Canada’s Spending on Cognitive and AI Systems will Hit C$675.2 million in 2018

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The IDC Worldwide Semiannual Cognitive Artificial Intelligence Systems Spending Guide forecasts that Canada’s spending on cognitive and AI systems will hit C$675.2 million in 2018. Marketing and Sales applications will benefit the most from the explosion of this market while Supply Chain and Procurement will form the bottom tier. Overall, AI adoption is increasing by over 50% within two years in Canada (data source: IDC Canada IT Advisory Panel (ITAP) n5 2017). If those adoptions are successful, it will likely create considerable competitive pressure for Canadian organizations who are currently not planning to adopt.

On a basis of company size, larger organizations are leading both current use and planned adoption (data source: IDC Canada IT Advisory Panel (ITAP) n5 2017). The planned adoption rate among large enterprises is nearly double the rate of their smaller counterparts for the majority of technologies.

"With growing numbers of compelling use cases for AI, Canadian market adoption has begun to take off. Every Canadian organization is encouraged to evaluate the impact of AI and establish an AI strategy. Organizations across Canada are reporting tangible advantages from the implementation of AI that will only increase the performance gap between those that are digitally enabled and those that continue to lag," said Mira V Perry, market analyst for the Canadian Cognitive/Artificial Intelligence and Analytics Solutions research program. Globally, IDC has estimated that by 2019, 40% of digital transformation initiatives will use AI services and by 2021, 75% of enterprise applications will use AI. From predictions, recommendations, and advice to automated customer service agents and intelligent process automation, AI is changing the face of how we interact with computer systems.

Canadian enterprise spending on Cognitive and Artificial Intelligence Systems is forecasted to reach C$1.9 billion by 2021, growing at a CAGR of 44.8% over the forecast period 2017-2021. Banking is the biggest industry by market-size with use-cases such as Fraud Analysis and Investigation and Intelligent Processing Automation taking the lion’s share. Additional use-cases showing strong investment include Automated Customer Service Agents and Intelligent Processing Automation. The following graphs illustrate the top 5 industries and use-cases in Canada by market-size:

About IDC Spending Guides

IDC's Spending Guides provide a granular view of key technology markets from a regional, vertical industry, use case, buyer, and technology perspective. The spending guides are delivered via pivot table format or custom query tool, allowing the user to easily extract meaningful information about each market by viewing data trends and relationships.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading media, data, and marketing services company that activates and engages the most influential technology buyers. To learn more about IDC, please click here.