New Delhi

Theglobal AI market must reach nearly USD 6 trillion annually by 2031 to fund AI infrastructure and justify the massive capital being deployed, according to a report by global management consultancy firm Bain & Company.

Much of that value will have to come from new innovation rather than gains in employee productivity, Bain said in its 7th annual Global Technology Report released on Tuesday.

According to the report, annual spending on AI infrastructure could reach USD 1.5 trillion by 2031. This includes new data centres, compute capacity and upgrades to installed GPUs, memory and networking equipment.

Based on the assumption that capital expenditure amounts to about 25 per cent of industry revenue, Bain said sustaining this level of investment would require an AI market approaching USD 6 trillion a year by 2031.

Existing applications will cover only part of that. Consumer AI, through subscriptions and advertising, could generate USD 200-400 billion by 2031. Enterprise AI could add another USD 1-1.4 trillion across software development, sales, marketing, customer service and IT operations.

Together, these leave a gap of about USD 4.2 trillion that must be filled by new sources of revenue, the report said.