European spending on Artificial Intelligence to reach $22 billion

Banking and manufacturing will spend the most on AI solutions over the five-year forecast period, with healthcare spending growing the fastest in the long term. Retail AI spending will largely focus on automating customer service and implementing sales process recommendation and automation engines. Manufacturing will allocate much of its AI investment to quality management and investigation solutions and systems that help manufacturers carry out predictive maintenance.

"European spending on AI will reach $22 billion in 2022, and the market will grow significantly, meaning that European companies will consider AI as a priority tech that will bring significant impacts across different industries," said Andrea Minonne, senior research analyst at IDC UK. "European companies are increasing investments in intelligent solutions as they recognized the value of implementing intelligent and automated approaches during last year's COVID-19 pandemic in terms of business efficiency and digital resilience."