Over the last few months, headlines out of Latin America have been primarily related to socioeconomic instability and poor economic growth.
According to IDC, however, that could change as digital transformation initiatives could generate as much as $48 billion in 2020.
In 2019, growth in the region’s hardware, software, and services market reached 1.3%, but analysts predict an upturn.
Ricardo Villate, IDC Latin America VP, explained that the biggest areas of IT investment within Latin America will be around the “pillars for the third platform” — cloud, big data and analytics, mobility and social enterprise. These will represent 58 percent of all investments in 2020.
“The world is approaching digital supremacy — the moment when the digital economy outweighs the size of the non-digital economy, ” Villate told ZDNet.
What’s on the horizon for the region? As part of their FutureScape 2020 series, IDC’s further predictions for IT trends of Latin America, over the coming years, include:
- More than 40% of all ICT spend in the region will go directly to DX and innovation, growing by 22% annually. By comparison, 2018 saw 20% growth.
- Within a couple years, more than half of Latam countries will integrate cloud management through public and private clouds, through hybrid or multi-cloud management technologies.
- More than half of new business applications will incorporate AI.
- By 2024, more than 35% of user interface interactions will feature AI.
- AI spending will continue growing — up to 44.2% in 2020.
- By 2023, the five largest public cloud platforms will make up more than 80% of the Latam market.
- In three years, 30% of Latin America’s top 2,000 companies will appoint a Chief Trust Officer.
“In the digital economy, every business has the potential to become a platform,” added Villate, “with a community of outside developers around it to extend its value beyond its own direct reach.”
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