 2024.
