PRESS RELEASE

Which Industry Sectors Are Leading AI Software and Tools Adoption?

Analyst(s): Ron Westfall
Publication Date: March 4, 2025

Awareness of AI software and tools revenue distribution across key industry segments is of key importance for today’s AI solution providers, especially in the product development and marketing areas. Knowing where AI revenue is concentrated can guide investment decisions, focusing on areas with the highest potential for growth and profitability. Moreover, having better insights into AI tools/software revenue distribution based on industry sector revenue streams can aid decision-making that is critical to prioritizing portfolio development objectives and make informed decisions on where to place bets. This awareness of industry sector revenue distribution and which sectors lead in revenue generation can help suppliers avoid rushed or uncertain choices that could lead to suboptimal outcomes.

Key Points:

  • Understanding AI software and tools revenue distribution across key industry segments is of key importance for today’s AI solution providers, especially in optimizing their product development and marketing strategies.
  • In Q2 2024, the IT and Financial Services & Insurance sectors led the market across all industry verticals, generating $4.3B and $4.1B respectively, which accounted for approximately 14.4% and 13.8% of the global AI software/tools market.
  • The AI Cloud Compute, SaaS/Embedded AI, and the Development Tools/Platform market segments all play an integral role in building AI solutions that meet industry-specific needs.

Overview:

The Futurum Group’s latest insights report, Which Industry Sectors Are Leading AI Software and Tools Adoption? focuses on understanding the industry demand for AI software and tools on a sector basis and how that can help optimize the portfolio development and marketing of AI tools/software solutions across today’s rapidly evolving AI ecosystem landscape. As organizations increasingly embrace AI, they face challenges in navigating the vast array of available solutions and aligning them with their unique business requirements.

As a result, AI tools/software vendors can sharpen the applicability of their portfolio offerings by building AI solutions that align with specific industry segment needs and goals. This includes delivering solutions that automate processes and operations according to sector-specific needs, enabling AI solution suppliers to capture a greater share of their customers’ value chains.

Accordingly, Futurum Intelligence conducted a survey (AI Software & Tools: AI Practices 2024 Report: Q2 2024) of key decision makers (N=876), such as CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, AI/ML leaders, and VP Engineering, across organizations to identify the distribution of AI tools/software revenues across 20 industry sectors.

Futurum Intelligence data provides a clearer understanding of the distribution of AI software and tools revenue across 20 key industry sectors. This is a major impetus for aiding AI solution providers in prioritizing how to address the specific AI needs of enterprise and business customers including support for building AI solutions using domain-specific datasets.

Figure 1. AI Software and Tools Sector Revenue (in US$)

Which Industry Sectors Are Leading AI Software and Tools Adoption
Source: Futurum Research, November 2024

The top five AI software and tools sector leaders consist of IT, Financial Services & Insurance, Healthcare, Manufacturing & Industrial, and Business Services. We see that major AI software and tools players are evolving their portfolio development and marketing strategies to capitalize on providing AI solutions tailored to meet unique industry sector requirements.

For example, Lenovo’s AI Fast Start for AI Innovators program aids organizations to set up, demo, and build tailored AI solutions and use cases range, such as financial services & insurance, retail, automotive, manufacturing, and beyond, by combining any of the 165+ turnkey Lenovo AI Innovators program solutions to rapidly prove out and drive AI value and return on investment (ROI). Moreover, Lenovo AI Advisory services provide experts that can help build upon an organization’s AI readiness to define the desired business outcomes and build a tailored roadmap to organizational adoption of AI at any scale, from pocket to cloud.

Conclusion:

AI software and tools solutions providers are prioritizing the portfolio development and marketing of solutions that are increasingly specific to meeting the needs of industry sectors. For example, AI software and tools built for healthcare are expected to increase efficiency and reduce costs, leading to improved business outcomes through improved patient outcomes and streamlined operations. The integration of AI, cloud computing, SaaS, and development tools/platforms is transforming various industry sectors where AI is becoming a core component of SaaS applications, right-sizing AI compute to meet industry sector needs, and the expansion of development tools/platforms that spur developers to address unique sector requirements. While sectors such as IT and Financial Services & Insurance lead in AI software and tools revenue, offering broader near-term addressable market opportunities, we find that the potential for capitalizing on industry-specific market opportunities are most likely diverse and solid.

The full report is available via subscription to the Communication Network IQ service from Futurum Intelligence—click here for inquiry and access.

Futurum clients can read more about it in the Futurum Intelligence Platform. Nonclients can learn more here: Futurum Intelligence.

About the Futurum Communications Networks Practice

The Futurum Communications Networks Practice provides actionable, objective insights for market leaders and their teams so they can respond to emerging opportunities and innovate. Public access to our coverage can be seen here. Follow news and updates from the Futurum Practice on LinkedIn and X. Visit the Futurum Newsroom for more information and insights.

Author Information

Ron is an experienced, customer-focused research expert and analyst, with over 20 years of experience in the digital and IT transformation markets, working with businesses to drive consistent revenue and sales growth.

He is a recognized authority at tracking the evolution of and identifying the key disruptive trends within the service enablement ecosystem, including a wide range of topics across software and services, infrastructure, 5G communications, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), analytics, security, cloud computing, revenue management, and regulatory issues.

Prior to his work with The Futurum Group, Ron worked with GlobalData Technology creating syndicated and custom research across a wide variety of technical fields. His work with Current Analysis focused on the broadband and service provider infrastructure markets.

Ron holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from University of Nevada — Las Vegas and a Bachelor of Arts in political science/government from William and Mary.

Thank you, we received your request, a member of our team will be in contact with you.