The first quarter of 2024 has drawn to a close and we’re excited to unveil the findings of our latest State of Enterprise Tech Spending report, intended to gauge the budget planning and overall sentiment of large enterprise technology buyers.

As in previous quarters, we polled 100 CXOs who collectively represent over $35B in annual technology spending. To get up to speed on past reports, check out what we published in September 2022, March 2023 and September 2023.

A few highlights from the survey:

• After a long period of market uncertainty, we are seeing enthusiastic signals from buyers, 55% of whom plan to increase their budgets. And compared to Q3 2023, twice as many buyers plan to increase budget by 10% or more – a jump from 4 to 8%.
• There was a notable shift in spending priorities among buyers, many of whom are now intently focused on AI and data-related technologies. Survey respondents plan to deploy an estimated $1.5B on these technologies over the next five years and the vast majority of buyers – 84% – plan to increase spending on AI/ML tools.
• Beyond spending on technology, we’re seeing a more positive outlook on hiring, a potential indicator of enterprise willingness to allocate budget for projects, development and tooling. The number of organizations looking to slow down or enter a hiring freeze has dropped to 34% from 46% this time last year.
• Nearly half of enterprise buyers (45%) are interested in exploring what new vendors have to offer when it comes to AI copilot capabilities. Employee productivity and customer service are the use cases that buyers cited as most compelling for AI copilot adoption.

In summary, there is a lot of good news for early-stage technology startups. But don’t just take our word for it—check out the full report here to learn more: