The growing use of virtual Visa corporate credit cards across the MENA region has been accelerating as companies adapt to the rising digital economy. Based on newly released data by Tribal Credit, a company that provides comprehensive digital financial solutions for companies at all stages of development, new virtual cards have increased by 126% between Q3 2021 and Q3 2022.

According to Tribal, a 360° financial digital solution for companies at different stages of growth, the use of virtual corporate credit cards increased by 91% in Egypt between Q2 and Q3 2022, 117.5% in Saudi Arabia, and 42.9% in the UAE.

Businesses in the Middle East are relying increasingly heavily on digital payments. According to the consultancy McKinsey, digital payments have been steadily increasing in MENA since 2014, and use was accelerated by the pandemic, with a survey suggesting that cumulative growth in digital transactions has exceeded 50% since 2020.

For example, according to McKinsey, Saudi Arabia saw a 70% growth in card payments between February 2019 and 2020, while consumer digital payments grew by more than 9% annually in UAE between 2014 and 2019.

Despite the rapid shift to digital payments, traditional banks have been slow to adopt them. However, payment fintech, such as Tribal, have emerged to provide services optimized for today’s business environment.

The number of digital payment solutions has increased significantly as companies shift to a digital economy. The issuance of new virtual cards by Tribal in Saudi Arabia increased by 157.4% from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022, reflecting the trend. In addition, it rose by 64.6% in the UAE and 263% in Egypt.

Tribal’s Visa Virtual Corporate Card product is among the latest generation of solutions geared towards digital payments. Security, centralization of expenses, control over payment permissions and users, and ease of handling are central to the product’s appeal.

Like physical cards, virtual cards include the user’s name, number, expiration date, and security code, but they do not require physical cards. With a virtual wallet, users can use their cell phone or digital watch to make purchases online or physically. As a result of this digital product, companies can now manage and monitor payments more effectively.

Virtual cards provide users with enhanced flexibility in the digital payments space. The single-use virtual card was designed so that companies can pay for an expense that does not repeat over time – for example, purchasing a plane ticket – and that, after being used, can be eliminated. With the recurring use card, it is possible to transfer funds monthly to pay recurring expenses.

“Whether single-use or recurring, virtual cards are secure and efficient solutions for digital transactions because they offer data encryption and, being digital, there is no risk of loss, making it difficult for companies to fall victim to cloning and identity theft for this reason. In addition, they allow companies to decentralize purchasing operations, making payment processes more efficient and increasing capability across the company. And finally, in the event of cloning or improper use, they can be deactivated in real time and reactivated if required”, commented Amira Fadel, regional manager for MENA at Tribal.

Online spending with Tribal was greatest for online advertising, freight and logistics, and technology and computer infrastructure – further highlighting how Virtual Cards are a valuable tool for companies at different stages of growth seeking to operate more quickly in the digitally enabled economy.

Virtual private networks are for many people a vital part of staying safe when surfing the net. Firewalls, VPNs, password managers, and malware protection, are only a few of the security measures that are commonly used today for online security.

VPNs themselves are highly popular, with around 142 million people using them in the US alone. Around 30% of internet users say they use a VPN daily for their browsing and online activity.

The global VPN market was worth $30 billion in 2020, and remote working and lockdowns helped to increase VPN usage by 27.1% that year alone. The VPN industry is now predicted to be worth in the region of $120 billion by 2027.

But, are they all good enough for their purpose, or should you be looking at other options?

How effective are VPNs at what they are designed for?

VPNs are used on computers and mobile devices for increased anonymity, and extra security. They offer some peace of mind when signing into banking online, or making any other financial transaction.

Typically, users of VPNs may conduct the following activities online:

• Banking
• Gaming
• Streaming
• Ecommerce
• Paying bills
• General browsing

One of the essential features of an ecommerce site is security, and a VPN adds an extra layer of this when a consumer makes a digital purchase. VPNs can also be used for fun activities such as streaming foreign content or playing games on alternative servers.

How effective a VPN is for these activities is largely down to the developer behind them. There are numerous free VPNs, and some very well-respected paid-for versions too.

The downside to many VPNs is the speed that they run at. Encryption slows down the transfer of data, and to gamers for one, this is not acceptable.

Is there a better option for anonymity and speed?

Another alternative to VPNs is to use a proxy. These are often used by businesses that are involved in scraping websites for data, as users can hide behind genuine IP addresses instead of one provided by the VPN. Many websites can recognize the IPs used by VPNs.

The benefits of a proxy are that they are faster than VPNs and less detectable depending on the type used. However, a proxy service may log all the activity of their users, whereas most VPNs have a no-log policy.

Another option is to stick with a VPN for protection, but use a faster one. A VPN with WireGuard protocol may be the answer as it promises increased speeds, but with security too.

What is WireGuard protocol?

When browsing the technical specs of any VPN you will see a protocol listed. The common protocols that you should see in any VPN details will be these below:

• WireGuard
• IKEv2/IPsec
• OpenVPN
• L2TP/IPsec
• SoftEther
• SSTP
• PPTP

The last two should be avoided, and any VPN that advertises these protocols should be shunned due to some serious security weaknesses. PPTP security flaws were discovered by security guru Bruce Schneier. Open VPN is often cited as being the standard that all protocols should match for security, but WireGuard is now being included in many popular VPNs.

The reason for this is that it promises to replicate the speed provided by some of the earlier VPNs. These apps were less secure than today, but WireGuard’s developers claim this VPN has increased levels of security.

How can you get a faster and more secure VPN?

WireGuard appears to be an option for anyone who requires a faster experience online with a VPN. Developers are always looking at ways to increase the speed of a website, and users also want loading times to be faster. But, security is a concern too, and this can end with something of a trade-off.

Free VPNs tend to be slow, and there is the possibility that security could be less than that of a paid-for app. Some free VPNs may also record your browsing history which takes away the anonymity you may be seeking.

To get a fast, secure VPN you will likely have to take out a subscription. This will ensure that you have one of the best protocols in place, a no-log policy, and high-speed servers in place to send and receive data.

The best way to find the right VPN for you is to use comparisons on the net, read reviews, and search for the best VPNs that offer free trials. Many even allow up to 30 days free for testing.

Summary

VPNs should be an integral part of every home computer user’s security setup. While they can occasionally cause conflict with certain websites, their advantages far outweigh any issues that may sometimes occur.

A good VPN will balance speed and security for an enjoyable online experience, and with the best encryption protocols in place, you can have peace of mind that your sensitive information is safe, and your activity is not being monitored by anyone.

Building a website is now easier than ever thanks to nifty online website builder sites. Find out which of these are some of the best to use right now.

Website Creation Sites Worth Using

For a long time, the only way to get a website built was to either learn to code it directly or find someone who could. But things have changed in recent years, and it’s now possible to make use of a website creation site or website builder to build a website piece by piece, without any programming knowledge required.

This has dramatically reduced the barrier to entry in terms of who can create and maintain a website, allowing for hundreds of thousands of new websites to get built.

1. Wix

With more than 110 million websites having been built using Wix, it’s currently at the forefront of website creation for the average user. This website builder comes with a vast array of different tools and features that make it easier than ever to put an aesthetically pleasing website together in a short amount of time. It even boasts website creation tools that are powered by an AI, requiring very little effort on behalf of the user. It’s important to choose one of the Wix-specific lanes to maintain consistency throughout the site rather than having it look like it contains a number of different and counter-intuitive elements.

2. Weebly

Another big name on the market is Weebly, and while smaller in Wix in terms of the number of websites that it powers, it remains a solid choice for the average user. It’s as simple and straightforward as one could imagine, with instant access to a range of modern tools that make putting together a website incredibly easy. In fact, many feel that Weebly’s website builder tools are some of the most user-friendly right now, and combined with a multitude of various add-ons, it’s possible to have a great looking website up and running in less than a full day. Weebly is perfect for anyone wanting a person or business-related website as soon as possible.

3. WordPress

Most people have heard of WordPress, which has long been leading the pack for overall customisation. There are two different flavours of the service: the open-source software provided by WordPress.org, and more professional, automated tools provided by WordPress.com. The former is a better for those on a budget, but it does mean getting a bit more in-depth with the various tools that are provided. WordPress.com, on the other hand, is aimed at writers and bloggers, and while it’s somewhat limited compared to other sites, it still offers a great range of different tools that make website creation easier.

