Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.4 trillion in 2022, an increase of 4% from 2021, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.

Despite the numerous factors vying for enterprise leaders’ attention this year, from geopolitical disruption and inflation to currency fluctuations and supply chain challenges, IT spending is not slowing down. In fact, CIOs are accelerating IT investments in categories such as security, customer experience, analytics and cloud as they recognize the importance of remaining flexible and agile in responding to such factors.

Inflation that was previously seen with IT hardware such as mobile devices, tablets and PCs are spilling into software and services, which is helping to increase spending growth in these segments through 2022 and 2023. More specifically, software spending is expected to grow 9.8% to $674.9 billion in 2022 and IT services is forecast to grow 6.8% to reach $1.3 trillion.

Gartner expects digital business initiatives such as experiential end-consumer experience and optimization of supply chain to push spending on enterprise applications and infrastructure software into double-digit growth in 2023. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not expected to have a direct impact on global IT spending. Price and wage inflation compounded with talent shortages and other delivery uncertainties are expected to be greater impingements on CIOs’ plans in 2022.

For now, organizations are not worried about having the financial and organizational ability to continue investing in key technologies this year and next. Some initial slow downs in early 2022 due to the Omicron variant are expected to clear in the near-term. Only the most fragile companies will be forced to pivot to a cost cutting approach.

Read the full report by Gartner.