Cloud, AI and Software Are Top Investment Areas for Data & Analytics

Data and analytics (D&A) has a broader enterprise purpose and is more broadly integrated into the ways enterprises work than ever before, and technology product leaders surveyed by Gartner expect D&A technologies to deliver competitive differentiation and innovation.

Half of the respondents in Gartner's 2021 Emerging Technology Product Leader Survey¹ invest in D&A to grow their customer base. More than 40% do so to create new products and services and enhance existing products. 

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In terms of technologies, cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and software ranked as top investment areas for organizations investing in D&A.

Almost 50% of technology provider respondents who are putting funds toward data and analytics selected cloud as one of their other top three areas of emerging technology investment. Machine learning (ML) and AI techniques support the majority of data management, data science, AI application development and insight sharing, driving AI and software to round out the top three for technology investment.

More than one third of respondents estimate that D&A technologies — such as decision intelligence, adaptive data and analytics governance, which provide information to support decision making — will experience industrywide investment growth of 100% or more from 2021 to 2022. Survey respondents believe that technology innovation within D&A will be a catalyst for transforming industries. 

_{1 Survey respondents all operate in the high-tech industry (that is, applications/software, cloud, business and technology services, communications services, hardware, and IT services), with enterprise-wide revenue for fiscal year 2020 of $10 million or more. Each has invested in emerging technology in the past 12 months.}