4. Shopify

Shopify is focussed specifically on making it easy to create and manage an online e-commerce site, and it can easily be bought after winning big using funds from an online casino welcome bonus or other means. It’s one of the most notoriously difficult things to do from scratch, which is a part of the reason that so many people turn to Shopify instead. It’s perfect for selling goods and services online, and it’s perfect for having an appealing e-commerce platform up and running as quickly as possible, with all the latest security and features one would expect.

Spacee, which provides the best computer vision and AI solutions to help businesses drive new insights, improve efficiency and boost revenue, launched HoverTouch™, the first plug-and-play solution transforming existing in-store surfaces, such as walls, glass or even cars, into interactive customer experiences that also enable clients to collect crucial data.

HoverTouch is designed to help drive in-store traffic and boost sales. Building on the success of Spacee’s previous interactive experience solution, Sense, HoverTouch adds significant new features, including:

• Hover technology – Shoppers do not have to touch the surface to interact with it. They can hover their hand over it to drive contactless interactivity. The customer experience is very similar to what a person might do online with a cursor, hovering over and clicking on items that interest them.
• HoverTouch Connect – A feature that gives retailers, consumer brands and their agencies full control over content, UX and device management while also providing actionable data. It also allows clients and their agencies to design content and deploy it in an HTML5-compliant media player. This means that virtually any content can run in the HoverTouch system, and retailers, brands and agencies are encouraged to reuse existing content. HoverTouch Connect also enables retailers to capture detailed data on customer interactions, on par with data collected during e-commerce interactions.
• Plug-and-Play installation with no manual calibration or tweaking needed

While HoverTouch can project to walls, glass or products, such as a car in a showroom, clients have the option to purchase a dedicated kiosk solution called ‘HoverTouch React’ with a projecting surface.

Audi Dallas, one of the top 10 Audi dealerships in the US by sales volume, was one of the first retailers to utilise Spacee’s HoverTouch. “Shoppers are back in the stores, and we want to give them an incredible experience,” said Tom McCollum, president and CEO at Forbes Todd Automotive Group, which owns and operates Audi Dallas. “We considered a number of options for interactive experiences and found that Spacee’s HoverTouch provided the best customer experience and was also the easiest to get up and running. We also love that there are no touchscreens that we’d constantly have to repair and replace. We are still early in the process but are already seeing double-digit in-store sale increases for the products we’re promoting with HoverTouch.”

Skip Howard, founder and CEO of Spacee, said, “Retailers are desperate for data, and HoverTouch can provide customer experience data on par with what’s collected online. We’re excited to bring this to the market and thrilled that clients already see a measurable impact on in-store sales.”

Modern benches and chairs in the interior

Quality furniture is an excellent solution for any interior, as everyone can enjoy functionality, attractive appearance, and high quality. Particular attention should be paid to seating areas. They must meet specific requirements, be high quality, and resist negative external influences.

For example, some need to provide additional seating that will be comfortable. Benches are an excellent solution for any interior. Small wooden structures look great in the interior and have universal qualities and reliability. They can also be used for sitting and storing things, structuring space, and optimizing it according to individual needs.

High quality and convenience of shops

Benches are an excellent solution to create extra seating space at home quickly. Such designs will fit nicely in almost any room. They can be used in entranceways, living rooms, or other rooms. Some plans are equipped with auxiliary storage systems, which allows you to save free space by making the most of everything available. Some shops also have an original design so that you can set a certain mood for the room at a minimal cost.

If you want to find the right furniture, there are a few things you need to pay attention to. It is essential to decide what this design will be used for in the interior. It can be used exclusively for storage and seating or as a beautiful decorative element that will be an excellent addition to everyone. You can choose more straightforward and functional solutions with a colored furniture set. First, decide where to put the bench to perfectly complement the room’s design. A wide range of different solutions will allow everyone to choose the best option for everyone at a minimal cost.

Beautiful chairs in the interior

High-quality chairs are an integral element of the design of any room. A wide range of products allows everyone to select the best option at a minimal cost. Chair can last for many years, so you should pay attention to such features when choosing:

• First, you need to understand for what room and for what purposes you buy furniture. It is essential to take care of the optimal comfort level during operation to reduce adverse effects.
• Before buying, you also need to take measurements of the structure to fit perfectly into the interior and not take up too much or too little free space.
• Color and design. The design should be in harmony with other room design elements. That is why you should carefully plan the entire structure in the early stages.
• Beforehand, you should draw up your budget to find the optimal solution that meets individual tasks. By deciding on the price in advance, you can significantly save money.
• First, you should decide what your furniture will be used for and how well it harmonizes with other furniture sets. Choose furniture in the future for several years.

If you find it challenging to make a purchase decision, you can always consult with a specialist. Properly selected seating places will provide maximum comfort for you, high space functionality, and will last for many years without losing their reliability and visual appeal. Buy only proven furniture from the best manufacturers to enjoy the result.

Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, unveiled its mid-year cyberthreats report, conducted by Acronis’ Cyber Protection Operation Centers, to provide an in-depth review of the cyber threat trends the company’s experts are tracking. The report details how ransomware continues to be the number one threat to large and medium-sized businesses, including government organizations, and underlines how over-complexity in IT and infrastructure leads to increased attacks. Nearly half of all reported breaches during the first half of 2022 involved stolen credentials, which enable phishing and ransomware campaigns. Findings underscore the need for more holistic approaches to cybersecurity.

To extract credentials and other sensitive information, cybercriminals use phishing and malicious emails as their preferred infection vectors. Nearly one percent of all emails contain malicious links or files, and more than one-quarter (26.5%) of all emails were delivered to the user’s inbox (not blocked by Microsoft365) and then were removed by Acronis email security.

Moreover, the research reveals how cybercriminals also use malware and target unpatched software vulnerabilities to extract data and hold organizations hostage. Further complicating the cybersecurity threat landscape is the proliferation of attacks on non-traditional entry avenues. Attackers have made cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance systems a priority of late. Successful breaches using these various routes have resulted in the loss of billions of dollars and terabytes of exposed data.

These attacks are able to be launched due to overcomplexity in IT, a common problem throughout businesses as many tech leaders assume more vendors and programs lead to improved security when the inverse is actually true. Increased complexity exposes more surface area and gaps to potential attackers, keeping organizations vulnerable to potentially devastating damage.

“Today’s cyberthreats are constantly evolving and evading traditional security measures,” said Candid Wüest, Acronis VP of Cyber Protection Research. “Organizations of all sizes need a holistic approach to cybersecurity that integrates everything from anti-malware to email-security and vulnerability-assessment capabilities. Cybercriminals are becoming too sophisticated and the results of attacks too dire to leave it to single-layered approaches and point solutions.”

Critical data points reveal a complex threat landscape

As reliance on the cloud increases, attackers have homed in on different entryways to cloud-based networks. Cybercriminals increased their focus on Linux operating systems and managed service providers (MSPs) and their network of SMB customers. The threat landscape is shifting, and companies must keep pace.

Ransomware is worsening, even more so than we predicted.

• Ransomware gangs, like Conti and Lapsus$, are inflicting serious damage.
• The Conti gang demanded $10 million in ransom from the Costa Rican government and has published much of the 672 GB of data it stole.
• Lapsus$ stole 1 TB of data and leaked the credentials of over 70,000 NVIDIA users. The same gang also stole 30 GB worth of T-Mobile’s source code.
• The U.S. Department of State is concerned, offering up to $15 million for information about the leadership and co-conspirators of Conti.

The use of phishing, malicious emails and websites, and malware continues to grow.

• Six hundred malicious email campaigns made their way across the internet in the first half of 2022.
• 58% of the emails were phishing attempts.
• Another 28% of those emails featured malware.
• The business world is increasingly distributed, and in Q2 2022, an average of 8.3% of endpoints tried to access malicious URLs.

More cyber criminals are focusing on cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. By exploiting flaws in smart contracts or stealing recovery phrases and passwords with malware or phishing attempts, hackers have wormed their way into crypto wallets and exchanges alike.

• Cyberattacks have contributed to a loss of more than $60 billion in DeFi currency since 2012.
• $44 billion of that vanished during the last 12 months.

Unpatched vulnerabilities of exposed services is another common infection vector—just ask Kaseya. To that end, companies like Microsoft, Google, and Adobe have emphasized software patches and transparency around publicly submitted vulnerabilities. These patches likely helped stem the tide of 79 new exploits each month. Unpatched vulnerabilities also tie into how overcomplexity is hurting businesses more than helping, as all of these vulnerabilities serve as additional potential points of failure.

Breaches leave financial, and SLA distress in their wake

Cybercriminals often demand ransoms or outright steal funds from their targets. But companies do not suffer challenges only to their bottom lines. Attacks often cause downtime and other service-level breaches, impacting a company’s reputation and customer experience.

