AI spend will jump 49.5% in 2026, says Gartner

Instead of buying just a laptop, companies now buy a laptop with AI chips in it, while enterprise software now has AI embedded in it. And instead of doing a project about business strategy, they now do a project about how AI might change business strategy.

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“In one way, it’s kind of rebranding,” he said. “Net new spending is going more towards AI, and existing spending is being transformed towards AI.”

It’s similar with hyperscalers: “The hyperscalers haven’t diverted one dime away from their cloud. So AWS, Google, Microsoft, Meta are all continuing to build out their cloud infrastructure at the same rate they were in 2022.”

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