By 2024, the majority of technology products will not be built by technology professionals, but rather other types of organizations.
This is according to a new report from analyst firm Gartner, which claims a new category of buyers outside the traditional IT organization is now responsible for a growing share of the overall IT market.
“Digital business is treated as a team sport by CEOs and no longer the sole domain of the IT department,” said Rajesh Kandaswamy, Distinguished Research Vice President at Gartner. “Growth in digital data, low-code development tools and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted development are among the many factors that enable the democratization of technology development beyond IT professionals.”
Technology has started creeping into all areas of business, creating demand for products and services outside IT departments. But the needs of these buyers don’t fit into the offering of traditional providers, creating a gap in the market.
Meanwhile, Covid-19 has only made the demand bigger, with Gartner expecting products and services that were only created after the pandemic to bring in $30 billion in revenue this year.
The pandemic is also said to have lowered the barrier to entry for development. New entrants, referred to as “business technologists”, include citizen developers, data scientists and AI systems that are capable of generating software.
“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,” added Kandaswamy.