• In 2021 alone, the FBI attributed a total loss of $2.4 billion to business email compromise (BEC).
• Cyberattacks caused more than one-third (36%) of downtime in 2021.

The current cybersecurity threat landscape requires a multi-layered solution that combines anti-malware, EDR, DLP, email security, vulnerability assessment, patch management, RMM, and backup capabilities all in one place. The integration of these various components gives companies a better chance of avoiding cyberattacks, mitigating the damage of successful attacks, and retaining data that might have been altered or stolen in the process.

You can download a copy of the full Acronis Mid-Year Cyberthreats Report 2022 here or you can learn more here.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI), autonomic systems and privacy-enhancing computation are three technology trends gaining traction in banking and investment services in 2022, according to Gartner, Inc. These trends will continue to grow over the next two to three years, contributing to growth and transformation of financial services organizations.

“While growth is the top priority, the need to manage risk, optimize costs and increase efficiency also requires new technology innovations,” said Moutusi Sau, VP Analyst at Gartner. “Generative AI enables bank CIOs to offer technology solutions to the business in pursuit of revenue growth, while autonomic systems and privacy-enhancing computation are long-term solutions that provide new options for business transformation in financial services.”

IT spending by banking and investment services firms is forecast to grow 6.1% in 2022 to $623 billion worldwide. The largest category of spending is IT services, which includes consulting and managed services and accounts for 42% of total IT spending in the sector at $264 billion. The fastest growing category is software, with spending forecast to increase by 11.5% to $149 billion.

The three emerging technologies identified by Gartner collectively contribute to goals to run, grow and transform a business and have demonstrated use cases in the banking and investment industry.

Trend 1: Generative AI

Gartner predicts that 20% of all test data for consumer-facing use cases will be synthetically generated by 2025. Generative AI learns a digital representation of artifacts from data and generates innovative new creations that are similar to the original but does not repeat it.

In banking and investment services, application of generative adversarial networks (GANs) and natural language generation (NLG) can be found in most scenarios for fraud detection, trading prediction, synthetic data generation and risk factor modeling. It has potential because of the ability to take personalization to new heights.

Trend 2: Autonomic Systems

Autonomic systems are self-managed physical or software systems that learn from their environments and dynamically modify their own algorithms in real-time to optimize their behavior in complex ecosystems. They create an agile set of technology capabilities that support new requirements and situations, optimize performance and defend against attacks without human intervention.

Currently, autonomic systems are mostly software-based in the banking context. However, humanoid robots are emerging in smart branches that are examples of hardware-based autonomous systems that cater to clients and customers. They could be applied in autonomous debt management, personal finance assistants and automated lending. Robo advisors are essentially low-level autonomic systems, although there are still trust concerns due to their high level of automation.

Gartner predicts that by 2024, 20% of organizations that sell autonomic systems or devices will require customers to waive indemnity provisions related to their products’ learned behavior.

Trend 3: Privacy-Enhancing Computation

Privacy-enhancing computation (PEC) secures the processing of personal data in untrusted environments — which is increasingly critical due to evolving privacy and data protection laws, as well as growing consumer concerns. It uses a variety of privacy-protection techniques to allow value to be extracted from data while still meeting compliance requirements.

Gartner predicts that 60% of large organizations will use one or more privacy-enhancing computation techniques in analytics, business intelligence or cloud computing by 2025.

Within financial services, data has an inherent role in any analytics, computing and data monetization efforts. The adoption of PEC is on the rise in use cases like fraud analysis, intelligence operations, data sharing and anti-money-laundering.

Gartner clients can read more in The Top Strategic Technology Trends in Banking and Investment Services for 2022 and Forecast: Enterprise IT Spending for the Banking and Investment Services Market, Worldwide, 2020-2026, 1Q22 Update.

Learn about the top priorities for banking and investment CIOs in 2022 in the complimentary Gartner ebook 2022 CIO Agenda: A Banking and Investment Perspective.

About Gartner for Information Technology Executives

Gartner for Information Technology Executives provides actionable, objective insight to CIOs and IT leaders to help them drive their organizations through digital transformation and lead business growth. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/en/information-technology.

Follow news and updates from Gartner for IT Executives on Twitter and LinkedIn. Visit the IT Newsroom for more information and insights.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective insight to executives and their teams. Our expert guidance and tools enable faster, smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organisation’s mission critical priorities. To learn more, visit gartner.com.

