Study: AI Spending To Exceed $30bn By 2027

The recent IDC report, IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Chief Marketing Officer 2025 Predictions – APeJ Implications, predicts that In 2027, companies will spend more than $30 billion on AI-related infrastructure, platforms, software, and services to support their ability to compete on highly personalised customer experiences.

As businesses increasingly adopt AI to enhance personalised customer experiences, marketing leaders face growing pressure to adapt their strategies and leverage AI effectively.

“Marketing leaders must remember that technology itself is not a differentiator but an enabler of differentiations. To stand out, they should focus on creating value-based narratives that build authentic connections with customers.

They need to work closely with IT, data and digital teams to name a few, to establish the necessary AI-infused marketing infrastructure and tools to access accurate customer data profiles in real time and deploy faster, more targeted and effective campaigns,” Abhishek Kumar, Associate Research Director, head of AP enterprise applications and CX, IDC Asia/Pacific.

The following are some of the most urgent business and technology trends that marketing leaders must pay attention to in order to stay resilient against evolving market conditions and differentiate themselves by demonstrating their competitive advantage.

Automated Journey: By 2027, 45 per cent of traditional B2B lead and demand generation efforts will transition to automated sensing, personalised engagements, and content creation, fast-pathing customers to transactional commerce.

Search Becoming a Dialogue: By 2026, 45% of individuals will search for information and engage in dialogue with brands via GenAI, forcing marketers to build and optimize for humanised digital AI as the primary customer interface.

AI Gig Agencies: By 2029, traditional agencies will reduce staff by 40 per cent, migrating execution to limited, AI-enabled contractors and focusing their remaining resources on advanced data governance, AI services, and strategies.

Marketing’s New Hire – AI: By 2028, one out of five marketing roles or functions will be held by an AI worker, shifting human expertise to driving strategy, creativity, ethics, and managing a blended human and AI workforce.

Each year, IDC releases its top technology predictions at worldwide, regional and country levels through its IDC FutureScape Reports and gives a crystal ball view of what is ahead for the rapidly changing IT industry.

These predictions have been used to shape the strategies and business objectives of technology leaders and business executives in the next 1-5 years.