Bain estimates AI industry must add nearly $5 trillion in revenue by 2031
Bain says AI infrastructure spending far outstrips application revenue, leaving a near-$5 trillion gap, while enterprise IT costs are forecast to rise 75% over the same period.
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According to diginomica, Bain & Co's latest Global Technology Report estimates the AI industry will need $6 trillion a year in revenue by 2031 just to fund its planned infrastructure buildout, while existing consumer and enterprise applications are projected to generate only $1.2 trillion to $1.8 trillion by then.
Research firms put the current AI software market at roughly $600 billion, and Bain puts the shortfall at up to $4.8 trillion — a tenfold revenue increase in five years. The report also notes developers complete about 21% more tasks with AI, while code review time rises about 91%.
In separate research this month, Bain forecasts enterprise IT costs will rise 75% over the same period. Whether the gap closes depends on token consumption continuing to scale — the backdrop to vendors' push into subscriptions and usage-based pricing.