Worldwide government IT spending is forecast to total $565.7 billion in 2022, an increase of 5% from 2021, according to Gartner, Inc. Government IT spending in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will total $13.3 billion in 2022, growing 1.8% from 2021.

“The last few years of enduring pandemic challenges have mobilized a wave of digital transformation activities in government organizations across the world,” said Daniel Snyder, director analyst at Gartner. “Governments are executing innovative activities by harnessing technology to streamline digital services, advance automation processes and evolve citizen experiences.”

In 2022, government IT spending is forecast to increase across all segments except internal services and telecom services. Continuing the trend from 2021, software is forecast to record the strongest growth across all segments in 2022. As legacy modernization continues to be a priority in government organizations, growth in the data center systems segment will continue to slow though the forecast period (see Table 1).

Table 1. Worldwide Government IT Spending, 2021-2022 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

Source: Gartner (June 2022)

Governments continue to invest in critical application software that directly support end user interfaces driving strong growth in this segment. Spending on telecom services is set to decrease in 2022 as governments reduce spending on expensive legacy systems in favor of digital service delivery models.

“MENA governments will continue to increase their spending towards digitalization efforts in 2022,” said Apeksha Kaushik, principal analyst at Gartner. 2022 will be a pivotal year for CIOs as they strive to make public services more agile, resilient and responsive. The need to optimize and modernize government business processes and services remains as great as ever.

Table 2. MENA Government IT Spending, 2021-2022 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

Source: Gartner (June 2022)

At the same time, the focus on delivering citizen centric service delivery has increased. Therefore it is not just about having better or smarter technology, but how you design the experience. Connecting the two ensures easier access to service activities for citizens/constituents, greater visibility to what they need, and gives the organization more insights to increase satisfaction for employees. A key component is understanding time scarcity and ensuring higher ROI for each action taken.

Anything-as-a-Service Model Emerges as Pay-As-You-Use Gains Momentum

Anything-as-a-Service (XaaS) is gaining popularity across government organizations as it provides better return on investment normalizing IT spend over time making budgeting for IT more predictable, while avoiding the accrual of technical debt. Gartner predicts that by 2026, most government agencies’ new IT investments will be made in XaaS solutions.

“The pandemic sped up public-sector adoption of cloud solutions and the XaaS model for accelerated legacy modernization and new service implementations,” said Snyder. “Fifty-four percent of government CIOs responding to the 2022 Gartner CIO Survey indicated that they expect to allocate additional funding to cloud platforms in 2022, while 35% will decrease investments in legacy infrastructure and data center technologies.”

The widespread use will enable more digitalization of services and building trust for adoption of digital government services. Adoption of government platforms has been seen as a means of sharing information and enhancing citizen inclusion and digital equity. Governments are integrating services in the form of mobile apps and moving with Total experience strategy to create seamless citizen/constituent experience that encourage digital transactions specially across the financial and health sectors.

With the ongoing talent challenges facing organizations, XaaS makes it easier for government organizations to find the right talent via XaaS operating models. XaaS delivery models require different internal IT skill sets and place less demand on the organization to develop or acquire emerging IT skills, which are often hard to find and difficult for governments to afford.

Gartner clients can read more in “Forecast: Enterprise IT Spending for the Government and Education Markets, Worldwide, 2020-2026, 1Q22 Update.”

Learn more about key government technology trends in the complimentary Gartner ebook Top Technology Trends in Government for 2022.

About Gartner for Information Technology Executives

Gartner for Information Technology Executives provides actionable, objective insight to CIOs and IT leaders to help them drive their organizations through digital transformation and lead business growth. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/en/information-technology.

Follow news and updates from Gartner for IT Executives on Twitter and LinkedIn. Visit the IT Newsroom for more information and insights.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective insight to executives and their teams. Our expert guidance and tools enable faster, smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organization’s mission critical priorities. To learn more, visit gartner.com.

Global semiconductor revenue is projected to grow 7.4% in 2022, down from 2021 growth of 26.3%, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc. This is down from the previous quarter’s forecast of 13.6% growth in 2022.

