80% of tech products to be built by tech outsiders by 2024

By 2024, 80% of technology products and services will be built by those who are not technology professionals, according to research from Gartner. This trend is driven by a new category of buyers outside of the IT industry who are occupying a larger share of the overall IT market. Rajesh Kandaswamy, Distinguished Research Vice President at Gartner, said growth in digital data, low-code development tools and AI-assisted development are among the many factors that enabled the democratisation of technology development beyond IT professionals.

“Digital business is treated as a team sport by CEOs and no longer the sole domain of the IT department,” said Kandaswamy.

Technology encroachment into all areas of business has also created demand for products and services outside of IT departments. These buyers’ needs are not always met by offerings from traditional providers. This has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has expanded the amount and type of use cases technology is needed to fulfil. Gartner forecasts that by 2023, $30 billion in revenue will be generated by products and services that did not exist pre-pandemic. Gartner analysts also believe that the rapid expansion of cloud services, digital business initiatives and remote services has opened the door for new possibilities in integration and optimisation.

The pandemic also enabled those outside the IT industry to create technology-based solutions by providing an entry point for anyone who was able to serve pandemic-based needs. These entrants includes non-technology professionals within enterprises — or ‘business technologies’ — citizen developers, data scientists and AI systems that generate software. As a result, technology providers are now competing with non-technology providers, including innovative forms in financial services and retail. The latter are creating IT-driven solutions more frequently and with more ambition as enterprises continue their digital transformation efforts. Gartner has also forecast more high-profile launches of technology from non-tech companies over the next 12 months.

“The availability of business technologists provides new sources of innovation and the ability to get work done. Thus, technology and service providers will need to extend their sourcing of ideas and technology development into new communities, whether they are based on citizen development, their own customer communities or other sources,” said Kandaswamy.

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