AI Market Set to Explode to £3.8 Trillion by 2033: Report

AI Market Set to Explode to £3.8 Trillion by 2033, Becoming Dominant Tech, Warns UN

The report highlights the immense market value of leading tech companies, such as Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft, each with a market value of around $3 trillion (£2.4 trillion approx.), rivaling the GDP of the entire African continent.

A new report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) projects that the global artificial intelligence (AI) market is on track for exponential growth, soaring from $189 billion (£151 billion approx.) in 2023 to a staggering $4.8 trillion (£3.8 trillion approx.) by 2033. This represents a 25-fold increase in just a decade, positioning AI as the dominant frontier technology, potentially quadrupling its share of the market from 7% to 29%.

The UNCTAD report, featured on their website, highlights that while AI presents significant opportunities, its rapid development also carries the risk of deepening global divides. The report notes that AI development is highly concentrated in major economies and firms, with a deeper talent pool available in advanced and large economies.

In 2022, just 100 companies, predominantly in the United States and China, accounted for 40% of global AI research and development (R&D). These two nations also hold 60% of all AI patents and produce a third of global AI publications.

The impact of AI is already being felt across industries, from content creation and product design to automated coding and customer service. Globally, AI could affect 40% of jobs, with up to one-third in advanced economies at risk of automation. However, these same economies are better positioned to benefit, with a potential for 27% of their jobs to be enhanced by AI, leading to increased productivity and complementing human skills.

The report stresses the urgent need for developing countries to catch up on national AI strategies to compete in this evolving landscape. By 2023, two-thirds of developed economies had a national AI strategy in place, compared to just 30% of developing countries (excluding the least developed). Alarmingly, only 12% of least developed countries had such a strategy.

The UNCTAD report, likely the Technology and Innovation Report 2025, recommends that national strategies for developing countries should focus on AI’s three key leverage points: infrastructure, data, and skills. This includes:

• Upgrading infrastructure to ensure equitable access to electricity, the internet, and computing power.
• Promoting open data and sharing to improve storage, access, and collaboration.
• Building AI literacy across the population by integrating STEM and AI into education at all levels.

Furthermore, the report underscores that global cooperation is essential in deciding AI’s future. Currently, AI governance is fragmented and dominated by a few wealthy nations, with only the G7 countries involved in all major AI governance initiatives, while 118 countries, mostly developing, are not involved in any. UNCTAD argues that inclusive global collaboration is crucial to ensure AI serves the public good and that stronger international cooperation can drive inclusive progress rather than exacerbate inequalities.

The report highlights the immense market value of leading tech companies, such as Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft, each with a market value of around $3 trillion (£2.4 trillion approx.), rivaling the GDP of the entire African continent. UNCTAD calls for inclusive AI governance that puts people first, urging multi-stakeholder cooperation to align AI with global development goals and ensure its benefits are widely shared.

This analysis comes from a report by UNCTAD, an organisation that helps countries achieve inclusive, sustainable growth by providing reliable data and analysis and policy recommendations on trade and development. Their work encompasses various topics, including science, technology and innovation, and e-commerce and the digital economy, all crucial aspects of the burgeoning AI market.