“Although chip shortages are abating, the global semiconductor market is entering a period of weakness, which will persist through 2023 when semiconductor revenue is projected to decline 2.5%,” said Richard Gordon, Practice VP at Gartner. “We are already seeing weakness in semiconductor end markets, especially those exposed to consumer spending. Rising inflation, taxes and interest rates, together with higher energy and fuel costs, are putting pressure on consumer disposable income. This is affecting spending on electronic products such as PCs and smartphones.”

Overall, 2022 global semiconductor revenue has been reduced from the previous quarter’s forecast by $36.7 billion, to $639.2 billion, as economic conditions are expected to worsen through the year (see Table 1). Memory demand and pricing have softened, especially in consumer-related areas like PCs and smartphones, which will help lead the slowdown in growth.

Table 1. Semiconductor Revenue Forecast, Worldwide, 2021-2023 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

Source: Gartner (July 2022)

PC shipments are set to decline by 13.1% in 2022 after recording growth in 2020 and 2021. Semiconductor revenue from PCs is estimated to record a decline of 5.4% in 2022. Semiconductor revenue from smartphones is on pace to slow to 3.1% growth in 2022, compared to 24.5% growth in 2021.

From an enterprise perspective, inventories are recovering rapidly, lead times are beginning to shorten, and prices are starting to weaken.

“The semiconductor market is entering an industry down cycle, which is not new, and has happened many times before,” said Gordon. “While the consumer space will slow down, semiconductor revenue from the data center market will remain resilient for longer (20% growth in 2022) due to continued cloud infrastructure investment. In addition, the automotive electronics segment will continue to record double-digit growth over the next three years as semiconductor content per vehicle will increase due to the transition to electric and autonomous vehicles. The semiconductor content per vehicle is projected to increase from $712 in 2022 to $931 in 2025.”

Gartner clients can read more in “Semiconductors and Electronics Forecast Database, Worldwide, 2Q22, Update.”

About Gartner for High Tech Leaders

Gartner for High Tech Leaders provides actionable, objective insight to tech leaders and their teams with role-based best practices, industry insights and strategic views into emerging trends and market changes to achieve their mission-critical priorities and build the successful organizations of tomorrow. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/en/industries/high-tech.

Follow news and updates from Gartner for High Tech Leaders on Twitter and LinkedIn. Visit the IT Newsroom for more information and insights.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective insight to executives and their teams. Our expert guidance and tools enable faster, smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organization’s mission critical priorities. To learn more, visit gartner.com.

Global robotic process automation (RPA) software revenue is projected to reach $2.9 billion in 2022, an increase of 19.5% from 2021, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc.

“By achieving a growth rate of 31% in 2021, the RPA market grew well above the average worldwide software market growth rate of 16%,” said Cathy Tornbohm, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner. “Organisations are leveraging RPA to accelerate business process automation initiatives and digital transformation plans, linking their legacy nightmares to their digital dreams to improve operational efficiency.”

Although growing at a slower pace than previous years, the worldwide RPA software market is projected to continue to experience double-digit growth in 2023, growing 17.5% year over year (see Table 1).

Table 1. Worldwide RPA Software Revenue Forecast (Millions of US Dollars)

Source: Gartner (August 2022)

RPA continues to be an attractive and high-growth market with vendors rapidly evolving their RPA offerings into a broader automation platform with embedded hyperautomation capabilities. As a starting point towards hyperautomation, organizations will increase their spending on RPA software solutions because they still have a lot of repetitive, manual work that through automation could free up employees’ time to focus on more strategic work.

“Competitive RPA vendors and many software vendors are pushing beyond a traditional single technology-focused offering to a more advanced suite of tools that encompasses low-code application platforms, process mining, task mining, decision modelling, iPaaS, computer vision, and IDP capabilities on top of their existing RPA offering. This allows them to offer, or rather makes them poised to offer, an all-encompassing hyperautomation-enabling technology platform,” said Varsha Mehta, senior market research specialist at Gartner.

In fact, Gartner predicts that through 2024, the drive toward a state of hyperautomation will drive organisations to adopt at least three out of the 20 process-agnostic types of software that enable hyperautomation.

Regional Perspective

North America, Western Europe and Japan together are on pace to account for 77% of global RPA revenue market in 2022. North America will account for the largest revenue share at 48.5%, followed by Western Europe and Japan at 19% and 10%, respectively.

Gartner clients can read more in “Forecast: Enterprise Infrastructure Software, Worldwide, 2020-2026, 2Q22 Update“.

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