Spending on digital transformation technologies and services will be growing at 16.8 percent to $1.1 trillion in 2018, IDC said.
Discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing industries will be spending more than $333 billion on digital transformation in 2018 – representing nearly 30 percent of all DX spending.
IDC said manufacturing industries will be spending on applications, connectivity services, and IT services to build their digital platforms.
The top spending priority of DX in both industries is smart manufacturing, which includes programs that focus on material optimization, smart asset management, and autonomic operations.
Discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing industries will invest more than $115 billion in smart manufacturing initiatives this year.
Both industries will invest $33 billion in innovation acceleration and $28 billion in digital supply chain optimization.
Driven in part by investments from the manufacturing industries, smart manufacturing ($161 billion) and digital supply chain optimization ($101 billion) are the DX strategic priorities that will see the most spending in 2018.
Other strategic priorities that will receive significant funding this year include digital grid, omni-experience engagement, omni-channel commerce, and innovation acceleration.
Craig Simpson, research manager of IDC’s Customer Insights & Analysis Group, said this suggests that many organizations are still in the early stages of their DX journey, internally focused on improving existing processes and efficiency.
Digital supply chain and logistics automation will get funding of $93 billion, smart asset management $91 billion, predictive grid more than $40 billion and manufacturing operations more than $40 billion as part of the digital transformation programs.
Construction operations (38.4 percent CAGR), connected automated vehicles (37.6 percent CAGR), and clinical outcomes management (30.7 percent CAGR) will be the programs that will see the most spending growth over the five-year forecast.
The IDC report said freight management with $56 billion, robotic manufacturing $43 billion, asset instrumentation $43 billion, and autonomic operations $35 billion are the use cases that will receive the most funding this year
Robotic construction (38.4 percent CAGR), autonomous vehicles – mining (37.6 percent CAGR), and robotic process automation-based claims processing (35.5 percent CAGR) within the insurance industry are the use cases that will see the fastest spending growth over the forecast period.