AI SPENDING BY INDUSTRY 2026
Where the AI money actually goes in 2026 — banking, software and retail lead total spend, while healthcare dominates vertical generative AI. Every figure is linked to its primary source and dated.
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Updated ·
8 min read·10 sourced figures
Key takeaways
- →Worldwide AI spending reaches $2.52 trillion in 2026 — up roughly 47% year over year. (Gartner)
- →Banking is the #1 AI vertical at >20% of all AI spend (~$31.3B in 2024); software & information services and retail round out the top three. (IDC)
- →Healthcare leads vertical generative-AI spend at $1.5B in 2025 — 43% of all vertical-AI spend, more than the next four verticals combined. (Menlo Ventures)
- →The top three IDC verticals together hit ~$89.6B in 2024 (~38% of global AI spend), projected to ~$222B by 2028.
AI spending is concentrating in a few industries
AI spending is concentrating fast. Gartner expects worldwide AI spending to reach $2.52 trillion in 2026, up roughly 47% year over year (Gartner; a May 2026 update raised the figure to $2.59T). Within that, IDC finds banking, software & information services, and retail are the three biggest verticals — together roughly 38% of global AI spend. The picture shifts depending on what you measure: total AI spend (IDC), enterprise generative-AI spend (Menlo), or adoption depth (McKinsey) tell different stories, and we never mix those measures within a single ranking.
Data lineage: the headline figures
$2.52T worldwide AI spending (Gartner, 2026 forecast) is an analyst forecast model spanning all AI categories, +44–47% over 2025’s ~$1.5T. ~$31.3B banking AI spend (IDC, 2024 actuals) comes from vendor-revenue tracking across software, hardware and services, growing at a 30% CAGR in the Americas and 32% in EMEA. $1.5B healthcare vertical GenAI (Menlo, 2025) is from a survey of n=495 US enterprise AI decision-makers fielded Nov 7–25 2025. ~$2B JPMorgan annual AI spend is a single-company disclosure from Jamie Dimon’s 2025 shareholder letter, within an $18B total tech budget.
“Banking leads on total dollars; healthcare leads on generative AI — the ranking depends entirely on what you measure.”
Top industries by total AI spend (IDC)
IDC’s Worldwide AI & GenAI Spending Guide identifies banking, software & information services, and retail as the top-3 verticals — together about $89.6 billion in 2024 (~38% of global AI spend), projected to reach ~$222 billion by 2028 at a 27% CAGR. IDC publishes the full industry × use-case matrix only behind its paywall; public materials disclose top-3 industries plus banking/retail dollar specifics.
Vertical GenAI spend (Menlo Ventures)
On the enterprise generative-AI side specifically, Menlo Ventures’ 2025 survey breaks out a $3.5B “vertical AI” bucket. Healthcare dominates at $1.5 billion — 43% of all vertical-AI spend, more than the next four verticals combined (Menlo Ventures). Healthcare org adoption of domain-specific AI tools hit 22% in 2025 — a 10× increase vs. 2023.
Which industries lead on adoption (McKinsey)
McKinsey’s State of AI (Nov 2025) measures adoption depth rather than dollars. The industries furthest along on agentic AI are technology, media & telecommunications, and healthcare. Cost reductions are strongest in software engineering and IT (10–20%); revenue uplift above 10% shows up most in marketing & sales and product/service development (McKinsey). Only 6% of organizations qualify as “AI high performers,” and scale tilts to large firms — roughly half of $5B+ revenue firms are in the scaling phase vs. 29% of sub-$100M firms.
Industry deep cuts
Financial services is the most AI-overweight: JPMorgan’s $18B tech budget includes ~$2B/year on AI; Bank of America’s Erica assistant surpassed 3 billion client interactions in Aug 2025, with 700M in 2025 alone (BofA); Goldman Sachs rolled its GS AI Assistant firmwide to 46,500+ employees in June 2025. Healthcare drug-discovery AI raised heavily — Isomorphic Labs ~$600M (April 2025), Insilico Medicine’s $293M HK IPO (Dec 2025). Retail is a top-3 IDC vertical at ~$25B (2024); Walmart targets automating 65% of stores by 2026. In government, 52% of non-US government CIOs expect IT budget increases in 2026 (Gartner).
The numbers in full
| Industry | 2024 AI spend | Position | 5-yr CAGR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial services / Banking | ~$31.3B | #1 | 30% AM / 32% EMEA |
| Software & information services | top-3 | #2 | — |
| Retail | ~$25B | #3 | ~27% blended |
| Healthcare | not split | fast-growing | — |
| Manufacturing | not split | large IT base | — |
Source: IDC Worldwide AI & GenAI Spending Guide. Top-3 verticals ≈ $89.6B (2024).
| Vertical (GenAI) | 2025 spend | Share of vertical AI |
|---|---|---|
| Healthcare | $1.5B | 43% |
| Legal | $650M | ~19% |
| Creator tools | $360M | ~10% |
| Financial services & remaining | ~$990M | ~28% |
Source: Menlo Ventures, 2025 State of Generative AI in the Enterprise (n=495). IDC measures all AI spend; Menlo measures enterprise GenAI only.
Frequently asked
Which industry spends the most on AI?
Banking / financial services is the #1 AI-spending vertical, accounting for more than 20% of all AI spend and ~$31.3B in 2024. Software & information services and retail round out the top three. (IDC)
Which industry leads in generative AI specifically?
For vertical generative-AI software, healthcare leads at $1.5B in 2025 — 43% of all vertical-AI spend. Across departments, coding/engineering is the single largest use case at ~55% of departmental GenAI spend. (Menlo Ventures)
How much will companies spend on AI in 2026?
Gartner forecasts $2.52 trillion in worldwide AI spending in 2026 (all categories), up ~47% from $1.5 trillion in 2025. IDC separately puts AI infrastructure spending alone at $487B for 2026. (Gartner / IDC)
The AI Index (2026). AI Spending by Industry 2026: Banking, Software & Retail Lead. Retrieved Jun 20, 2026, from report-ai.org/indexes/ai-economics/ai-spending-by-industry-2026/