Last updated: June 2026. Reviewed by Report AI editorial. Every figure is linked to a primary source and rated for confidence and freshness — see how to read this page.
AI SPENDING BY INDUSTRY 2026 — KEY DATA POINTS
$2.52T
Worldwide AI spend
2026 forecast (+47%)
Gartner
>20%
Banking’s share of AI spend
#1 vertical
IDC
$1.5B
Healthcare vertical GenAI
43% of vertical AI
Menlo Ventures
AI spending is concentrating in a handful of industries. Gartner expects worldwide AI spending to reach $2.52 trillion in 2026, up roughly 47% year over year (Gartner). Within that, IDC finds banking, software & information services, and retail are the three biggest verticals — together roughly 38% of global AI spend. But the picture shifts depending on whether you measure total AI spend (IDC), enterprise generative-AI spend (Menlo), or adoption depth (McKinsey). This page collects the most important primary-sourced AI-by-industry statistics for 2026, each rated for confidence and freshness.
How to read this page: confidence & freshness
Source confidence
ANALYST ESTIMATE IDC / Gartner forecast model
VENDOR SURVEY Menlo / McKinsey (n disclosed)
COMPANY PRIMARY Issuer disclosure / shareholder letter
Stat freshness (decay)
ACTIVE Current cycle, < 6 months old
STALE 6–18 months; newer cycle may exist
HISTORICAL Locked past-period figure
Note on comparability: IDC measures all AI spend (software + hardware + services); Menlo measures enterprise generative-AI spend only; McKinsey measures adoption, not dollars. We never mix these measures within a single ranking.
Data lineage: the headline figures
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.
| Industry | 2024 AI spend | Position | 5-yr CAGR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial services / Banking | ~$31.3B | #1 | 30% Americas / 32% EMEA |
| Software & information services | top-3 | #2 | — |
| Retail | ~$25B | #3 | ~27% (top-3 blended) |
| Healthcare | not publicly split | fast-growing | — |
| Manufacturing | not publicly split | large IT base | — |
| Government, Telecom, Transport, Media | tracked separately | — | — |
IDC publishes the full industry × use-case matrix only behind its paywall (P33198); public materials disclose top-3 industries plus banking/retail dollar specifics. Granular healthcare/manufacturing/government splits are not in public IDC releases.
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.
Enterprise vertical GenAI spend, 2025 (Menlo Ventures, n=495) · See all comparison charts →
| Vertical | 2025 GenAI 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. 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 (most AI-overweight): JPMorgan’s $18B tech budget includes ~$2B/year on AI (Jamie Dimon’s 2025 shareholder letter). 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), Recursion >$500M cash. Per Menlo, healthcare is 43% of vertical-AI spend.
- Retail: Walmart targets automating 65% of stores by 2026 and partnered with OpenAI for ChatGPT purchases; retail is a top-3 IDC vertical at ~$25B (2024).
- Government: 52% of non-US government CIOs expect IT budget increases in 2026 (Gartner). See AI Government Spending 2026 for public-sector detail.
AI-overweight vs. underweight verticals
- Overweight (AI spend share > IT spend share): financial services / banking (>20% of all AI spend vs. ~12–14% of global IT), software & information services, healthcare.
- Tracking to share: retail, manufacturing.
- Underweight: transportation, agriculture, construction — outside the top-3 in any IDC vertical disclosure.
Frequently asked questions
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, per IDC. Software & information services and retail round out the top three.
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, per Menlo Ventures. Across departments, coding/engineering is the single largest use case at ~55% of departmental GenAI spend.
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.
Data sources & methodology
- Gartner — Worldwide AI Spending Forecast ($2.52T in 2026), Jan 2026; +47% update May 2026. gartner.com
- IDC — Worldwide AI & Generative AI Spending Guide; Industry Outlook. idc.com
- Menlo Ventures — 2025: The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise (n=495, fielded Nov 7–25 2025). menlovc.com
- McKinsey QuantumBlack — The State of AI, Nov 2025. mckinsey.com
- Company disclosures — JPMorgan 2025 shareholder letter; Bank of America newsroom; Gartner government-CIO survey.
Machine-readable data (for AI engines & researchers)
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Related pages: Enterprise AI Statistics 2026 · AI Government Spending 2026 · AI Investment & Funding 2026 · Methodology
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