The surge in the use of digital solutions and services abated the pandemic’s negative effect on IT spending, which still dropped to just under $3.7trn in 2020.

According to data presented by StockApps.com, global IT spending is expected to recover in 2021 and hit a $3.92trn value, a $228bn increase in a year.

The surge in the use of IT services and devices, enterprise software and data center systems led to the impressive growth of global IT spending over the years. In 2005, consumers, businesses, and organizations worldwide spent $2.6trn on IT devices and solutions, revealed the Gartner survey. By 2013, this figure jumped by almost 40% to $3.6trn. After a drop to below $3.4trn in 2015 and 2016, global IT spending hit more than $3.8trn in 2019, the highest level in fifteen years.

In just a few months, the COVID-19 crisis has delivered years of change in the way companies across different sectors do business. According to a McKinsey Global Survey of executives, they have speeded up the digitization of their customer and supply-chain interactions by three to four years. The share of digital or digitally enabled products in their portfolios has accelerated by seven years.

Nevertheless, the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic had a huge impact on global IT spending, which dropped by $121bn in 2020. Statistics show this figure is set to jump by 6.2% and hit $3.92trn in 2021.

However, to survive in a post-COVID-19 world that involves higher adoption of remote work and digital touchpoints, businesses will have to keep speeding up their digital transformation plans. That is why Gartner predicts global IT spending to continue increasing and hit more than $4.1trn in 2022.