Share of Emerging Technologies in IT Budgets To Grow 3x, Driven by Focus on Innovation and Higher Efficiency: BCG-NASSCOM Report
NASSCOM and BCG collaborate to unveil the disruptive technologies that are likely to emerge as the winner in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.
Bengaluru—Emerging technologies are redefining the digital universe and are becoming a business imperative for companies worldwide. National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) today released a report titled "Sandboxing into the Future: Decoding Technology's Biggest Bets" on the sidelines of NASTech 2022 in Bengaluru. The report aims to uncover and develop perspectives on big-bet technologies that can potentially disrupt markets in the next 3-5 years.
Enterprise Tech spending is estimated to reach $4.2 Tn by 2026 globally, amongst which Tech Services companies represent the largest segment and are expected to become $1.7 Tn by 2026 with a CAGR of 8.1%. As part of the study, 28 emerging technology themes from 11 tech families were identified – across markets and verticals - with the potential to disrupt markets, basis current tech spending, growth potential, innovation maturity, and funding momentum. Amongst these 12 emerging technologies, with high funding momentum and R&D focus, have emerged as the “Biggest Bets,” including, Autonomous analytics, AR & VR, Autonomous Driving, Computer Vision, Deep learning, Distributed Ledger, Edge Computing, Sensor Tech, Smart Robots, Space Tech, Sustainability Tech, and 5G/6G.
As need for focused use cases emerge and multiple technologies converge to drive disruption, these 12 technologies will unravel in diverse ways, giving way to regional and vertical specific big bets. While buyers in North America and Europe are betting on technologies such as Autonomous Analytics, APAC is likely to focus more on 5G/6G technologies, Sensor Tech and Smart Robotics. Overall, technology buyers anticipate that investments in emerging technologies will account for 70- 80% of their tech spending by 2030.
Within APAC, India has the highest private tech funding growth at 31% compared to overall APAC at 11%. Healthcare and Transportation have emerged as top funded verticals, followed by Tech, BFSI and Telecom.
NASSCOM also did a survey of 120+ technology buyers and interviewed over 30 Indian tech providers (CEOs/Leaders from Indian Tech companies) to gauge their priorities across key technologies. As per the survey responses, tech buyers expects the share of emerging tech to grow by 3X in next 4-6 years, driven by higher efficiency, enhanced customer experience, and accelerated product development cycle. Interestingly key technologies such as Autonomous Analytics, Edge Computing, 5G/6G & Deep Learning have emerged as top 5 business priorities for tech buyers. However, for technology providers supplier priorities differ across technologies and regions. Large firms are diversifying their bets by focusing both on technologies with established use cases(5G/6G), and investing in nascent technologies to gain leadership position(Deep learning and Computer Vision), whereas mid-size firms and digital firms are selective on big bets, either focusing on few emerging areas or going deep in select technologies.
Alignment of tech buyers and providers will create the dynamics in adoption as investments and technologies mature over time. This will also build a spectrum of opportunities for buyers as well as providers across the maturity curve, and in specific regions and verticals.
"Emerging technologies have evolved as the nucleus for businesses across segments. It has helped them navigate through the unprecedented challenges of the digital era while allowing them to achieve a competitive advantage", said Ms. Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM. "Going forward, it will be interesting to see how businesses will put their bets on emerging technologies and how they would be taking ahead the tech revolution for the larger good of the society."
Commenting on the rapidly evolving technological landscape, Rajiv Gupta, Managing Director and Senior Partner, BCG India, said, “The future is indeed faster than we think. What was “emerging” less than a decade back (mobility, cloud, IoT) is well and truly par for the course now. In order to regain/ retain India’s supremacy in servicing the technology needs of the world, it is critical that Indian led tech firms keep an eye on which deep or emerging solutions are likely to emerge as the winners amongst the myriad of technologies that span different stages of evolution. Funds flow, R&D investments, spend propensity of clients, and investment in talent pools by providers are all criteria that will determine where the world of technology will wake up in the next 3-5 years. We have identified 12 technology big bets ranging from the obvious AI/ML and AR/VR to sustainability and deep learning that cut across industries; to distributed ledger tech and space tech which are very niche and industry specific. Each technology provider, especially in India, will have to identify its own moonshots and create a bespoke plan to win the market.”
Glimpsing into the new era
To continue to thrive and succeed tech firms need to reassess their current positioning and define a winning strategy. Firms need to act fast as cracking the right strategy can lead to windfall gains, but delayed action can prove detrimental to growth. Focusing on defining where and how to prioritize resources and acquisitions to speed access and close capability gaps, building critical capabilities to support future direction, and debottleneck constraints will ensue firms to realize the largest potential of these technologies in the future.
Click here to read the report
About NASSCOM
The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM®) is the premier trade body and chamber of commerce of the Tech industry in India and comprises over 3000-member companies. Our membership spans across the entire spectrum of the industry from startups to multinationals and from products to services, Global Capability Centres to Engineering firms. Guided by India's vision to become a leading digital economy globally, NASSCOM focuses on accelerating the pace of transformation of the industry to emerge as the preferred enablers for global digital transformation. Our strategic imperatives are to reskill and upskill India's IT workforce to ensure that talent is future-ready in terms of new-age skills, strengthen the innovation quotient across industry verticals, create new market opportunities - both international and domestic, drive policy advocacy to advance innovation and ease of doing business, and build the industry narrative with focus on Talent, Trust and Innovation. And, in everything we do, we will continue to champion the need for diversity and equal opportunity.
About Boston Consulting Group
Boston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we work closely with clients to embrace a transformational approach aimed at benefiting all stakeholders—empowering organizations to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage, and drive positive societal impact.
Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives that question the status quo and spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting, technology and design, and corporate and digital ventures. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, fueled by the goal of helping our clients thrive and enabling them to make the world a better place.